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ADVOCATE THE MID CITY
T H E A D V O C AT E.C O M
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W e d n e s d ay, O c t O b e r 9, 2024
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Danny Heitman AT RANDOM
A birdhouse reminds me that life is a merry mess When we put up our big birdhouse a couple of years ago, it looked as perfect as a church. The white walls and copper roof shined each day and glowed mildly in the moonlight. Things are different now, as I’m reminded on quiet mornings when I sip coffee and glance up at the birdhouse from my lower perch on our patio. Straw pokes out from one of the compartments where a family of squirrels once made their messy beds. A few sparrows took up residence, too, bringing their own casual sense of domesticity to the mix. The scraping and rustling have taken their toll, so the once flawless finish now sports a graffiti of scratches. I had put up our birdhouse for purple martins and gotten these unsavory characters instead, but nature can’t be summoned by placing an order from a catalog. At some point, I’ll lower the post of the birdhouse and clean it out, maybe adding a fresh coat of paint in the bargain. That kind of housekeeping would upset too many other things in our garden right now, so I’m content for the moment to live with our birdhouse in its slightly shabby state. It resembles one of those old barns you spot on country drives — lovely, weary buildings with sagging roofs and missing doors, yet beautiful precisely because they’ve been so deeply held in time’s embrace. When I see our birdhouse in these early days of autumn, I’m also moved to think about how life has a way of complicating anything it touches. The best way for me to keep this garden treasure pristine would have been to display it on an inside shelf, I guess, safe from beaks and claws. But a house never lived in would be a sad set of walls. Maybe, as one of the bargains we make in the quest for happiness, we should accept that when we live in the company of other lives, our own lives become messier, more complicated, more unpredictable. I thought about this over the summer as my wife and I, now empty nesters, hosted both of our grown children for brief visits.
STAFF PHOTOS BY JAVIER GALLEGOS
Owner Stephanie Phares, from left, chats with customers Adrian Louviere, Will Clem and the rest of their table during lunch at Zeeland Street on Wednesday.
‘God had his eye on me’ BY JAN RISHER and LAUREN CHERAMIE Staff writers
A longtime popular Garden District restaurant known for its delectable breakfast options and plate lunches has been named in “The Restaurant List 2024” from The New York Times. For more than 30 years, Zeeland Street owner Stephanie Phares has fed the community through her cafe. She started out hosting potluck dinners, which transitioned to a deli, which finally led to her opening the restaurant in 1992. Her menu boasts breakfast and lunch options like pecan smoked brisket, blueberry pancakes, pot roast and po-boys. Phares says she was surprised by the news even though she had been interviewed a few months ago by the reporter. She’s had a lot going on since then. She was diagnosed with lung cancer in early July and is undergoing chemotherapy and radiation. But by Tuesday afternoon, she said she was feeling good, even after completing four hours of chemo and radiation the day before. “I’m real happy,” she said. “The New York Times reporter, Brett Anderson, just called and told me
Cashier Traci Roberts takes Tracy Benjamin’s lunch order ahead of a large party at Zeeland Street. that he ate in a lot of restaurants, but he could see that we were in that kitchen cooking from scratch.” Zeeland Street was recognized for those very scratch recipes and “soul-soothing staples” like smothered chicken and vegetable sides. The restaurant list is comprised of 50 establishments around the U.S., with two from Louisiana, including Acamaya, a contemporary Mexican restaurant in New Orleans
from chef Ana Castro. Phares said her current favorite menu item is the pecan-smoked beef brisket with cornbread dressing and sweet potatoes. “I feel my grandmother’s love when I eat that,” Phares said. “I’m so grateful she took that 12-yearold girl and taught me.” For breakfast, she loves the res-
ä See RESTAURANT, page 2G
ä See AT RANDOM, page 3G
KATIE ORTEGO PRITCHETT
20 years later, this UL student president is professor, consultant BY LAUREN CHERAMIE
the trajectory of her life — its impact felt throughStaff writer out her grad studies at the University of Texas at Katie Ortego Pritchett’s Austin, her subsequent capassion for leadership is so intertwined with her reer as a professor at UT’s life that she doesn’t know McCombs School of Busiwhere the attribute starts ness and in her consulting Pritchett and stops. At Lafayette business, KPI Coaching. High School, she was the student “It’s almost like I can’t untangle council vice president, so it felt the two,” Pritchett said. “I don’t natural to pursue student governknow if I am where I am because it was so ingrained in me to be ment in college at the University involved in student government, of Louisiana at Lafayette. Her time in student government ä See PROFESSOR, page 3G at UL has played a major role in
COLLEGE CAREER 20 years ago, they were Louisiana college student government presidents. Where are they now? To read the profiles as they are released, visit bit.ly/4ewovym.
ä Coming Monday — Jeraul Mackey, University of New Orleans
Does Prince’s family have roots in Louisiana? BY ROBIN MILLER Staff writer
If John Lewis Nelson had not been born in the Webster Parish town of Cotton Valley, there would have been no purple rain in Minnesota. Which only partially answers Roxanne Hare’s Curious Louisiana question about the possibility of a Louisiana connection to the late Prince. Yes, Prince, as in legendary pop and rock musician, songwriter and actor who is affiliated with the color purple through his 1984 hit, “Purple Rain.” Landmark buildings
throughout the United States, including the then MercedesBenz Superdome in New Orleans, lit their exteriors in purple upon the announcement of his death on April 21, 2016. The Superdome’s purple lights commemorated the musician and his career, but they also could have been a nod to Prince’s Louisiana lineage.
ä See CURIOUS, page 3G