House of Broel

Take the train to New Orleans

Say what you want about Amtrak, and I'm from the Northeast so I have very little bad to say about it, but they have excellent taste in graphic design.  Their full line of posters is available here.  I was in the train station today admiring the Amtrak artwork.

I was taking pictures and the conductor behind the ticket desk asked if he could help me.  "The last place I lived was Boston," I told him.  "It was much busier in North Station and South Station than it is here."  He smiled.  "It depends on the time of day," he told me.  I suppose it does.  The Union Passenger Terminal in New Orleans only serves six trains a day.  Imagine that.  The signs don't have to change as the trains come and go.

A sleepy lobby most of the time

I stopped into the train station after visiting the House of Broel on St. Charles Avenue, which is really what this article is about.

House of Broel, New Orleans, LA

The House of Broel is a wedding venue and custom wedding dress shop with a dollhouse museum on the second floor.  I didn't visit for any of those reasons.  I'm already married and dollhouses aren't really my cup of tea, though I did help make one for my sister one Christmas, many, many years ago.  It was the 70's when making things from leftover pantyhose eggs and spray paint can lids was in vogue.  My brother and I made miniature ottomans out of the lids.

If you are too young to know what I mean by the term "pantyhose eggs," here is a peek at the past:




As long as we're going down Memory Lane about my family, I'll tell you that my grandfather always said he preferred Joyce Dewitt over Suzanne Somers in Three's Company.  He also preferred Kate Jackson out of all of Charlie's Angels.  He had good taste.  He married my grandmother, after all.  Connect the dots long enough and you'll be able to figure out why every room in our inn is a different color.  And yes, there was a time when shuffleboard was considered the attraction of a cruise that took place on a ship that was just like the Love Boat.  You'll notice how Joyce Dewitt dances a twirl with the yeoman purser.  I'm thinking of having a shuffleboard court installed in the back garden.  That or bocce.

Anyhow, I went to the House of Broel.  Here is what it looks like on the inside:

Inside the House of Broel

Inside the House of Broel

Ceiling in the House of Broel

It's a beautiful place and Bonnie Broel is a wealth of information, a gem of a lady who was gracious and patient with me as we talked about what I came to discuss.  She seemed a bit surprised when I rang her bell and told her my mission, but she adapted to the situation admirably and told me everything I wanted to know, and then some.  She is full of fascinating stories and she certainly doesn't look like someone who's father fought in WWI.

Why did I go to the House of Broel?  Because I was curious about an advertisement I had seen in the back pages of the November 1952 issue of Popular Mechanix that I was reading while waiting for our guests from Dallas, TX to arrive the other day:

American Frog Canning Company advertisement

What does this have to do with anything?  Regular readers of this blog know that I tell as much as I keep under my hat.  The people who stay with us know that I spill the rest of the story over breakfast, if they are interested.  If you want to know the answer, you will have to make a reservation.

By the way, we have recently received some kind and thorough reviews on Trip Advisor.  We are still mired in the #15 and #16 slot out of 150 bed and breakfasts in New Orleans according to the rankings, but it isn't a bad place to be.  We are not competitive people so we haven't checked out the competition.  Thinking about it, I'm tempted to read the reviews of #149, but it's really none of my business.  I'm too busy trying to be the best innkeeper I can be. It's a pleasant profession.

We don't serve frog legs for breakfast.  I mentioned it to Frau Schmitt and she didn't quite cotton to the idea.  She is usually right about these things.  We offer plenty of tasty surprises without serving frog legs.

Next time, I'll have to remember to post the photos I took of the murals in the train station.  They'll knock your socks off.

A votre santé,
La Belle Esplanade bed and breakfast.

Jazz in New Orleans

Statue of St. Jude in the Mortuary Chapel on N. Rampart St., New Orleans

The difference between street music and classical music is a difference of degree.  Franz Liszt composed Hungarian rhapsodies based on folk tunes he heard as a lad before he received his training as a composer.  George Gershwin wrote Rhapsody in Blue, an American masterpiece that combined jazz sensibilities with classical aspirations.  Paul Whiteman was known, for awhile at least, as the King of Jazz.  He made a film in the 1920s called "King of Jazz."  It featured a sequence called Rhapsody in Blue.  Paul Whiteman commissioned Gershwin to compose it. 

