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Goat in the Road’s new show ‘Carlota’ explores Cuban connections
IN THE REGION OF MATANZAS, CUBA, ON WHAT USED TO BE A SUGAR PLANTATION, there’s a statue of Carlota Lucumi wielding a giant machete. The once-enslaved African woman was one of the leaders of a slave rebellion, and she is now a national folk hero.
“Carlota Lucumi was a legendary revolutionary,” says Denise Frazier, a professor at Tulane University and member of Goat in the Road Productions. “She’s brandishing a huge machete, and I dreamed of having a statue like this in the United States. We don’t really have statues of African descended people like this.”
That statue inspired Frazier to create a character based on Carlota in Goat in the Road’s 2018 show “The Stranger Disease,” about a yellow fever outbreak in New Orleans.
Now, Goat in the Road is presenting a full show built around Frazier’s Carlota. Frazier also is a musician and member of Les Cenelles, and she also cowrote the music for the show “Carlota,” which runs March 5-14 at CANOA. The show is written in English and Spanish, and video monitors provide subtitles of all dialogue so the entire show is available in both languages.
The Carlota Ruiz de Gonzalez introduced in “The Stranger Disease” is a woman born into slavery in Cuba and later sold to owners in Louisiana. After the Civil War, she stays in New Orleans and does domestic labor.
When the pandemic hit, Goat in the Road created the online project “Sick Notes.” Members assumed the identities of characters in “The Stranger Disease” and wrote letters as if they were in quarantine during the yellow fever outbreak. Frazier decided to have Carlota write letters to her descendants. The company liked Frazier’s concept and started developing it as a full show.
In the new show, we see more of Carlota’s life. She has dealt with harsh circumstances, including her past enslavement and being separated from her son when she was sold out of Cuba. But she has made a life in New Orleans. She meets Maria Cabrales, an actual Cuban independence activist who spent time in New Orleans with her husband Antonio Maceo Grajales. Maria inspires her to return to Cuba to help fight for its independence. There, Carlota reunites with her son, though that introduces the difficult gap of how they have changed during the long absence.
by Will Coviello |
Carlota appears throughout the show, sometimes as a ghost watching over her descendants, and at times registering her own snarky take on what she sees.
Carlota’s grandson Mateito is another major character. He came to New Orleans after the Cuban Revolution in 1959. He also wants to return to Cuba, but he has his own romanticized vision of it.
The youngest descendant is Carlota James, who is a physician in New Orleans. After her grandmother dies, she becomes more curious about previous ancestors and starts digging.
One of the themes of the show is exploring how younger generations perceive their ancestors, and how people change over major events, including how having children changes a person, Frazier says.
The show also is about the historical connections and Cuba’s influence on New Orleans. The connections and influence continue in the wave of Cuban musicians who have moved to New Orleans, Frazier says.
Frazier has taught Spanish and courses on Afro-Latin subjects at Tulane and other local universities. Her dissertation was on street performance in Cuba and Brazil.
Frazier, her Les Cenelles bandmate
Peter J. Bowling and Cuban born musician Yusa wrote the music for the show. It combines sounds from Cuba and New Orleans, and there’s some salsa, rhumba and reggaeton beats as well as some more experimental compositions.
‘Guys and Dolls’
In the classic musical set in New York, Nathan Detroit runs a floating gambling operation, and Sarah Brown tries to rescue sinners via her Save-a-Soul Mission. Detroit bets the ever-fortunate gambler Sky Masterson that he can’t get Brown to go on a date with him to Havana, Cuba, and intrigue follows as the gamblers and do-gooders tangle. Le Petit Theatre presents the show with a cast including Stephanie Abry, Leslie Claverie, Donald Jones Jr., Michael Paternostro and more. At 7:30 p.m. Thursday, March 5, to Saturday, March 7, and 3 p.m. Sunday, March 8, and continuing March 12-29. Tickets $27 and up via lepetittheatre.com.
The show’s 30 or so characters are played by a cast of six, including Mariola Chalas, Claudia Duran, Katerin Ferrer, Cuba Hatheway, Lilian Lombera and Claudio Venacio.
While the concept of the show comes from Frazier, a writing team of six wrote the show. The writing team was led by company co-artistic director Chris Kaminstein, and included Frazier and Tulane professor Carolina Caballero, who focuses on the Spanish Caribbean. In recent years, Goat in the Road has focused on immersive shows set in historically specific places. “The Family Line” explored the 1892 New Orleans general strike, mainly through the eyes of an Italian family that owned a grocery store near the French Market, performed at BK House. “The Uninvited” looked at social turmoil in 1874 and was performed at Gallier House.
“Carlota” is a more traditional stage show, and it’s being performed at CANOA. The name stands for Caribbean and New Orleans Arts, and the artist-led space has been a home to projects and groups with links to the Caribbean. “Carlota” will be taken on tour after the New Orleans premiere, and it’s designed to be presented in community spaces as well as theaters.
Tickets are $25-$40. For tickets and information, go to goatintheroadproductions.org.
Pat Burtscher
Pat Burtscher is a comedian, but he has plenty of thoughts on solving the world’s problems from managing an overheated stock market to building a time machine to go back and take on Hitler. He also occasionally plugs actual new solutions to pressing problems in short videos on his Instagram page @andmoreonthat. He returns to New Orleans for shows at 7 & 9 p.m. Friday, March 6, and Saturday, March 7, at Sports Drink. Tickets $28.92 via sportsdrink.org.
Pat Metheny
Pat Metheny started his professional career while still in his teens and redefined jazz guitar. He led his namesake Pat Metheny Group for more than thirty years and won numerous Grammy awards for instrumental albums and solo performances. His latest album is “Side-Eye III+,” the debut on his own label, Uniquity Music. He performs at 7:30 p.m. Sunday, March 8, at Orpheum Theater. Tickets $49.50 and up via ticketmaster.com.
PROVIDED PHOTO BY JIM MCCAMBRIDGE
PROVIDED PHOTO BY JOSH BRASTED
OPENING GAMBIT
Maybe the National Guard can post up at Shia LaBeouf’s house to keep us safe
THUMBS UP/ THUMBS DOWN
Donald Harrison Jr., the New Orleans saxophonist, composer and big chief of The Congo Square Nation, has been named a Jazz Legacies Fellow by the Mellon Foundation. The award, funded by Mellon and administered by the Jazz Foundation of America, recognizes luminaries who have left a lasting impact on jazz. Harrison is among 12 fellows in 2026 and will receive $100,000 in unrestricted funding.
The New Orleans Foundation for Francophone Cultures recently awarded five people and organizations grants to pursue projects promoting Louisiana French and Kouri-vini. Recipients of the grants given in honor of Homer J. Dupuy, the late medical doctor who advocated for Francophone culture in Louisiana, include musician Jermaine Butler, The Louisiana Parents for French Immersion, the Ho-Minti Society and more.
New Orleans, landlord near deal to stave of Musicians Village evictions for one year
THE HOUSING AUTHORITY OF NEW ORLEANS HOPES TO FINALIZE A DEAL this week with the new landlord of eight Musicians’ Village rentals to keep tenants in their apartments through the end of 2026.
According to Executive Director Marjorianna Willman, HANO will help three tenants cover the major rent increases imposed by Sam Madi of Stable Housing LLC, also doing business as Cover Casa, for the next year.
lease included unusual language stating the landlord could charge $10 for each email or text they receive from the renter.
Another tenant received a 10-day eviction notice earlier this month, in apparent violation of city ordinances which require evictions to go through the court system. Willman said she was told that was a mistake but did not explain how that could have happened.
Lead in New Orleans tap water shows up in nearly 70% of local households, a recent Verite News investigation found, citing city data. More than 1,100 households between September 2022 and May 2025 participated in a free water testing program offered by the Sewerage and Water Board, and almost every house with lead exceeded the recommended limit of 1 part per billion. There has been a push to replace the city’s remaining lead pipes, but it could take years to finish.
“The other five all have made arrangements and are not moving,” Willman told Gambit.
Madi bought the Musicians Village units and a number of other properties at what appears to be less than market value prices from the New Orleans Area Habitat for Humanity in September. Since then he’s sought to drastically raise the rents on residents, many of whom are elderly and living on fixed incomes. However, it’s uncertain what the terms of the agreements between Madi and the tenants were or if they’ve even resulted in signed leases. At least one draft
Habitat built the Musicians’ Village rentals in the years after Hurricane Katrina for culture bearers who needed housing. Habitat kept the rents the same, around $200-400 a month, ever since.
