111 Places in New Orleans that you must not miss E-Book

Sally Asher

• Herausgeber: Emons Verlag
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Serie: 111 Places ...
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2017

Seitenzahl: 256

Beschreibung

Birthplace of Jazz, home to the world famous Mardi Gras, champion of voo-doo and vampires, purveyors of its own distinctive Creole and Cajun cuisines, New Orleans, once owned by France, then Spain, then France again, has a rich history that blends the unconventional with the orthodox to create a cultural collision unlike that found in ny other city. This insiders' guide to New Orleans is shaped by portraits of the less obvious, hidden treasures rarely seen by the 10 million tourists who visit "The Big Easy” each year. From architecture that housed early jazz musicians and powerful madams; to bars that offer shot-and-a-haircut specials; to emblematic local eateries like Hansen's Sno Bliz and Killer Po'boys; to the best places to buy a chartreuse-colored beehive wig, Civil War cavalry saber, or some swamp-grass gris gris, 111 Places in New Orleans will ensure that you experience the musical, spiritual, historical, edible, and quite often sinful side of America's Most Interesting City. As noted musician and NOLA native Allen Toussaint once said, "To get to New Orleans, you don't pass through anywhere else.”

Leseprobe

111 Places in New Orleans That You Must Not Miss

Michael Murphy and Sally Asher

emons: Verlag

Imprint

© Emons Verlag GmbH // 2016 All rights reserved Text: Michael Murphy and Sally Asher © Photographs: Sally Asher, except: p.13, The Abita Mystery House © Derek Hibbs Painting of Leah Chase on p. 23 reprinted with permission of the artist, Rise Delmar Ochsner © Cover icon: shutterstock.com/OZaiachin Design: Emons Verlag Maps based on data by Openstreetmap, © Openstreet Map-participants, ODbL ISBN 978-3-96041-229-8 eBook of the original print edition published by Emons Verlag

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Table of contents

Foreword

1_813 Royal Street | New OrleansThe house that saved NOLA

2_Abita Mystery House | New OrleansScratching the itch for kitsch

3_Aidan Gill for Men | New OrleansAn unapologetically male barbershop

4_Algiers Point | New OrleansOver da river

5_Angelo Brocato | New OrleansLeave the diet, take the cannoli

6_Antenna Gallery | New OrleansA moveable feast of art

7_The Art of Dooky Chase | New OrleansThese walls can talk

8_Audubon Park Labyrinth | New OrleansWalking a sacred path

9_Bacchanal | New OrleansJust like it sounds (plus tiki torches)

10_The Batture | New OrleansWaterfront (sometimes water-infused) property

11_The Bead Tree | New OrleansBeads for needs

12_Bottom of the Cup | New OrleansTop-of-the-heap psychic readings

13_Bourbon Orleans Hotel | New OrleansDancing with the dead

14_Boutique du Vampyre | New OrleansOne-stop shopping for all your vampire needs

15_Casa Borrega | New OrleansA feast for the senses

16_Chainsaw Tree | New OrleansAn old oak’s rebirth

17_Checkpoint Charlie’s | New OrleansCome for the band, leave with clean socks

18_City Park’s Live Oaks | New OrleansA family of trees

19_Claiborne Corridor | New OrleansHistoric past with a possible future

20_The Cornstalk Hotel | New OrleansA hotel with apparitional amenities

21_Crescent Park | New OrleansReinventing the waterfront

22_DBC | New OrleansDrive-thru daiquiris

23_Dew Drop Jazz Hall | New OrleansWorshipping in the house of jazz

24_Dive Bar Alley | New OrleansThe zone for twilight festivities

25_Dr. Bob Folk Art | New OrleansWelcoming signs inviting you to get out

26_Eiffel Society | New OrleansA piece of Paris in America’s most Parisian city

27_Elizabeth’s Restaurant | New OrleansWhere bacon is more than a side

28_Escape My Room | New OrleansGroup interaction to escape clustered internment

29_EvacuSpots | New OrleansGetting the hell out of Dodge

30_F & F Botanica Spiritual Supply | New OrleansRitual-aid charmacy

31_Fats Domino’s House | New OrleansWalking (or driving) to the Ninth Ward

32_Faulkner House Books | New OrleansThe best bookstore that won’t have any best sellers