Today, we feature a clip below, found courtesy of James Lileks, that made me remember why I love the Rhapsody in Blue so much, and why I love New Orleans jazz so much.  Play this video as we go along, at least for the soundtrack.  Scroll back up to see what's happening on the screen as you read.  You just might be mesmerized and watch the whole thing.

What does Rhapsody in Blue, which we often have playing on the hi-fi around the house while Tammie the housekeeper tidies up when nobody is around, and The Dirty Dozen Brass Band, The Hot 5 Brass Band, Rebirth Brass Band, and The Nowhere Boys Brass Band have in common?  What does Rhapsody in Blue, first played at Aeolian Hall in New York City have to do with the nightclubs that line Frenchman Street in New Orleans?  What does Louis Armstrong have to do with Kermit Ruffins?  What does Irving Mayfield have to do with King Oliver?  What does Trombone Shorty have to do with the Marsalis Brothers?

It boils down to jazz, my friend.  It all boils down to New Orleans, the place where jazz started, the place where America's music was born.  If you want to make gumbo, first you have to make a roux.  If you want flavor, you have to put everything in the pot.

I was in the Mortuary Chapel on North Rampart Street the other day and I noticed that not only is the chapel a shrine dedicated to Saint Jude, it is the official chapel of the NOPD and the NOFD.  Opposite the St. Jude shrine is a shrine dedicated to St. Michael, patron of law enforcement officers, and also to St. Florian, patron of firefighters.

Sts. Michael and Florian flanking St. Mary, Mortuary Chapel, N. Rampart St., New Orleans

I can't claim to know what makes New Orleans tick.  All I can say is that, when you visit, you never know what you will find around the next corner.  Some things don't make sense, even though they are perfectly perfect in their place.  If you can make sense of the definition of the word 'rhapsody' on wikipedia, you are a more intelligent person than your humble narrator.  I don't have the patience to wade through it all.  All I can say is that the word seems to fit how it feels to live in New Orleans.  If you visit, you will know what I mean.  It's magic.

Old Tyme Breakfast Shop, N. Claiborne Ave., New Orleans

We have lived in New Orleans three and a half years and we often pass the Old Tyme Breakfast Shop near the intersection of Orleans Avenue and North Claiborne.  It's a popular place in the neighborhood.  There is often a shoeshine stand set up in the morning.  It's right down the block from the Brown Derby No.2, a wing shack, and a snowball stand, and this is a sentence that only makes sense if you live in New Orleans.

I noticed a new sign hanging on the other side of the Old Tyme Breakfast Shop building.

Roosevelt's Black Pearl Oyster Bar and Restaurant, N. Claiborne Ave., New Orleans

Apparently, according to the new sign, this is also the site of Roosevelt's Black Pearl Oyster Bar and Restaurant.  The small print on the sign says that they have been serving New Orleans for over 40 years.  I had no idea.  I have no idea why they've just decided to put up a sign.

When you live in New Orleans, you don't ask too many questions.  It's not worth the migraine you'll get trying to figure everything out.  You just take things as they come.  Good things come to those who wait.  Patience is a virtue.  That is why nothing ever starts on time here.

Every day is an adventure in New Orleans.  Every day is interesting.  Every day is full of surprises.  Just ask Tammie, our housekeeper.

Tammie the housekeeper

Tammie the housekeeper just punched me in the arm.  She said, "You know I hate it when you put that picture of me smoking a pipe up on the internet!"

I do know that much, and I know other things, too.  So does Frau Schmitt.  Ask us about them over breakfast.  We'll be happy to tell you.

A votre santé,

La Belle Esplanade bed and breakfast.

The B&B for people who love films

We went to the Prytania Theater today, on Prytania Street, just before Jefferson Avenue.  It's in a nice neighborhood.  Near the St. James Cheesery, Crepes Nanou, and LA Thai, as well as the Creole Creamery, and a very nice restaurant with a name I don't remember, but Frau Schmitt does.  

Someone will say the name of that restaurant and I'll say I've never heard of it.  Then Frau Schmitt will say, "You remember it.  It's the place where we talked with that nice couple at the next table because you were admiring his seersucker suit and he told you he got it someplace uptown."  She is usually right about these things.  In fact, the gentleman recommended his haberdasher on Tchoupitoulas Street, just uptown of Napoleon Avenue, on the lakeside of the block.  The food was very good, as good as the atmosphere.  If you are looking for a seersucker suit, I know where to send you.