In September, New Orleans Area Habitat for Humanity sold the four duplexes to Cover Casa, also doing business as Stable Housing LLC, as part of a larger sale of 52 rental units for $1.7 million. In December, tenants in the eight Musicians’ Village units received letters from the new company informing them their rents would raise to around $1,100-$1,200.
THE NUMBER OF STOCK TRADES U.S.REP. JULIA LETLOW DID NOT REPORT ON TIME OVER THE PAST TWO YEARS.
Federal law requires Congress members to report stock trades within 45 days. According to The Times-Picayune, Letlow finally did so last month, though 100 of them were more than a year overdue. A spokesperson said Letlow didn’t know about the trades previously. Letlow is running for U.S. Senate against incumbent Bill Cassidy and Treasurer John Fleming, among others. Letlow has the backing of President Donald Trump and Gov. Jeff Landry.
What should New Orleans give up for Lent this year?
14.6%
Musicians’ Village rentals
PHOTO BY JONAH MEADOWS / THE TIMES- PICAYUNE
Willman said the total increase for the eight tenants for one year was about $40,000.
Habitat said they were losing money on the properties by keeping rents that low. However, doing so provided relief to the tenants, many of whom are elderly and living on fixed incomes. Several residents said they could not afford the rent hikes and worried about potentially having to leave their longtime homes.
Willman said HANO explored acquiring the duplexes from Madi, including exchanging the properties for vacant HANO properties, but that ultimately, “the deal did not work for HANO.” She also looked into opportunities for housing vouchers.
Willman said HANO will be using its “unrestricted reserves for one year” to cover the costs.
However, until contracts are inked, nothing is guaranteed. Tenants and others have previously reported getting conflicting information from Madi. At a community meeting last December, Willman said Madi told her he would hold off on rent hikes for the next year.
According to Willman, he later denied making that promise and claimed she “must have misunderstood.” — Kaylee Poche
Lagging property tax collections, loan payment strain New Orleans finances
NEW ORLEANS MAYOR
HELENA MORENO’S ADMINISTRATION IS WARNING THAT CITY FINANCES remain in dire shape as sales and property tax revenue trickles in more slowly than expected and payments on a $125 million emergency loan come due. Addressing the City Council Budget Committee on Wednesday, city officials said they’ve only collected 29% of projected property taxes and 10% of sales taxes as of Feb. 20. Chief Administrative Officer Joe Giarrusso said he expects those numbers to improve dramatically
next month, as procrastinating property owners meet the Feb. 28 payment deadline and sales taxes from Mardi Gras are accounted for. Still, with just $27.5 million in cash on-hand, the city has almost no margin for error in covering its $65 million monthly operating and personnel expenses. And that amount doesn’t
include the loan repayment, which isn’t included in the 2026 city budget. The repayment — with interest — is due in several installments before the end of June.
“There’s a critical issue the city is facing in terms of having enough revenue come in order to meet the expenses,” Giarrusso told council members.
The city already made one loan repayment this month, and another one for $55 million — the equivalent of nearly a full month of personnel and operating expenses — is due next month. A full schedule of repayment deadlines was not immediately available on Wednesday afternoon. The city’s finance director, Alyssa Rambeau, assured council members
New Orleans CAO Joe Giarrusso PHOTO BY MAX BECHERER / THE TIMES- PICAYUNE
the city will be able to make the next loan repayment.
Some council members said they were surprised the loan repayments aren’t included in the city budget, which Moreno devised with her transition team before taking office.
Councilmembers Aimee McCarron, Matthew Willard and JP Morrell urged administration officials to include future loan repayments in next year’s budget.
“We cannot pay bills we don’t acknowledge are bills,” Morrell said.
Giarrusso said the repayments aren’t in the budget because “the whole world knew exactly what the expense is,” referring to the highly publicized cash shortage in November that threatened the paychecks of nearly 5,000 city workers created the need for the $125 million emergency loan.
The loan proceeds, which covered payroll expenses for three months, are now tapped, and the Moreno administration is transitioning from relying on the loan as a crutch to paying it off. Giarrusso said after the meeting that, so long as tax revenues catch up to projections, he does not expect another cash crisis like the one last year.
Another loan — known as a revenue anticipation note — will be needed later this summer, although the exact timing and amount haven’t been determined.
— Ben Myers / The Times Picayune
New Orleans council members urge Moreno administration to focus on Lake Forest Plaza site
AS REDEVELOPMENT PLANS FOR LONG-BLIGHTED NEW ORLEANS PROPERTIES GAIN MOMENTUM, the site of the former Lake Forest Plaza is stagnant – prompting some City Council members on Tuesday to urge Mayor Helena Moreno’s administration to make headway on New Orleans East projects. The City Council’s Economic Development Committee on Tuesday heard from Moreno’s administration about a slew of plans to build out or restore the former Mercy Hospital, the Plaza Tower, Charity Hospital and the River District apartments, among others — projects that have received a mix of city bonds and private funding. Included in that list but without a plan of action was the Lake Forest Plaza, which was ravaged by Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and demolished after the storm. Councilmember
Jason Hughes, who represents the East, quizzed administration officials about their plans to attract new development to the Plaza site.
“Progress on the Plaza mall site in the next couple years, respectfully, is just going to be too slow for me,” Hughes said.
Jeffrey Schwartz, director of the Office of Housing and Community Development, said that he couldn’t offer any concrete site updates, but they aim to hold accountable those who have been dragging their feet in moving progress forward. He said that up to 70 acres of the Plaza’s property is ripe for development.
“We could not be more bullish on that. And so it is a first 100-day priority to be able to have a strategy mapped out for how we were going to do that,” Schwartz said.
The site is owned by Gowri Kailas, who owes millions of dollars in back taxes that he’s trying to settle and has other obligations that are preventing him from redeveloping the space, he has said.
Moreno was sworn into office on Jan. 12. She has identified the East as one of her main focuses, promising to address the area’s chronic pain points and touting the
idea of establishing a new City Hall annex there with a dedicated team focused on the area’s betterment.
On her second day in office, she took to the East to announce a citywide initiative to repair the city’s streetlights and traffic signals, telling New Orleans East’s residents that they have “been ignored for way too long.”
The Plaza and Six Flags sites, however, remain stark symbols of post-Hurricane Katrina decline in the East. The New Orleans Redevelopment Authority is working with developer Bayou Phoenix to turn the 225-acre Six Flags site into a sprawling redevelopment featuring a water park, hotels, a sports complex and other amenities. The firm demolished the hulking abandoned amusement rides there last year.
And while the city has allocated $5 million toward priming the Six Flags site to attract developers, little movement has taken place to redevelop the former Plaza.
At its peak, the popular Plaza made up 25% of all the city’s sales tax revenue, Schwartz said. That statistic alone “should have been the impetus needed for us to get that site back up and running,” said Council Vice President Matt Willard.
“We definitely have to give the New Orleans East the attention that it truly deserves.” Hughes also pointed to the old Kenilworth Mall site near Morrison and Interstate 10 that closed after Hurricane Katrina, the massive shell of the former Schwegmann Grocery on Bullard Avenue that closed in 1999 and the swaths of vacant land in the Lower Ninth Ward as areas for improvement. And any further delays on the highly anticipated Lincoln Beach reopening is “grossly unacceptable,” he said. Hughes urged the Economic Development office to commit to twice monthly meetings with him and his team and to include residents in the discussion. He also urged Schwartz’s team to develop plans to boost the area’s network of small businesses and to hold absentee property owners accountable.
“My fear is that it’ll be 2030 and we’ll still be having these conversations,” he said. — Joni Hess / The Times-Picayune
Helena Moreno announces picks to lead New Orleans RTA, pledges to take agency in new direction
MAYOR HELENA MORENO UNVEILED HER PICKS FEB. 25 FOR THE REGIONAL TRANSIT AUTHORITY’S BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS in a shake-up aimed at revitalizing the agency’s partnerships with neighboring parishes following years of turmoil.