33_Fifi Mahony’s | New OrleansWig paradise

34_Frenchmen Art Market | New OrleansA slip of art in a sea of music

35_Freret Street Boxing Gym | New OrleansFashionable fisticuffs

36_Gator Run | New OrleansKeeping it cool at the zoo

37_The Germaine Cazenave Wells Mardi Gras Museum | New OrleansOysters Rockefeller with a side of sequins

38_Greg’s Antiques | New OrleansA different kind of sticker shock

39_Hansen’s Sno-Bliz | New OrleansNew Orleans’ way to beat the heat

40_Hare Krishna Temple | New OrleansCulinary consciousness

41_The Healing Center | New OrleansThe mall for people who hate malls

42_Holt Cemetery | New OrleansThe unknown grave for the well-known Father of Jazz

43_Hong Kong Food Market | New OrleansA ridiculous name for a remarkable emporium

44_House of Broel | New OrleansDresses, dollhouses, and frog legs

45_House of Dance & Feathers | New OrleansStreet cred in a shed

46_Ignatius J. Reilly Statue | New OrleansWatching for signs of bad taste

47_James H. Cohen & Sons | New OrleansBuying a piece of history

48_Jazz Brunch at Atchafalaya | New OrleansDIY Bloody Marys

49_The Jazz Collection | New OrleansA brass menagerie

50_Josie Arlington’s Tomb | New OrleansThe lady burnishes

51_Kayaking on the Bayou | New OrleansCommuting with nature

52_Kermit’s Mother-in-Law Lounge | New OrleansBar of the “Emperor of the Universe”

53_Killer Poboys | New OrleansThe richest po’boys

54_Lafcadio Hearn’s House | New OrleansThe inventor of New Orleans slept here

55_Lakefront Airport | New OrleansAn Art Deco museum masquerading as an airport

56_The LaLaurie Mansion | New OrleansThe house of unspeakable horrors

57_Langlois Culinary Crossroads | New OrleansIf you can’t stand the humidity, get into the kitchen

58_Le Musée de f.p.c. | New OrleansThe untold history of free people of color

59_Le Pavillon Hotel | New OrleansCome for the ghosts, stay for the PB&J

60_Le Petit Théâtre du Vieux Carré | New OrleansThe little theater with the longest run

61_Little Gem Saloon | New OrleansA “new” jazz club with a 100-year history

62_Louis Armstrong Park | New Orleans300 years of rhythm

63_Magnolia Bridge | New OrleansA bridge over befuddled waters

64_Magnolia Lane Plantation | New OrleansSteeped in history and hauntings

65_Marigny Opera House | New OrleansBallet slippers and Beyoncé’s sister

66_Meyer the Hatter | New OrleansWhere “old hat” is a compliment

67_Milton Latter Library | New OrleansA luxury library for leisurely learning

68_Miss Claudia’s | New OrleansStylish home of “ain’t there no mo’”

69_Modern Gargoyles | New OrleansThings are looking up

70_Musée Conti Wax Museum | New OrleansWax on, wax off, wax hanging on by a thread

71_Museum of Death | New OrleansMorbid menagerie

72_Musicians’ Village | New OrleansRestoring the groove

73_New Canal Lighthouse | New OrleansIlluminating exhibits

74_The New Movement Theater | New OrleansHoping to have the last laugh

75_New Orleans Street Gallery | New OrleansArt for fresh start’s sake

76_NOLA Brewery | New OrleansHomegrown hops with some funk

77_Norma Wallace House | New OrleansThe best little whorehouse with class

78_One Eyed Jacks | New OrleansA club with a twist (and some turns)

79_Our Mother of Perpetual Help | New OrleansHome to priests, a vampire novelist, and a ghost rider

80_Pagoda Café | New OrleansCoffee and a bike tune-up

81_Piazza d’Italia | New OrleansMister Moore’s neighborhood

82_Pontalba Buildings | New OrleansApartments fit for a baroness

83_The Prayer Room at St. Louis Cathedral | New OrleansWho dat say Henriette can’t be no saint?