Anyhow, the New Orleans French Film Festival is just winding down. We happened to have some rare free time this afternoon, so we went to see "Populaire."  Do you know who was in the audience with us?  The guy who owns the Chalmette Cinema.  He has impeccable taste in film.  We chatted outside afterward and he was staying for the next show, "Haute Cuisine."

Populaire was a wonderful movie, which is much better than its trailer, above.  It is rated R, but compared to most of the trash that we see on the screen, both large and small, there are worse things that families can see together.  It is almost chaste.  It is tame and inspiring.  It is lovely.  

As for Haute Cuisine, here is the trailer for that:
Maybe we should have stayed for the next show.  That movie is probably better than it's trailer, too.  We don't get that feeling from the many, many, many overloud trailers we interminably sit through before most movies playing at the AMC Palace Cinema in Elmwood (12 screens! plus IMAX in 3-D!).

One thing that is nice about going to Chalmette Cinema is that when they play a movie, at least the ones we go to see, they don't play any trailers.  One at most, and that is a trailer that whets our appetite instead of turning to each other to say, "No way."

We saw "Captain Phillips" last week in Elmwood and I thought Tom Hanks' Vermont accent was over the top, a caricature of how New Englanders speak.  Frau Schmitt didn't notice.  "I thought he talked like you do," she said to me.  She is usually right about these things, too.

The last line in the movie Populaire is spoken by an American who has taken a French wife.  He says, "America for business.  France for love."  I would substitute 'France' with 'la Nouvelle Orleans."  It's easy if you try.

If either of these films are screened where you live, check them out.  If not, you can always come to New Orleans.  The French Film Festival is brought to us courtesy of the New Orleans Film Society.  

Maurice Chevallier sang, "Thank Heaven for little girls." When he say's "Gigi," I would substitute it with 'New Orleans."



A votre santé,
La Belle Esplanade bed and breakfast.

Living in New Orleans

Louisiana's most famous governor is Huey P. Long, the Kingfish.  If you visit the Old State Capitol Museum in Baton Rouge, which is really the only thing we can recommend in Baton Rouge, it is like a shrine to the Kingfish.  The other governors are given their due mention, but most of the exhibits center around the life and works of the honorable Huey P. Long.  He was no Bobby Jindal, who is our current governor, that's for sure.

Though there is a website dedicated to the preservation of the Kingfish's memory, you won't find any memorials to Louisiana's most inspiring politician in the city of New Orleans.  Though Huey Long loved his sazaracs and he was a regular patron of the Roosevelt Hotel, he had no real love for New Orleans.  The political machine that ran the city never cottoned to Governor Long, and vice versa.  

Plus ca change plus c'est la meme chose.  The politics of New Orleans today have no relationship to the politics at play in the rest of the state.  The city is an oasis in an unforgiving swampy sea.  The mood changes as soon as you cross the parish line.

Elmwood, Jefferson Parish, Louisiana

A recent guest asked me what Louisiana looks like outside New Orleans, so I decided to take a picture in the parking lot in front of the Elmwood 12-screen AMC multiplex movie theater in suburban Jefferson Parish.  Not all of Louisiana looks like this, just Jefferson Parish, which is right over the Orleans Parish line.  Feast your eyes.

The intersection of Bayou Road, DeSoto, Bell, and Dorgenois Streets, New Orleans, Louisiana

I took a picture this morning of the intersection of Bayou Road where it meets DeSoto Street, Bell Street, and North Dorgenois Street, two blocks from our house.  The green building is the old Indian Market.  The yellow building is home to the Cajun Buffet, which serves a very popular and inexpensive lunch with all the fixings; it is all you can eat.  This is what New Orleans looks like.  Part of it, at least.

Big Easy Scooters

We were at Big Easy Scooters on Magazine Street yesterday afternoon and I noticed a recently painted mural celebrating the Amerivespa scooter rally taking place in New Orleans June 12-15, 2014.  That's going to be a good time.  If you are a vesperado, no matter what kind of bike you drive, you know where you can stay, next June or any time.  

You meet the most interesting people when you are in New Orleans.

A votre santé,
La Belle Esplanade bed and breakfast.