The mayor appoints five of the seven RTA board members. Her new choices are Adler’s Jewelry owner Coleman Adler, former state Sen. Ann Duplessis, Dryades YMCA CEO Erika Mann and community organizer Barbara Major, a former RTA board chair. A fifth pick is forthcoming. Each will require City Council confirmation. Moreno’s administration notified former Mayor LaToya Cantrell’s appointees on Tuesday that their last
A grassy, overgrown field where Lake Forest Plaza shopping mall once stood
PHOTO BY CHRIS GRANGER / THE TIMES- PICAYUNE
day of service would be Wednesday. Leaving the board are Flozell Daniels Jr., Fred Neal Jr., Timolynn Sams, Mariah Moore and Arthur Walton.
“In line with the Mayor’s vision, the new board will build greater regional cooperation and a renewed emphasis on equity and accessibility in public transportation,” Moreno’s communications director, Isis Casanova, said in a statement Wednesday.
Mitchell Guidry, Jr., who was appointed by Moreno when she was on the City Council, and Louis Colin, who was appointed by New Orleans state Rep. Delisha Boyd, were unaffected by the move and are remaining on the board.
Among the biggest questions facing the board once it takes over will be whether to keep the agency’s CEO, Lona Edwards Hankins, who was hired in 2023. Moreno said she wanted to see “major changes” at the RTA in an interview shortly before taking office in January, though she’s said little since.
Moreno’s circle of advisors, however, is filled with critics of the RTA’s existing leadership. Major, a 14-year veteran of the RTA board, made it clear as recently as 2024 that she didn’t trust Hankins.
Hankins, in a statement Wednesday, said she remains committed to the RTA and looks forward to working with the new board members “as we continue building the transit system that New Orleans deserves.”
The mayor’s announcement comes just days after the RTA reversed course on a controversial plan to end paratransit service for portions of Jefferson Parish and New Orleans. The proposal, which has since been shelved, prompted an outcry among transit advocates and Jefferson Parish officials.
Hankins, at a board meeting Tuesday, said the agency’s communication about the proposed cuts was “less than stellar” and showed that the RTA had room to improve.
The RTA’s fleet of buses, streetcars, ferries and paratransit shuttles primarily service Orleans Parish, though the state agency also operates a handful of bus lines into St. Bernard and Jefferson parishes and a ferry connecting Lower Algiers and Chalmette.
The mayor selects five of the RTA’s board members, while the City Council and a rotating cast of state legislators select the two others.
OPENING GAMBIT
But the board’s current makeup is a far cry from how it looked when Hankins took over, when three members hailed from Jefferson Parish, as the agency aimed to live up to the “regional” in its name.
Those ties were severed in 2024, after the Jefferson members resigned en masse and Parish President Cynthia Lee Sheng formally withdrew the parish from the agency amid questions about whether RTA leadership had been truthful with the board about a construction contract that ballooned in value. The FBI later launched an investigation into the matter; it’s unclear as of now where that stands. Moreno, in the interview before taking office, said the agency was “under multiple investigations.”
Jefferson Parish, which operates a much smaller transit agency and took over the RTA’s bus routes in Kenner after the breakup, won’t be rejoining the RTA board anytime soon. — Blake Paterson / The Times-Picayune
In an interview last month, Lee Sheng said she wants to partner with the RTA to improve regional connectivity. But she reiterated Wednesday that the best way to do that is through cooperative endeavor agreements, not by participating on the board.
Hankins, for her part, has highlighted successes under her watch in securing federal grants, developing a fleet management and capital improvement plan, and overseeing updates in the agency’s financial management software and procurement processes.
Hankins announced that the federal government had awarded the agency $27.2 million in competitive grants to purchase new buses and rehabilitate its operations and maintenance facilities.
In a post on LinkedIn Neal, the outgoing board chair, praised Hankins’s leadership and noted that the agency is in a much better financial footing than it was when he joined the agency eight years ago.
“Yes, there is still more work to do, especially around reliability of service, but the progress is undeniable,” Neal said.
The recent snafu around paratransit boundaries, however, put the spotlight on the lack of progress the RTA has made in improving its service for disabled riders, which has faced repeated criticism for missed pickups and excessively long trips. Those issues prompted federal regulators in September to conclude the RTA was violating disability-rights laws.
— Blake Paterson / The Times-Picayune
shop @ gaetanasnola
chunky monkey
@GambitBlake | askblake@gambitweekly.com
Hey Blake,
While on Napoleon Avenue for Mardi Gras parades, we walked past a building with the words “Sophie L. Gumbel Guild” on the façade. What can you tell me about it and the building?
Dear reader,
THE BUILDING AT NAPOLEON AVENUE AND COLISEUM STREET WHICH BEARS
SOPHIE L. GUMBEL’S NAME was for many years the home of Napoleon Avenue Presbyterian Church. In 1920, Congregation Gates of Prayer purchased the building and offered religious services and educational programs there for more than 50 years before moving to Metairie.
The names Simon and Sophie Lengsfield Gumbel have long been associated with philanthropic causes in the city. After amassing a fortune in business and real estate, millionaire Simon Gumbel died in 1909. When his wife died in 1916, her will called for $50,000 to be left to charity (worth some $1.5 million today). Out of that, came the Sophie L. Gumbel Home at 5700 Loyola Ave., which cared for young women with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
The Gumbel Home was the headquarters for the Sophie L. Gumbel Guild when it was created in 1963.
“They make a gift of the world to little children,” by raising funds and organizing programs to help students at the school, according to a 1968 Times-Picayune article.
In 1975, the guild purchased the building on Napoleon Avenue to house its project called Strive, which stood for “Sewing Training, Retarded Instruction, Vocational Enterprises,” according to a Times-Picayune article.
The Strive Center changed its name to Strive Inc. in 1996. Its services are offered in the Gumbel building and its Miller Recreation Center next door. According to its website, it serves 100 adult clients with job-related training, facility-based work and supported employment.
WITH THE NEWS THAT SAKS FIFTH AVENUE PLANS TO CLOSE ITS CANAL PLACE STORE, we look back on the history of the Canal Place development.
The property was the brainchild of developer Joseph C Canizaro. In 1974, Mayor Moon Landrieu’s administration agreed to swap land with Canizaro, giving him 23 acres in exchange for land he owned on Poydras Street, which would become the site of the Piazza d’Italia.
Canizaro said his Canal Place complex would “cost $400 million and will contain a hotel, office buildings, residential apartment and commercial facilities as well as extensive landscaping and green spaces,” according to an April 1974 States-Item article.
Seeing the mammoth project from concept to reality would prove daunting. A 1978 Times-Picayune article called it “a developer’s dream, a preservationist’s nightmare and an economist’s puzzle. It’s a project of such magnitude that indifference is practically unheard of. And the economic future of New Orleans hangs in the balance.”
Canizaro secured financing, including from the Shah of Iran, and Phase 1 of the complex, including a 32-story office tower, opened in 1979. The shopping mall opened in 1980, with Brooks Brothers as its first tenant. Saks Fifth Avenue opened in 1983.
The adjoining Hotel Iberville, now the Westin New Orleans, opened in time for the 1984 World’s Fair. At about the same time, Canizaro sold his interests in the properties.
They changed hands several times before local real estate developers Roger Ogden and Darryl Berger purchased the shopping mall in 2000. Called The Shops at Canal Place, the property was sold to a New York firm, O’Connor Capital Partners, in 2016. According to The Times-Picayune, Saks Fifth Avenue currently occupies nearly 30% of the retail portion of Canal Place, which is currently 90% leased. Saks representatives said the store is expected to remain open through the end of April.
BLAKE VIEW
A 1975 photo of The Strive Center, which is today Strive Inc. THE TIMES- PICAYUNE ARCHIVE PHOTO
WEL CO ME TO TH E
Lasting
Sounds
Free concert highlights works of underrecognized Creole composers
BY JAKE CLAPP
ANUMBER OF YEARS AGO, New Orleans cultural historian Alvin Jackson came across Chevalier de SaintGeorges, a violinist and composer of African descent born in 1745 in Guadeloupe and educated in Paris. Chevalier’s story not only piqued Jackson’s interest but sent the founder of Treme’s Petit Jazz Museum on a research journey into AfroCreole classical musicians and composers.
Jackson’s research led him to New Orleans-born composers like Edmond Dédé, Thomas J. Martin and Basile Barès. They were 19th century figures who Jackson, despite growing up in the city, wasn’t too familiar with — not even Victor-Eugene Macarty, whose great-granddaughter had taught Jackson in college, the historian says.