84_Prytania Theatre | New OrleansWhere the owner is as entertaining as the films

85_The Rebirth Statue | New OrleansThe game changer for an entire city

86_Ricca’s Architectural Sales | New OrleansSalvaging the history of New Orleans

87_Riverfront Monuments | New OrleansHonoring old men, nude men, and men we’d like to forget

88_Roman Candy Cart | New OrleansStrolling sweets

89_The Roosevelt Hotel | New OrleansA luxury hotel with a legendary history

90_Rosalie Alley | New OrleansWalk softly and carry a big Zulian stick

91_Royal Street Musicians | New OrleansStreet crescendo

92_Sacred Grinds | New OrleansGraves and green tea

93_Sam the Banana Man’s House | New OrleansHome of presidents and presidential overthrows

94_The School of Burlesque | New OrleansPay attention to draw attention

95_Southern Food and Beverage Museum | New OrleansWhere to explore cuisine of consequence

96_Spanish Stables | New OrleansThe truth is out there … on a plaque

97_St. Expedite | New OrleansWhen you need a miracle—STAT

98_St. Roch Grotto | New OrleansA chapel with heart … and feet, and brains

99_St. Roch Market | New OrleansA food court for foodies

100_Steamboat Houses | New OrleansOne man’s home is his cruise ship

101_Street Tiles | History at your feet

102_Studio Inferno | New OrleansHigh art across the tracks

103_The Tattoo Museum | New OrleansA permanent display for permanent ink

104_Tomb of the Unknown Slave | New OrleansA touchingly undistinguished monument

105_The Umbrella Girl | New OrleansExistential graffiti

106_Ursuline Convent | New OrleansStoried ground for the sacred and profane

107_Villalobos Rescue Center | New OrleansDogs with a cause

108_Whitney Plantation | New OrleansAmerica’s first slave museum

109_Yvonne LaFleur | New OrleansElegance without pretense

110_Zephyr Field | New OrleansField of dreams—and a pool

111_Zulu Social Aid & Pleasure Club | New OrleansCuckoo for coconuts

Gallery

Maps

Foreword

New Orleans is as far as you can get from America and still be in it. The historic French and Spanish buildings, plus antebellum homes mixed with shotgun houses, make New Orleans look like nowhere else. Jazz, born in New Orleans, is joined by Cajun, zydeco, brass band, blues, and bounce, making the city sound like no other. Visitors come to the Big Easy on a mission to sample unique Cajun and Creole foods. And New Orleans’ history—with plaçage, coartación, and Voodoo, plus aboveground burials and cocktails in to-go cups—makes the city seem like a rebellious teenager, willfully trying not to fit in.

Unlike most urban hubs, New Orleans is less about consumption and more about experiences. You need to jump in and participate. There’s always a festival or parade happening someplace. Jazz Fest and Essence each draws half a million people. There are three parades every Easter and three vampire balls on Halloween. There are one-of-a-kind events such as Red Dress Run, in which men and women sport red dresses for a mini-marathon sponsored by Hash House Harriers, a “drinking group with a running problem.” If you’re lucky enough to be in town following another’s misfortune, second-line funeral parades have been called New Orleans’ quintessential art form. Then, there’s the madness of Mardi Gras. During weeks of festivities, classic parades like Zulu and Muses are joined by the Krewe of Barkus, a dog parade, and ‘tit Rex, where participants pull tiny doll-house-sized floats strapped to their bicycles. 

