Where Quality is Our Nature

Jazz it up with Zatarain's

"We have Zatarain's in our supermarket in Minnetonka," people tell me.  "Is it really from New Orleans?"  Minnetonka is in Minnesota.  It's close to the source of the Mississippi River.  We are close to the Mississippi's mouth.  Mmmmm.... Zatarain's.  Jazz it up!

Zatarain's is from New Orleans.  More properly, nowadays, Zatarain's spices and pre-packaged rice mixes are from Gretna, on the other side of the River, but the company started out in New Orleans.  Nowadays, it's a subsidiary of McCormick & Co., Inc.  You know the company; their products dominate the spice aisle in your local supermarket.  

Has Zatarain's strayed far from it's roots after being bought by a multinational spice company?  Well, here's a link to the Zatarain's website that purportedly teaches you how to speak like a New Orleanian.  Please don't try any of this out while you're here.  You're going to sound like a darned fool just like the lady who does the voiceover in those videos sounds like a darned fool.  Who thought that was clever?  Somebody who has never been to New Orleans, or, if they have been, they have a tin ear.

That Zatarain's mural on the side of the Queen and Crescent Hotel is on the corner of Poydras and Camp Streets.  The more modern skyscraper to the left is some anonymous office tower, but it has two statues in front of it that I like.

The Lute Player

I know what you regular readers are thinking: Our humble narrator likes a statue!?!  It happens.  I'm not dead from the neck up.  For newcomers to this blog, there are several past entries in which I bemoan modern art, public sculpture in particular.  Whatever assemblages of welded scrap metal you want to put on your mantels are none of my business.  Trawl through this blog's archives at your leisure; you can waste a lot of time there.  You can also learn what your humble narrator is like and get a taste of what it's like to stay at our inn.  

For our new readers, I have but one word: Welcome.  

Here are two more:  Stick around.

Here are nine:  Visit New Orleans and stay at La Belle Esplanade.

Back to the two statues I like on Poydras Street, they were made by Enrique Alférez, a Mexican-born Louisiana artist.  He has all sorts of statues in the New Orleans Botanical Garden and he made the fountain at New Orleans' Lakefront Airport.   

Here's the statue located at the other side of that building on Poydras Street.  It's David.

You can tell it's David because he's got a sling.  It isn't the kind of sling you'll be wearing if you don't watch your step while walking the crooked and tilting sidewalks of New Orleans.  It's the kind of sling used to kill giants.  

You'll find some tall people in New Orleans and you'll find some snappy dressers, too.  I went to Meyer the Hatter the other day to see if they could clean and block one of my hats.  You'll find at least four generations of hatters at the shop at any given time.  It turned out that they couldn't provide exactly what I wanted (I'm persnickety about this particular hat, my favorite) so I decided to try a home remedy, which is usually a recipe for disappointment.  I like to live and learn through trial and error, much like a hunter gatherer.  "Are you sure you want to try it yourself?" the guy at Meyer the Hatter asked me.  

I'll probably be buying a new hat in the near future.  No surprise there, though.

A hatter is not a haberdasher.  If you are looking for a haberdasher, there is one just two storefronts down from Meyer the Hatter.  There is Rubensteins.

There is a seersucker suit in my future, too.  Guess where I'm going to get measured for it and where I'm going to purchase it and have it tailored.  You've already guessed it, haven't you?  I'm going to go to Rubensteins.  That's where everyone goes.  They've been on Canal Street since 1924.  In the past 91 years, they've learned a thing or two about making men look good in a seersucker suit.

Wanna see a statue by Enrique Alférez that's in the Botanical Gardens?

Rose garden, New Orleans Botanical Garden

We haven't had any video in this installment.  Howzabout another snippet of Justin Wilson in all his Cajun glory?


We hope we'll see you standing tall in New Orleans.

The motto of the City of Minnetonka, Minnesota is; "Where Quality is Our Nature."  I'm going to swipe that motto.  Zatarain's should have done that years ago.

À votre santé,
La Belle Esplanade bed and breakfast.