New Orleans has an important history in classical music in North America. In 1796, it was the first city in what is now the United States on record to stage opera, and the French Opera House, at Bourbon and Toulouse streets, helped make New Orleans a capital for classical music in 19th century America. The city also gave birth to a number of composers and classical musicians.
But many of those musicians, particularly Creole composers and people of African descent, have been overlooked by history. In their days, musicians of color like Dédé — who wrote the earliest known full opera by a Black American — and Charles Lucien Lambert often had to leave the city or country for better opportunities. And their works have been lost to time.
“These are men who took nothing and made something,” Jackson says. “Then the world put it on the back burner.”
Efforts in recent years, like OperaCreole’s resurrection of Dédé’s opera, “Morgiane,” have slowly cast more light on this New Orleans history. And now, Jackson has curated a concert with the Historic New Orleans Collection and the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra focused on these 19th-century Creole composers and innovators.
The concert, “Echoes of Innovation,” is the18th edition of the HNOC and LPO’s annual Musical Louisiana: America’s Cultural Heritage series, which celebrates the state’s contributions to classical music. It takes place Wednesday, March 4, and is free to attend. There is a pre-concert talk at 6 p.m. at the HNOC’s Williams Research Canter, and the concert begins at 7:30 p.m. at St. Louis Cathedral.
PHOTO FROM WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
A photo of Edmond Dédé from later in the composer’s life PHOTO FROM WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
Cabinet card of Basile Jean Barès PHOTO FROM WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
A copy of Edmond Dede’s opera ‘Morgiane’ PHOTO BY CHRIS GRANGER / THE TIMES - PICAYUNE
PHOTO
Conducted by Daniela Candillari, the principal conductor at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, the LPO and guest musicians and vocalists will perform works by Louis Moreau Gottschalk, Dédé, Barès, Macarty, Lambert, Martin, Sister MarieSeraphine Gotay, Camille Nickerson and more.
They’ll be joined by pianist Oscar Rossignoli, OperaCreole vocalists, guitarist and arranger Geovane Santos, clarinetist Doreen Ketchens and members of the Black Men of Labor Social Aid & Pleasure Club, of which Jackson is a founding member.
“New Orleans, as innovative as she was … in spite of that, there was still an element that says we really don’t want the rest of the world to know about this music and the creators of this music,” Jackson says. “This is an opportunity to correct an injustice [for] people from New Orleans of African ancestry who did great things with and for music.”
ELEMENTS OF “ECHOES OF INNOVATION” work to put 19th-century New Orleans context around the music. Many of the composers have lineage from Saint-Domingue (now Haiti), and the HNOC’s printed program notes the impact the influx of people — white colonists, free people of color and enslaved people — had on the city.
The concert is broken into six segments, touching on different times and aspects of a changing city, with narration by journalist Norman Robinson helping audiences keep track. Each segment will highlight an
Treme historian and curator Al Jackson’s painting of Louis Moreau Gottschalk, right, and Charles Lucien-Lambert, lower center, at his booth at
“innovator” from the city who left an impact on science, journalism, civil rights and other fields.
“Music, art, history, innovation is inseparable from its context,” says HNOC programming coordinator Dhani Adomaitis. “The timeline, these aren’t just about names and dates. These are people with connections to history, to places and neighborhoods, certainly to the Treme.”
The segment “Sugar and Sound” pairs Gottschalk, a composer born to a Jewish father and a mother with roots in Saint-Domingue, with Norbert Rillieux, a free man of color who patented the multiple-effect evaporator, transforming global sugar production.
“Gottschalk and Rillieux used their respective crafts in the 1840s — music and science — to elevate Creole contributions to the world, but their work left records that allow scholars to trace histories entangled with slavery in New Orleans,” the HNOC notes.
“Faith and Craft” includes pieces by Thomas J. Martin and Edmond Dédé, paired with innovator Henriette Delille, a Creole nun who founded the Sisters of the Holy Family. A free man of color, Dédé left New Orleans in the 1840s and ultimately settled in France. During “Echoes of
Innovation,” OperaCreole will perform his work “Mon pauvre coeur.”
Dr. Louis Charles Roudanez — the founder of The New Orleans Tribune, the first Black-owned daily newspaper in the U.S. — is highlighted in the segment “Turning Points” alongside works by Victor-Eugene Macarty and Basile Barès. Bares was born into bondage, wrote his first compositions while enslaved and continued to publish music after his emancipation following the Civil War.
The section “International Expansion” highlights the exodus of many Creole artists in search of work and social freedoms. The act focuses on writer Victor Sejour, a New Orleans Creole who settled in France, and is paired with music by Charles Lucien Lambert, who emigrated to France and later Brazil. There also is an arrangement by Brazilian-born, New Orleans-based musician Geovane Santos of the song “Cantos das tres racas,” popularized by Brazilian vocalist Clara Nunes.
“Women’s Autonomy” focuses on the work of Black women in late-19th century New Orleans. Innovator Sylvanie Williams, an advocate for Black women’s rights and education, is linked to a performance of a rare work by Sister Marie-Seraphine Gotay, who was born in San Juan,
moved to New Orleans as an adult and ultimately joined the Sisters of the Holy Family. And there is an arrangement of “Five Creole Songs” by Camille Nickerson, a New Orleans native who trained at Oberlin College and became the first music director at Howard University.
The program’s final section brings the threads into the modern day.
Clarinetist Doreen Ketchens will join the LPO for the song “Over in the Gloryland,” and the Black Men of Labor will lead a recessional.
“If you look at the list of performers for this concert … they’re scholars as well performers. These are people so deeply ensconced in the music and history,” Adomaitis says.
Adomaitis adds the pre-concert talk between Jackson and HNOC historian Jari C. Honora will help attendees further “connect the dots” in the history.
“To me, this series represents sort of the best of different cultural organizations in the city bringing their resources to the table and collaborating in a really meaningful way,” Adomaitis says. “We think of this series as sort of town hall concerts. It’s important to [HNOC CEO] Daniel Hammer that these are held in St. Louis Cathedral, so it has that public square feel to it.”
Alvin Jackson PROVIDED PHOTO
Jazz Fest.
PHOTO BY KATHLEEN FLYNN / THE TIMES - PICAYUNE
Henriette Delille ARCHIVE PHOTO
Lasting Sounds
LAST YEAR, the Musical Louisiana program became the world premiere of Dédé’s opera, “Morgiane, ou, Le Sultan d’Ispahan.” Dédé by 1887 was an established composer and conductor living in Bordeaux, France, with 100 works already to his name, and this opera was an important project for him. Ultimately, though, it was never staged during his life.
After the opera’s rediscovery, OperaCreole co-founder Givonna Joseph set out to bring “Morgiane” to the stage, and OperaCreole partnered with the LPO, the Washington, D.C.-based Opera Lafayette and the HNOC to perform the earliest known full-length opera by a Black American more than 130 years after it was completed.
After its premiere in January 2025 at St. Louis Cathedral, OperaCreole and Opera Lafayette performed the opera in Washington, D.C., and New York City, and late last month, they released a recording of “Morgiane.” With coverage by the New York Times and NBC News, the performances of “Morgiane” helped bring some light to New Orleans’ history of people of color working in classical and opera.
But while a lot of that history has been underrecognized and suppressed during the Jim Crow era, it didn’t stop. Xavier University created its opera program in 1934, and the next year became the first HBCU to stage a full-scale opera production. There also were music educators, like Osceola Blanchet, who taught opera to young Black New Orleanians, including the father of composer and trumpeter Terence Blanchard.
“Even though we got kicked out of the opera houses and the classical arenas, we kept this music going as part of our culture, from Economy Hall, Mason lodges, into the Pythian,” says Joseph, who co-founded OperaCreole in 2011 with her daughter, Aria Mason.
The organization is dedicated to presenting opera and classical works by people of color, and in the past have performed pieces by Charles Lucien Lambert and his French-born son Lucien Lambert, Samuel Snaer and Basile Barès.
“We’re at a place in our country where people are trying to erase the history that we’re all making the effort to share,” Joseph says.
“It’s a real concern, and we hope more people will support these efforts to keep this history alive. Our history in New Orleans, in terms of music and free people of color and their contributions, I wish more young people could know who they are in the wealth of what this city represents.”
Blanchard himself made history when his second opera, “Fire Shut Up in My Bones,” opened the 2021 season of the Metropolitan Opera in New York. It was the first time the company had staged an opera by a Black composer.