The following profiles highlight lesser-known spots, favoring the grotto in St. Roch Cemetery over Marie Laveau’s grave, and the backyard House of Dance and Feathers museum rather than the World War II Museum. But the truth is that New Orleans is best experienced by wandering around and bumping into things. 111 Places should not be used as a bucket list, but as a starting point. The goal is to make you an informed flaneur.

New Orleans

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1_813 Royal Street

The house that saved NOLA

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In the heart of the French Quarter, the bungalow-style house at 813 Royal Street barely captures anyone’s attention. The address is not mentioned in any guidebook. Yet, it may well be the most important building in New Orleans.

By the 1920s, the Vieux Carré, or French Quarter, was a deteriorated neighborhood, practically a slum, which many in the city wished to demolish. Elizabeth Werlein was a transplanted Michigander who enthusiastically embraced the French Quarter, even in its faded splendor. Since moving to New Orleans, she’d been an active society member, a leader in the suffrage movement, an organizer of the Philharmonic Society, and the public relations director of the movie theater chain Saenger.

Info

Address 813 Royal Street, New Orleans, LA 70116 | Tip The jurisdiction of the VCC is bounded by Esplanade Ave, N Rampart St, Iberville St, and Decatur St. This is why you will see modern façades (such as Peaches Records and H & M) on the river side of Decatur and on Canal St.

All of her other accomplishments were to be dwarfed the day she happened to walk by 813 Royal. She saw that a historic building had been torn down and replaced by a California-style house. Appalled, she immediately sprang into action to preserve what remained of the Quarter.

There was already the Vieux Carré Commission (VCC) in 1925, which was an advisory council to protect the neighborhood’s history, but it had no teeth and lacked legal power. After years of perseverance, Elizabeth finally convinced the Louisiana Legislature in 1936 to pass a constitutional amendment giving the VCC the authority to block alterations to the centuries-old architecture of the district. In 1939, Elizabeth also bullied the city into granting the commission the power to approve all demolition permits.

She was a one-woman non-wrecking crew, urging property owners to restore their buildings, battling architects when they attempted to replace classic wrought-iron with another material, and inspiring the city’s most influential citizens to join the cause to preserve the Vieux Carré. In short, Elizabeth Werlein’s activism literally saved the French Quarter—and, in turn, New Orleans—from being just another city.

Nearby

Boutique du Vampyre (0.025 mi)

Bourbon Orleans Hotel (0.056 mi)

The Cornstalk Hotel (0.068 mi)

Faulkner House Books (0.087 mi)

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New Orleans

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2_Abita Mystery House

Scratching the itch for kitsch

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For most of the most famous roadside attractions, you get to look at whatever the “sight” is—the 10 Cadillacs at Cadillac Ranch outside Amarillo, Lucy the Elephant in New Jersey, or the life-sized statues of the Cabazon Dinosaurs in California—and then you’ve “done” the thing (note: don’t waste your time pulling over to find out what “The Thing” is in Arizona—it’s not worth the one buck admission fee). However, once you’ve entered the Abita Mystery House through a vintage 1930s Standard Oil gas station, your adventure is just beginning.

Located less than an hour’s drive from central New Orleans, Abita has a sprawling number of separate buildings, each with its own thematic exhibits of most anything you’ve imagined in your roadside dreams—or nightmares. You can gaze at the collections of combs and old license plates; play several arcade machines, including one made entirely from popsicle sticks; or use push buttons to animate miniature dioramas of a jazz funeral, a tiny plantation, and a roadside mart called Pinky’s What All Store with a little banner that reads “We Got It All.”

Info

Address 22275 LA-36, Abita Springs, LA 70420, +1 985.892.2624, www.abitamysteryhouse.com | Hours Daily 10am–5pm| Tip As long as you’re out near Abita Springs, stop off at Abita Beer’s Tasting Room for a tour (166 Barbee Rd, Covington, LA 70433). Established in 1986, Abita Brewing Company is the oldest and largest craft brewery in the Southeast and one of the oldest in the United States. They are far and away the most popular local beer, producing more than 150,000 barrels a year.

Out back there’s a silver Airstream trailer that was allegedly hit by a flying saucer and a house covered in thousands of fragments of tiles, pottery, mirrors, and glass called the House of Shards. Inside there’s an assortment of weirdness ranging from a vintage bicycle collection to a one-of-a-kind abomination of nature: Bufford the Bassigator, a 22-foot-long half alligator, half fish.

This shrine to tacky taste is the creation of John Preble. The teacher and artist was 50 years old when he finally put a lifetime of odd keepsakes on display for all to see.

Abita Mystery House is also known as the UCM Museum, standing for Unusual Collections and Mini-town, but we suspect Preble intended the name to be pronounced "you-see-em-mu-se-um.”

Nearby

Dew Drop Jazz Hall (8.538 mi)

Lakefront Airport (30.435 mi)

New Canal Lighthouse (31.398 mi)

DBC (33.287 mi)

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New Orleans

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3_Aidan Gill for Men

An unapologetically male barbershop

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Don’t be surprised by the rows of meticulously arranged grooming products and accouterments when you walk into one of Aidan Gill’s two barbershops in New Orleans, which are, to quote owner Gill, “unapologetically male.” In the 1960s, Dublin native Gill noticed the steady disappearance of barbershops in favor of coed salons and became determined to save the centuries-old trade. He opened his first barbershop in New Orleans in 1990 and is the unequivocal leader of the barbershop resurgence.

His Magazine Street store is a testament to his passion. All of the chairs are vintage Koken or Koch. His mirrors, cabinets, display cases, and bars all have a story (and a purpose). In the back room (the inner sanctum), customers enjoy Gill’s signature 30- to 40-minute “Shave at the End of the Galaxy” while sipping some whiskey (or Guinness on tap—your choice), flipping through Playboys, admiring Gill’s collection of cut-throat razors, all the while being treated to seven steaming towels pulled one by one through the course of a shave from a vintage 1910 steaming machine (no fears, it was retrofitted for electricity).

Info

Address 2026 Magazine Street, New Orleans, LA 70130, +1 504.587.9090, www.aidangillformen.com | Hours Mon–Wed and Fri–Sat 10am–6pm, Thu 10am–7pm, Sun noon–6pm| Tip Ladies, why not pamper yourself while your man is at Aidan Gill? Stroll a couple doors down to Trashy Diva (2048 Magazine St), a local high-end vintage-inspired clothing boutique (and line), which has a cultlike following.

Gill purchases vintage barbershop memorabilia at auction to display in his shop, saving it from being used as a conversation piece in someone’s bathroom. You will also find high-quality items for sale handpicked by Gill himself: tubs of shaving cream, shaving brushes, cowhide razor strops, aftershave, and Gill’s own equipment line. What you won’t find at Aidan Gill is a female companion hovering by her male, dictating a haircut. Gill has a strict no-female policy and will politely (but firmly) ask them to leave. If they don’t comply, the woman and the male customer are shown the door. Gill expertly blends tradition with technology in his shop, but what he doesn’t blend is the sexes. “Unisex is a dead word in here,” Gill states, true to form, very unapologetically.

Nearby

Modern Gargoyles (0.342 mi)

Eiffel Society (0.36 mi)

House of Broel (0.404 mi)

Our Mother of Perpetual Help (0.46 mi)

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New Orleans

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4_Algiers Point

Over da river

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There’s a ferry at the base of Canal Street, near the aquarium, that crosses the Mississippi River to Algiers Point. It runs every half hour from 6am to 9:45pm during the week, and from 10:45am to 5pm on weekends. Until recently, it was free, but now it’ll run you $2 each way. The pleasant, breezy ride is a short five minutes. When visitors ask what there is to do at Algiers Point, the joking response is, “Turn around and come back.”