The New Orleans-born trumpeter has been touring a suite from “Fire Shut Up in My Bones,” and in February, he brought the concert to his hometown in partnership with the New Orleans Opera Association, a company with its own 83-year history.
In an interview with Gambit, Blanchard noted the diverse audiences that attended those Met shows, and the impact it has had on younger musicians and composers.
But he also said his accomplishment at the Met should come with an asterisk: first, but “not first qualified.” The Met over its history had rejected many submissions by Black composers, including William Grant Still three times.
Similarly, there have long been New Orleanians of color working classical music, and he reflected on the list of people who had left an operatic influence: his father and uncle, both vocalists, as well as Osceola Blanchet and the people in his church.
“New Orleans is obviously known for its jazz heritage, but its classical heritage has been just as important as any other type of music that’s come out of this country,” Blanchard said.
A LOT MORE ATTENTION, research and funding is needed to appropriately bring the stories of these Creole composers to light, Alvin Jackson says.
“We have to keep working,” Jackson says. “The world is ready for something not necessarily new, but something different.”
Occasionally, when people stop in at his Treme’s Petit Jazz Museum, he’ll try an experiment. He’ll turn on some music.
“I’ll play two or three minutes of music, and I’ll ask my guests to identify whom they think the composer might have been. ‘Oh, that’s Bach? Beethoven? Rachmaninoff?’ ”
They’re wrong, but it gives him an opportunity to tell them about Edmond Dédé, Jackson says.
“For people, when they’re back home, hopefully they’ll spread the word,” he says.
In New Orleans, though, there are lessons Jackson hopes attendees will take away from “Echoes of Innovation” and the stories of Macarty, Nickerson and Barès.
“I hope they will understand and accept the reality of inclusion and strive for more of that,” Jackson says.
“I’m 83 years old, so this is really not about me. It’s about the next generation coming up behind us who should not grow up ignorant of musical culture that affects the ancestry … We know nothing about these guys, and we should.”
Find more info about the Musical Louisiana program at hnoc.org.
Givonna Joseph, founder and artistic director of OperaCreole, turns the page on a copy of the 19th Century opera ‘Morgiane’ written by Edmond Dede.
PHOTO BY CHRIS GRANGER / THE TIMES - PICAYUNE
The 2025 Musical Louisiana concert at St. Louis Cathedral PHOTO BY AMBER SHIELDS JOHNSON / PROVIDED BY HNOC
EAT + DRINK
Creole tradition
Bunny Young’s Creole cooking at Vaucresson’s by Beth D’Addono |
AT VAUCRESSON’S CREOLE CAFÉ & DELI, CHEF BUNNY YOUNG has the strongest of opinions about gumbo.
“If you’re from New Orleans, you make filé gumbo at home with a seafood stock,” Young says. “None of this chicken and andouille gumbo. I never heard of that growing up. I use chicken stock for chicken soup.”
And don’t get her started on exactly how dark an etouffee roux needs to be.
“I don’t hate on anybody,” says the 51-year-old New Orleans native, who grew up in the Marigny and 7th Ward before her family moved to New Orleans East. “But I don’t think we have too many go-to places for authentic gumbo. I’m not talking about French Quarter gumbo.”
For the past two years, Young’s vision for traditional Creole cuisine has taken root with owners Julie and Vance Vaucresson at their restaurant at 1800 St. Bernard Ave.
The Vaucresson family has been in the food business in that neighborhood for generations, starting with a butcher stall more than a century ago and later including a French Quarter restaurant. The family name is now associated with sausage, including hot sausage, alligator sausage, crawfish sausage and more recently the jerk chicken sausage po-boys they’ve sold at Jazz Fest, where they’ve been a food vendor since the first festival.
Young has known the Vaucresson family for years. Two years ago, she approached them about sponsoring her weekly WBOK-AM radio show, called “The Roux with Chef Bunny,” which airs every Thursday at 12:30 p.m.
“I said, ‘I have a proposition for you,’ and they said, ‘We have a proposition for you,” Young says.
The St. Bernard Avenue building where the Vaucresson family made sausage was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina flooding. They made sausage in Jefferson Parish until they were able to rebuild the restaurant and sausage-making space in 2022. After they parted ways with a prior chef, they proposed
that Young, with her Crawbabies catering brand, take over. She did.
The cafe is open for lunch and busy with families and neighbors dining in, while take-out orders fly out of the kitchen. Besides her gumbo, Young’s menu includes weekly specials like crawfish meatloaf, stuffed bell peppers and baked chicken with cornbread dressing.
Diners can almost always get her smothered okra, crab, crawfish and corn bisque, paneed pork chops and spaghetti and meatballs. The portions are sized for the hungriest New Orleanian.
Vaucresson sausages star in po-boys, and local fried shrimp and catfish also are available.
Young’s father nicknamed her Bunny when she was little, and it stuck. Her given name, Jamilah, means beautiful in Arabic.
Until three years ago, Young was a corporate accountant working for a range of businesses, including large hotels in the CBD. But cooking was her passion, something she learned
from her grandmother Viola Young.
“I was her understudy in the kitchen,” Bunny Young says. “My jobs included cleaning the mustard greens my uncle loved so much, deveining shrimp, washing chicken. I wasn’t happy about it. I didn’t know why she was making me do those things. Turns out, she gave me life skills. She taught me the right way to cook for a New Orleans girl.
“After 25 years, I realized I really hated my job,” she adds. “People who ate my food always said I should feed people for a living. So, I stepped out and started Crawbabies Catering as an LLC.”
Young knew she was taking a financial risk, but the chance to be creative and do what she loved was worth it to her. “It was time for me to make a change,” she says.
Initially, Young sold trays of spaghetti and meatballs out of her kitchen. But business quickly outgrew that setting. She was thinking about opening a stall at St. Roch Market and was on her way there when she stopped at Vaucresson’s. And that was that.
“My gold standard is the food you’re served at somebody’s house,” Young says. “That’s the experience I want to give my guests: They are at my grandmother’s table. My gauge for success is bringing native New Orleanians into the restaurant. If tourists come, they are very welcome.”
Tujague’s turns 170
THERE’S AN OFF-THE-MENU DISH AT NEW ORLEANS’ SECOND - OLDEST RESTAURANT, a tip spread by word of garlicky mouth over generations.
But after digging in, there’s no concealing that you had the chicken bonne femme at Tujague’s Restaurant — made with 40 cloves of raw garlic.
It’s a whole fried chicken served with potatoes and finished with the key piece, a heaping portion of persillade, which is a roughly chopped hash of parsley and all that garlic.
It’s a memorable dish, one of many that Tujaque’s is offering to mark 170 years since it opened in 1856. Only Antoine’s has a longer history. A slate of specials will be offered throughout 2026 to introduce diners to Tujaque’s culinary history — and perhaps reintroduce the restaurant itself, a classic that has changed a great deal yet still endures.
The restaurant will feature a monthly special dish from the archives. That starts with chicken bonne femme for March, and it’s a bit of a coming-out party.
Although it has been part of the Tujague’s repertoire for as long as anyone can remember, you had to know about it.
“It was always something the regulars knew about. You had to ask for it, and if we had chicken, we would make it,” said Sergio Cabrera, who has worked at Tujague’s for close to 40 years, starting as busser, now as a manager.
“We would bring it out as lagniappe, sometimes as a surprise if there
Chef Bunny Young PROVIDED PHOTO BY JAMES CULLEN
Chicken bonne femme is a long-time specialty at Tujague’s Restaurant.
PHOTO BY IAN MCNULTY / THE TIMES- PICAYUNE
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was a celebrity dining with us,” he says. “But it was never advertised. People just had to know.”
That was a quirk of what had long been Tujague’s defining dining format, its table d’hote service, which is also getting a glow-up for the anniversary.
Tujague’s has been on a journey along Decatur Street, to put it mildly, landing at its current location in 2020.
It was originally located at 811 Decatur St., before moving (for the first time) in 1914 to 823 Decatur St. Both locations were across from the French Market, and Tujague’s served essentially as a dining room for the market’s butchers and merchants. Their days started early, and their meals came early too, in a tradition dubbed “the butcher’s breakfast.”
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Through virtually it’s entire history, Tujague’s served only a table d’hôte meal, a fixedprice progression of dishes.
Generations of New Orleans people knew this started with an intensely-sharp shrimp remoulade, a soup (or gumbo), boiled beef brisket, an entree (initially one plate of the day, later a choice of dishes) and bread pudding, usually with black coffee served in short glasses at the end.