In fact, there are actually several good restaurants and pubs on the point as well as a ton of history and charm. Algiers is the second-oldest neighborhood in New Orleans, after the French Quarter. Slaves, arriving from Africa, used to be held there until they were parceled out. Algiers was also once the hub of slaughterhouses for the city. The first ferry was established in 1823, and by the early 1900s, there were six boats shuttling back and forth, one large enough to carry railroad cars and livestock.

Info

Address Board the ferry to Algiers Point at One Canal Street, New Orleans, LA 70130, www.nolaferries.com; the Jazz Walk of Fame runs along the levee to your right as you exit the ferry at Algiers Point. | Hours Ferry runs every half hour; check website for schedule| Tip Old Point Bar in Algiers (545 Patterson Dr) has been featured in countless movies because it personifies Hollywood’s idea of a neighborhood bar. The small stage hosts some of the city’s better musicians, but the headliner is bartender Patti Pujol. She also seems right out of central casting, with her perpetual cowboy hat and an attitude that perfectly balances the line between sweet and smartass.

During this time, Algiers also developed a dynamic music scene, with 36 performance venues and dance halls operating by 1911. Many of the top musicians who played the then “newfangled” jazz lived there, including Henry “Red” Allen, Oscar “Papa” Celestine, and Elizabeth “Memphis Minnie” Douglas. New Orleans residents and visitors flowed across the Mississippi to hear live music. Spending an evening there was commonly referred to as going “over da river.”

The vast majority of the jazz joints in Algiers have long since disappeared. Most of the saloons are all but forgotten. A “Jazz Walk of Fame,” designed with individual honors for 16 pioneering musicians, such as Buddy Bolden and Jelly Roll Morton, has fallen into disrepair. Their portraits were originally illuminated by streetlamps along the levee, but unfortunately, most are now damaged. Even so, the Jazz Walk offers one of the best views of New Orleans’ skyline, especially at sunset.

Nearby

Dr. Bob Folk Art (0.578 mi)

Crescent Park (0.603 mi)

The Jazz Collection (0.64 mi)

Checkpoint Charlie’s (0.684 mi)

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New Orleans

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5_Angelo Brocato

Leave the diet, take the cannoli

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As a 12-year-old, Angelo Brocato began an apprenticeship in an elegant ice-cream parlor in his hometown of Palermo. After learning the trade, he emigrated from Sicily to the United States and worked on a sugar plantation in New Orleans, trying to save up enough money to open his own shop. In 1905, he opened Angelo’s Ice Cream Parlor, a replica of Palermo’s finest emporiums, on Ursulines Avenue in the French Quarter. Brocato’s moved to Mid-City in 1978, as many residents abandoned the Quarter for outlying neighborhoods.

Today, the shop is run by Angelo Brocato III, and even in its “new” location, remains a throwback to the classic ice-cream parlors of the past. There’s an old–world feel created by slowly turning ceiling fans, an archway of lightbulbs over the serving counter, rows of apothecary jars filled with candies, bistro tables, and century-old portraits of Angelo himself on the wall. You are greeted by long glass display cases filled with traditional Italian desserts—handmade zuppa inglese, cassata, Italian fig cookies, spumoni—and New Orleans’ best cheesecake. When you order the cannoli, the cone-shaped shell is spoon-filled with a ricotta-cheese-and-sugar mixture right in front of you and dipped in crushed pistachio nuts.

Info

Address 214 N Carrollton Avenue, New Orleans, LA 70119, +1 504.486.1465, www.angelobrocatoicecream.com | Hours Tue–Sun 10am–10pm| Tip The original Angelo Brocato’s, in the French Quarter (615–617 Ursulines Ave), is now occupied by the coffee and breakfast spot Croissant d’Or Patisserie. You can still see the 100-year-old tiles at the old Brocato’s two separate entrances, for “Ladies” and “Gentlemen.” Back in the day, men and women used separate doors to avoid the potential scandal of seeing a woman’s exposed ankle.

But the main reason to visit Angelo Brocato’s is for their 100-year-old Sicilian-recipe gelatos. The flavors filling the display case are all excellent and include two types of pistachio (they are very Sicilian), baci, torroncino, and a great seasonal Louisiana strawberry (much sweeter than traditional strawberry ice cream).

People-watching is another reason to go. On certain nights, the parlor is a mixture of families with kids, heavily pierced and tattooed hipsters, and old Italian men shuffling up to the counter using canes or walkers to order their mini cannoli and double espresso, just as they’ve been doing for decades.

Nearby

Ricca’s Architectural Sales (0.255 mi)

Chainsaw Tree (0.491 mi)

Holt Cemetery (0.733 mi)

Kayaking on the Bayou (0.746 mi)

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New Orleans

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6_Antenna Gallery

A moveable feast of art

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The art district in New Orleans shifts like the swampy foundation beneath the city’s streets. For many years, the hub was Royal Street and to a lesser extent Chartres Street in the French Quarter. When the Arthur Roger Gallery moved to the Warehouse District in 1988, 12 galleries followed, giving Julia Street the moniker “Gallery Row.” For the more intrepid, St. Claude Avenue has become the post-Katrina center for cutting-edge galleries and unconventional artist-run spaces, collectively called SCAD (St. Claude Arts District). (One of the galleries—Barrister’s—claims to feature artists “so far removed from the mainstream that the term ‘outsider artist’ doesn’t even begin to describe their current location in space and time.”)

Among the gems of St. Claude, and leading the list for art lovers on the hunt for more than a painting that will match their living-room sofa, is the Antenna Gallery, founded by Press Street, a nonprofit dedicated to stimulating art and literature in NOLA. Its two-story building is used, in their words, to produce “an array of risk-taking solo and group exhibitions that engage and interact with the New Orleans community.”

Info

Address 3718 St. Claude Street, New Orleans, LA 70117, +1 504.298.3161, www.press-street.org | Hours Tue–Sun noon–5pm| Tip If you happen to be in New Orleans around Thanksgiving, each year Press Street produces the Draw-a-thon, a free 24-hour drawing extravaganza where more than 700 artists and non-artists of all ages make art based on a theme, often in inventive ways, like tracing shadows on walls. Press Street describes the event as “creating for the sake of creating, process over product.”

Since 2008, Antenna has hosted a variety of never-boring exhibitions, like My Mom Says My Work Has Really Improved, a group show that presented the artists’ childhood works next to their current works, and monu_MENTAL, in which the artists made imaginative revisions to existing local monuments. Another solo exhibition displayed a series of machines that had been repurposed into art-making gadgets, like a weed cutter rigged to draw grass, and a car with a retrofitted engine that was made to sketch a rudimentary self-portrait when visitors sat inside and turned the steering wheel.

A great time to do a gallery crawl through SCAD is on the second Saturday night of the month, when many venues hold openings for new exhibitions.

Nearby

Rosalie Alley (0.217 mi)

Elizabeth’s Restaurant (0.36 mi)

Dive Bar Alley (0.423 mi)

Crescent Park (0.478 mi)

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New Orleans

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7_The Art of Dooky Chase

These walls can talk

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Dooky Chase’s Restaurant has been a revered New Orleans’ institution since 1941. Ms. Leah Chase married into the family that owned the restaurant and started working there in 1957. She thought she was being hired to be the hostess, but wound up back in the kitchen. A self-taught chef, Chase went on to win every culinary award imaginable. Known as the outspoken Queen of Creole Cuisine, she once chastised President Obama when he started to put hot sauce in her gumbo, giving him a double dose of “Oh no you don’t!” for even thinking of messing with her perfect recipe.