There was a pivotal change following the 2013 death of longtime owner Steven Latter. His son, Mark Latter, suddenly found himself in charge of the restaurant and its legacy. Determined to keep it financially viable in the modern era, he introduced a new a la carte menu, running alongside the table d’hôte tradition.
Tujague’s has served both ever since, even through the latest move. The beef brisket, however, has been missing. It was chased off the menu by higher prices for the once-lowly cut, along with higher labor costs. In the old days, the restaurant had one person in the kitchen devoted to preparing the brisket alone.
For the anniversary year, though, Tujague’s is restoring the brisket to the table d’hôte menu.
The hunk of meat arrives on the table with all the bluntness you’d imagine from a butcher’s breakfast of a century ago. It’s no flair, all flavor, with a hamper of Creole seasoning cooked into the fibers of the fork-tender beef, with a snappy tomato-horseradish sauce on the side.
At least, that is the memory of it.
Following the elder Latter’s death, his family sold the property at 823 Decatur St. to local real estate mogul Mike Motwani, thus uncoupling ownership of the historic restaurant from its historic home. When a new lease came due, the younger Latter said moving the restaurant was the only way it could survive as a business. The old location has sat empty in the years since. Up the street, Tujague’s is now very much at home in another, much larger historic building. What once felt like a time capsule of the past is now a Creole restaurant adapting to the times. The kitchen also is better equipped, which bodes well for the future of chicken bonne femme.
The name chicken bonne femme, or “chicken good wife,” references its rustic style, evoking a country matriarch working wonders with a few basic ingredients.
The persillade topping is similar to a more contemporary fried chicken made famous by the late chef Austin Leslie, and still served at Jacques-Imo’s Café and its sister restaurant Crabby Jack’s. Tujague’s takes it several steps further. In “Tujague’s Cookbook,” by Poppy Tooker, the recipe calls for 40 cloves of garlic per chicken. When served, it is practically breaded with the punchy, potent mixture. The garlic’s pungency, with the contrasting bright, clean flavor of parsley, attaches itself to the chicken’s juices as you bite through the crisp skin. The potatoes become chips to scoop up more.
Chicken bonne femme turns up at other Creole restaurants, including Galatoire’s. Here, as with most other renditions, it is baked chicken with potatoes and far less garlic.
Tujague’s version has always been fried. In the old location, which had a tiny, archaic kitchen with no deep fryer, that meant a slow, laborious pan frying. That’s one reason its availability was always limited.
Today, Tujague’s uses deep fryers, and these should get a workout in March during the dish’s special run. Latter says it’s possible the dish could eventually find a spot on the regular menu after all, if demand is there. March will tell if garlic lovers will flock to it. — Ian McNulty / The Times-Picayune
Next best thing
NEW ORLEANS HAS LONG BEEN WORLD-FAMOUS FOR GREAT DINING, but it’s also a growing destination for culinary talent to convene. Now, an international event headed to the city this spring will bring a new spotlight.
50 Best, a brand that ranks restaurants and bars around the world, debuted its North America’s 50 Best Restaurants last year in Las Vegas. The group has announced that New Orleans will be the host city for its 2026 event, scheduled for May 28.
The venue is still being finalized, a 50 Best representative says.
The news means prominent chefs and restaurateurs will be in New Orleans for the awards and its associated programs and events, and the city will be the backdrop for industry watchers and dining aficionados keeping up with the ratings.
This ranking covers restaurants in the U.S., Canada and parts of the Caribbean (restaurants in Mexico, Cuba and the Dominican Republic are covered in Latin America’s 50 Best Restaurants).
Undergrowth closes
WHEN ALYSSA JOHNSON AND ZACK RESCOE OPENED UNDERGROWTH COFFEE on Magazine Street, Johnson said they hoped to leave “the planet, our customers and our co-workers better than we found them.”
Five years later, the queerowned coffee shop between Ms. Mae’s and Casamento’s Restaurant closed Feb. 20, citing rising costs and a slowing hospitality market. The owners announced the decision to shutter Feb. 19. The reason for closing on short notice, Johnson says, was to uphold a commitment to pay workers severance.
50 Best, a brand from U.K.-based media and events company William Reed Ltd., partnered with New Orleans & Co., the city’s tourism sales and marketing agency, to bring the event here. 50 Best praised the city’s food culture as a fitting destination to gather the “North American restaurant community” and to celebrate “the city’s enduring legacy and the chefs and restaurants pushing the region’s culinary culture forward.”
Walt Leger III, president and CEO of New Orleans & Co., said in a statement that hosting the new event is “part of a larger effort to amplify our culinary scene” and “raise the profile of New Orleans as a global travel destination and a culinary center of excellence.”
Like the group’s other rankings, the list of North America’s 50 Best Restaurants is determined through an assessment by an anonymous panel that includes, according to the group, “chefs, restaurateurs, food and beverage journalists, educators, and well-traveled gourmets.”
50 Best says “any style of restaurant in the region is eligible for votes and restaurants do not have to fit any criteria or tick any pre-ordained boxes to be considered. Voters are simply asked to name their eight best restaurant experiences of any kind across the voting period.”
Top-ranked restaurants do tend to be upscale and often are tasting menu restaurants.
Last year, two New Orleans restaurants made the debut ranking for North America’s 50 Best Restaurants.
Emeril’s Restaurant, which later earned two stars from the separate Michelin Guide, was ranked No. 30.
Dakar NOLA, which would pick up a Michelin-recommended distinction last year, ranked No. 6.
The No. 1 spot last year went to Atomix, a Korean tasting menu restaurant in New York.
50 Best also has parallel global and regional lists for bars, and New Orleans has shown well in this category. Last year, North America’s 50 Best Bars included French Quarter bar Jewel of the South at No. 4 and the Uptown lounge Cure at No. 50.
The city has been racking up more important accolades on an international level. Last year, Time Out named New Orleans the top food destination in the world, and the Michelin Guide began its ratings of restaurants here.
Tales of the Cocktail brings its conference and international awards for the spirits and bar business to New Orleans each summer.
This summer, the city will again host two related global competitions, Bocuse d’Or and Coupe du Monde de la Patisserie (aka the Pastry World Cup). Equated to the World Cup of cuisine, teams representing countries from North America and South America will compete in New Orleans to earn a spot at the finals for each event, held in Lyon, France.
This continental qualifier round will be held July 25-26, at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center, in conjunction with the Louisiana Restaurant Association’s annual trade show.
— Ian McNulty / The Times-Picayune
That promise was among the reasons they opened Undergrowth Coffee in 2021. Before becoming a business owner, Johnson worked at another local cafe that she said operated with “unethical practices.” Rescoe was a regular there, and the relationship between the two evolved as they began discussing a shared vision to open their own coffee shop, shaped by their values.
When Johnson was laid off during the COVID-19 pandemic, they took it as a sign to make a move. Undergrowth Coffee joined the growing mix of local cafes as coffee drinkers increasingly opted to support independent businesses over corporate chains. It also became part of the city’s small but developing vegan and vegetarian food scene, offering meatless breakfast burritos and plant-based milks and syrups made in house.
Beyond its menu, the decor inside and outside reflected the owners’ emphasis on sustainability: String lights lined the spacious outdoor seating area, tropical plants sprouted from terracotta pots near the bar and clover-green walls framed checkered floors dotted with tiny daisy-like designs.
The Uptown shop gained recognition for its food and atmosphere, winning “Best Burrito” in New Orleans Vegan Chef Challenge one year and “Best Coffee Shop” another year.
“It was a home for a lot of people,” Johnson says. “It was special.”
Now Johnson and her wife are moving back to their hometown of Rochester, New York, where they plan to host “holistic and health-based” pop-ups at farmers’ markets, with breakfast burritos and plant-based milks on the menu. — Poet Wolfe / The Times-Picayune
Feb.27- March1
—Brunch — BBQShrimp andgrits
Hangover Bagel withsteak,bacon, eggand cheese
GrouperReuben withFries
Buffalo Shrimp Poboy withFries
Tuna saladApp with Crustinis
Jewel of the South was recognized by 50 Best’s list of North America’s 50 Best Bars.
PHOTO BY IAN MCNULTY / THE TIMES- PICAYUNE
Out to Eat is an index of Gambit contract advertisers. Unless noted, addresses are for New Orleans and all accept credit cards. Updates: Email willc@gambitweekly.com or call (504) 483-3106.