As delicious as her gumbo and fried chicken are (the latter was recently voted the best in New Orleans), the art on the restaurant’s walls may be the most memorable thing you’ll savor. Ms. Chase received her first painting, a work by the artist Jacob Lawrence, as a present from her husband. Over the next 50 years, she assembled a remarkable collection of art by African Americans; some pieces were gifts, some were traded for meals, and others were acquired from the artists. Ms. Chase received a first-class education in art from Celestine Cook, a civic leader and the first African American to sit on the board of the New Orleans Museum of Art.

Info

Address 2301 Orleans Avenue, New Orleans, LA 70119, +1 504.821.0600, www.dookychaserestaurant.com | Hours Tue–Fri 11am–3pm (lunch); Fri 5pm–9pm (dinner)| Tip There’s no shortage of places for great fried chicken in New Orleans. Others high on anyone’s list would be the James Beard Award-winning Willie Mae’s Scotch House (2401 St. Ann St); Fiorella’s (1136 Decatur St); McHardy’s (1458 N Broad St); and Manchu Food Store (1413 N Claiborne St), where you pay for takeout through bulletproof glass.

Highlights of the collection include works by Elizabeth Catlett, John Biggers, and a series of portraits of Ms. Chase by Gustave Blache III. While she sat for Blache, she implored, “I hope you’re making me look like Halle Berry.” Two of Blache’s paintings depicting Chase at work now hang in the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery.

When the levees broke in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, Dooky Chase’s was terribly flooded. Thankfully, one of Ms. Chase’s grandsons was able to remove all the art before any damage was done. Today, visitors can dine on Ms. Chase’s award-winning cuisine in what remains one of the finest African-American art galleries in the city—perhaps in the country.

Nearby

Zulu Social Aid & Pleasure Club (0.298 mi)

F & F Botanica Spiritual Supply (0.342 mi)

Le Musée de f.p.c. (0.454 mi)

Pagoda Café (0.559 mi)

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To the beginning of the chapter

New Orleans

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8_Audubon Park Labyrinth

Walking a sacred path

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There are many reasons to go to Audubon Park. You can exercise by walking, running, or biking the 1.8-mile trail, which takes you by a sculpture garden and Ochsner Island, a rookery that attracts hundreds of bird species. The path also encircles the Audubon golf course, originally built in 1898, then renovated in 2002. A huge rock sits in the middle of the 18th fairway. There are conflicting stories about the origins of the 15-ton, 8-foot-high boulder; some say it’s a meteor that struck the earth in 1891, while others maintain it’s merely an abandoned chunk of iron ore that was on display at the Alabama State exhibit in the Cotton Centennial in 1884.

The newest reason to go is a walking labyrinth, unveiled on Easter Sunday 2006. Its creator, stone sculptor Marty Kermeen, duplicated the specific measurements used in archetypal labyrinths all over the world. Labyrinths have an unknown origin but are recorded in many ancient civilizations. The most famous is in the floor of the Cathedral at Chartres, about an hour outside Paris. It was completed in A.D. 1220.

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Address Audubon Park, midway between the St. Charles and Magazine Streets side entrances, near East Drive, where Laurel Street dead ends into the park | Hours Daily 5am–10pm| Tip Audubon Park contains plenty of treasured spots, including the city’s zoo, home of 2000 animals, jokingly said to have a recipe card in front of each because Louisiana folk will eat anything and everything. The Fly is also a lovely area right on the Mississippi River, with baseball and soccer fields and plenty of space to lounge or picnic. The Cascade Stables has 40 privately owned and boarded horses, but also provides horseback lessons to visitors.

The labyrinth’s symbol of the spiral is the universal representation of transformation. Unlike mazes, labyrinths are not intended to challenge or confuse with blind alleys and dead ends; they offer just one path to the center. By traversing the twists and turns and making one’s way to the middle, the mind is opened to receive the spirit.