Angelo Brocato’s — 214 N. Carrollton Ave., (504) 486-1465; angelobrocatoicecream.
com — This Mid-City sweet shop serves its own gelato in flavors like praline, salted caramel and tiramisu, as well as Italian ices in flavors like lemon, strawberry and mango. There also are cannolis, biscotti, fig cookies, tiramisu, macaroons and coffee drinks. No reservations. Lunch and dinner Tue.-Sun. $ Annunciation — 1016 Annunciation St., (504) 568-0245; annunciationrestaurant.
com — Gulf Drum Yvonne is served with brown butter sauce with mushrooms and artichoke hearts. There also are oysters, seafood pasta dishes, steaks, lamb chops and more. Reservations recommended. Dinner Thu.-Mon. $$$
Bamboula’s — 514 Frenchmen St.; bamboulasmusic.com — The live music venue’s kitchen offers a menu of traditional and creative Creole dishes, such as Creole crawfish crepes with goat cheese and chardonnay sauce. Reservations accepted. Lunch, dinner and late-night daily. $$
The Blue Crab Restaurant and Oyster Bar — 118 Harbor View Court, Slidell, (985) 315-7001; 7900 Lakeshore Drive, (504) 284-2898; thebluecrabnola.com — Basin barbecue shrimp are served with rosemary garlic butter sauce over cheese grits with a cheese biscuit. The menu includes po-poys, fried seafood platters, raw and char-grilled oysters, boiled seafood in season, and more. Outdoor seating available. No reservations. Lakeview: Lunch and dinner Tue.-Sun. Slidell: Lunch Wed.-Fri., dinner Wed.-Sun., brunch Sat.-Sun. $$
Broussard’s — 819 Conti St., (504) 5813866; broussards.com — The menu of contemporary Creole dishes includes bronzed redfish with jumbo lump crabmeat, lemon beurre blanc and vegetables. Brunch includes Benedicts, avocado toast, chicken and waffles, turtle soup and more. Reservations recommended. Outdoor seating available in the courtyard. Dinner Wed.-Sat., brunch Sun. $$$ Cafe Normandie — Higgins Hotel, 480 Andrew Higgins Blvd., (504) 528-1941; higginshotelnola.com/dining — The menu combines classic French dishes and Louisiana items like crab beignets with herb aioli. Sandwiches include po-boys, a muffuletta on flatbread and a burger. No reservations. Breakfast and lunch Mon.-Sat., dinner Fri.-Mon. $$ The Commissary — 634 Orange St., (504) 274-1850; thecommissarynola.com — Dickie Brennan’s Commissary supplies his other restaurant kitchens and also has a dine-in menu and prepared foods to go. A smoked turkey sandwich is served with bacon, tomato jam, herbed cream cheese, arugula and herb vinaigrette on honey oat bread. The menu includes dips, salads, sandwiches, boudin balls, fried oysters and more. No reservations. Outdoor seating available. Lunch Tue.-Sat. $$ Curio — 301 Royal St., (504) 717-4198; curionola.com — The creative Creole menu includes blackened Gulf shrimp served with chicken and andouille jambalaya. There also are crab cakes, shrimp and grits, crawfish etouffee, po-boys and more. Outdoor
$ — average dinner entrée under $10
$$ $11-$20
$$$ — $20-up
seating available on balcony. Reservations accepted. Lunch and dinner daily. $$ Dahla — 611 O’Keefe Ave., (504) 766-6602; dahlarestaurant.com — The menu includes popular Thai dishes like pad thai, drunken noodles, curries and fried rice. Crispy skinned duck basil is prepared with vegetables and Thai basil. Delivery available. Reservations accepted. Lunch and dinner Mon.-Sat. $$ Desire Oyster Bar — Royal Sonesta New Orleans, 300 Bourbon St., (504) 586-0300; sonesta.com/desireoysterbar — A menu full of Gulf seafood includes oysters served raw on the half-shell or char-broiled with with Parmesan, garlic and herbs. The menu also includes po-boys, po-boys, gumbo, blackened fish, fried seafood platters and more. Reservations recommended. Breakfast, lunch and dinner daily. $$
Dickie Brennan’s Bourbon House — 144 Bourbon St., (504) 522-0111; bourbonhouse. com — There’s a seafood raw bar with raw and char-broiled oysters, fish dip, crab fingers, shrimp and more. Redfish on the Half-shell is cooked skin-on and served with crab-boiled potatoes, frisee and lemon buerre blanc. The bar offers a wide selection of bourbon and whiskies. Reservations accepted. Lunch and dinner daily. $$$
Dickie Brennan’s Steakhouse — 716 Iberville St., (504) 522-2467; dickiebrennanssteakhouse.com — The menu includes a variety of steaks, plus seared Gulf fish, lobster pasta, barbecue shrimp and more. A 6-ounce filet mignon is served with fried oysters, creamed spinach, potatoes and bearnaise. Reservations recommended. Dinner Mon.-Sat. $$$
El Pavo Real — 4401 S. Broad Ave., (504) 266-2022; elpavorealnola.com — The menu includes tacos, enchiladas, quesadillas, ceviche. tamales and more. Pescado Vera Cruz features sauteed Gulf fish topped with tomatoes, olives, onion and capers, served with rice and string beans. Outdoor seating available. No reservations. Lunch and early dinner Tue.-Sat. $$
Juan’s Flying Burrito — 515 Baronne St., (504) 529-5825; 2018 Magazine St., (504) 569-0000; 4724 S. Carrollton Ave., (504) 486-9950; 8140 Oak St., (504) 897-4800; juansflyingburrito.com — The Flying Burrito includes steak, shrimp, chicken, cheddar jack cheese, black beans, rice, guacamole and salsa. The menu also includes tacos, quesadillas, enchiladas, fajitas, nachos, salads, rice and bean bowls with various toppings and more. Outdoor seating available. No reservations. Lunch and dinner Thu.-Tue. $$ Katie’s Restaurant — 3701 Iberville St., (504) 488-6582; katiesinmidcity.com — The Cajun Cuban with roasted pork, ham, Swiss cheese, pickles and mustard. The eclectic menu also includes char-grilled oysters, sandwiches, burgers, pizza, fried seafood platters, pasta, salads and more. Delivery available. Reservations accepted for large parties. Lunch and dinner daily. $$ Kilroy’s Bar — Higgins Hotel, 480 Andrew Higgins Blvd., (504) 528-1941; higginshotelnola.com/dining — The all-day bar menu includes sandwiches, soups, salads, flatbreads and a couple entrees. A muffuletta flatbread is topped with salami, mortadella,
capicola, mozzarella and olive salad. No reservations. Lunch Fri.-Mon., dinner daily. $$ Legacy Kitchen’s Craft Tavern — 700 Tchoupitoulas St., (504) 613-2350; legacykitchen.com — The menu includes oysters, flatbreads, burgers, sandwiches, salads and sharable plates like NOLA Tot Debris. A slow-cooked pulled pork barbecue sandwich is served with coleslaw on a brioche bun. Reservations accepted. Breakfast, lunch and dinner daily. $$ Legacy Kitchen Steak & Chop — 91 Westbank Expressway, Gretna, (504) 513-2606; legacykitchen.com — The selection of steak and chops includes filet mignon, bone-in rib-eye, top sirloin and double pork chops and a la carte toppings include bernaise, blue cheese and sauteed crabmeat. There also are burgers, salads, pasta, seafood entrees, char-broiled oysters and more. Reservations accepted. Outdoor seating available. Lunch and dinner Mon.-Sat. $$ Mikimoto — 3301 S. Carrollton Ave., (504) 488-1881; mikimotosushi.com — The menu of Japanese cuisine includes sushi, signature rolls, tempura items, udon noodle dishes, teriyaki, salads and more.The South Carrollton roll includes tuna tataki, avocado, snow crab, green onion and wasabi roe. Reservations accepted. Delivery available. Lunch Sun.-Fri., dinner daily. $$
Mosca’s — 4137 Highway 90 West, Westwego, (504) 436-8950; moscasrestaurant.com — This family-style eatery serves Italian dishes and specialties including shrimp Mosca, baked oysters Mosca and spaghetti Bordelaise and chicken cacciatore. Chicken a la grands is sauteed with garlic, rosemary, Italian herbs and white wine. Reservations accepted. Dinner Wed.-Sat. Cash only. $$$ Mother’s Restaurant — 401 Poydras St., (504) 523-9656; mothersrestaurant. net — This counter-service spot serves po-boys dressed with sliced cabbage like the Famous Ferdi filled with ham, roast beef and debris. Creole favorites include jambalaya, crawfish etouffee, red beans and rice and more. Breakfast is available all day. Delivery available. No reservations. Breakfast, lunch and dinner daily. $$ Neyow’s Creole Cafe — 3332 Bienville St., (504) 827-5474; neyows.com — The menu includes red beans and rice with fried chicken or pork chops, as well as shrimp Creole, seafood platters, po-boys, chargrilled and raw oysters, salads and more. Side items include carrot souffle, mac and cheese, cornbread dressing, sweet potato tots and more. No reservations. Lunch daily, dinner Mon.-Sat., brunch Sun. $$ Nice Guys Bar & Grill — 7910 Earhart Blvd., (504) 302-2404; niceguysbarandgrillnola. com — Char-grilled oysters are topped with cheese and garlic butter, and other options include oysters Rockefeller and loaded oysters. The creative menu also includes seafood bread, a Cajun-lobster potato, wings, quesadillas, burgers, salads, sandwiches, seafood pasta, loaded fries and more. No reservations. Lunch daily, dinner Mon.-Sat. $$$ Orleans Grapevine Wine Bar & Bistro 720 Orleans Ave., (504) 523-1930; orleansgrapevine.com — The wine bar offers cheese boards and appetizers
to nosh with wines. The menu includes Creole pasta with shrimp and andouille in tomato cream sauce. Reservations accepted for large parties. Outdoor seating available. Dinner Thu.-Sun. $$ Parish Grill — 4650 W. Esplanade Ave., Suite 100, Metairie, (504) 345-2878; parishgrill.com — The menu includes a variety of burgers, sandwiches, wraps, pizza and salads. For an appetizer, sauteed andouille is served with fig preserves, blue cheese and toast points. Reservations accepted. Lunch and dinner Mon.-Sat. $$ Peacock Room — Kimpton Hotel Fontenot, 501 Tchoupitoulas St., (504) 324-3073; peacockroomnola.com — At brunch, braised short rib grillades are served over grits with mushrooms, a poached egg and shaved truffle. The dinner menu has oysters, salads, pasta, shrimp and grits, a burger, cheese plates and more. Reservations accepted. Dinner Wed.-Mon., brunch Sun. $$ Rosie’s on the Roof — Higgins Hotel, 480 Andrew Higgins Blvd., (504) 5281941; higginshotelnola.com/dining — The rooftop bar has a menu of sandwiches, burgers and small plates. Crab beignets are made with Gulf crabmeat and mascarpone and served with herb aioli. No reservations. Dinner Mon.-Sat. $$ Tableau — 616 St. Peter St., (504) 934-3463; tableaufrenchquarter.com — The menu features traditional and creative Creole dishes. Pasta bouillabaisse features squid ink mafaldine, littleneck clams, Gulf shrimp, squid, seafood broth, rouille and herbed breadcrumbs. Outdoor seating available on the balcony. Reservations recommended. Dinner Wed.-Sun., brunch Thu.-Sun. $$$ Tacklebox — 817 Common St., (504) 827-1651; legacykitchen.com — The menu includes raw and char-broiled oysters, seafood platters, po-boys, fried chicken, crab and corn bisque and more. Redfish St. Charles is served with garlic-herb butter, asparagus, mushrooms and crawfish cornbread. Reservations accepted. Breakfast, lunch and dinner daily. $$
Theo’s Neighborhood Pizza — 1212 S. Clearview Parkway, Elmwood, (504) 733-3803; 2125 Veterans Memorial Blvd., Metairie, (504) 510-4282; 4024 Canal St., (504) 302-1133; 4218 Magazine St., (504) 894-8554; 70488 Highway 21, Covington, (985) 234-9420; theospizza. com — A Marilynn Pota Supreme pie is topped with mozzarella, pepperoni, sausage, hamburger, mushrooms, bell peppers and onions. There also are salads, sandwiches, wings, breadsticks and more. Delivery available. Lunch and dinner daily. $ The Vintage — 3121 Magazine St., (504) 324-7144; thevintagenola.com — There’s a full coffee drinks menu and baked goods and beignets, as well as a full bar. The menu has flatbreads, cheese boards, small plates and a pressed veggie sandwich with avocado, onions, arugula, red pepper and pepper jack cheese. No reservations. Delivery and outdoor seating available. Breakfast, lunch and dinner daily. $$
Hell N Back Fest
The free Hell N Back Fest on Friday, March 6, will feature performances by a surprise New York hardcore headliner, Los Angeles hip-hop group Psycho Realm, New Orleans metal/ punk band Tortuous and the Mardi Gras Indian funk group Cha Wa. Helen Wilson, who has had a long history in the music industry, from store clerk to owning a catering business, created the Hell N Back Fest to celebrate her 60th birthday and to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attack on the Bataclan Club in Paris, which killed 90 people, including Wilson’s close friend Nick Alexander. Special merch will be sold to benefit the Nick Alexander Music Trust. The show starts at 7 p.m. at the Civic Theatre. Find more info at civicnola.com.
Cluck Fest
The afternoon block party will have performances by HaSizzle, the TBC Brass Band, Raj Smoove and more. Food vendors include Here Today Rotisserie, Southern’s, Chi Chi’s and Bonafried, and there’s a kids’ zone. Cluck Fest runs 1 p.m. to 7 p.m. Sunday,
March 8, on Constance Street, between Thalia and Erato streets. Free general admission tickets are available via cluckfestnola.com while supplies last. Tickets then increase to $25.87.
Hannah Kreiger-Benson
Pianist and trumpeter Hannah Kreiger-Benson can be seen around New Orleans performing with a number of people and projects, including accompanying Dusky Waters and The Asylum Chorus, as the music director of the Van Ella Bordella and at the Pat O’Brien’s piano bar. On Saturday, March 7, Kreiger-Benson is celebrating her birthday with a show at the George and Joyce Wein Jazz & Heritage Center featuring her friends, including Gina Leslie, Dusky Waters and members of the Asylum Chorus. The music starts at 8 p.m., and tickets are $10 via jazzandheritage.org.
Jordan Jensen
Jordan Jensen’s full-length comedy special “Take Me With You” debuted on Netflix, and she’s released several shorter sets online since winning the title of New York’s Funniest
Stand-up in 2021. She also played a comic in Bradley Cooper’s film about a divorcee turning to comedy, “Is This Thing On?” At 7 p.m. Sunday, March 8, at The Howlin’ Wolf. Find information at thehowlinwolf.com.
‘Phantom of the Opera’
In the popular musical, a disfigured musical genius works from the shadows of the Paris opera house and becomes attracted to the young singer Christine. He intervenes to elevate her career, while she falls for one of the opera’s patrons. Andrew Lloyd Weber’s score includes the songs “The Music of the Night,” “All I Ask of You” and more. Cameron Mackintosh’s updated London production tours the U.S. and is at Saenger Theatre March 4-15. Showtimes vary. Tickets $52.65-$257 via saengernola.com.
‘All Shook Up’
Elvis shakes up a small town in 1955 in the musical with songs including “Blue Suede Shoes,” “Don’t Be Cruel,” “Heartbreak Hotel” and “Burning Love.” At 7:30 p.m. Friday, March 6, and Saturday, March 7, and
2 p.m. Sunday, March 8, and continuing March 13-22 at Rivertown Theaters. Tickets $52.19-$67.56 via rivertowntheaters.com.
Big Something
This jam band from North Carolina blends rock, jazz, reggae and electronic sounds. Its latest release is last year’s live album “Big Something (Live at Sugarshack Sessions).” Michael Wilber opens at 8 p.m. Wednesday, March 4, at Tipitina’s. Tickets $27.98 at tipitinas.com.
Mazaj
Mazaj performs modern and classical Arabic music from Egypt, the Levant region, comprised of Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and Palestine, and elsewhere. The group features Simon Moushabeck on accordion, Martin Masakowski on bass and Zayd Sifri on percussion. At 7 p.m. Friday, March 6, at Marigny Opera House. Suggested donation $25, but no one turned away for lack of funds. Find more information at marignyoperahouse.org.
MUSIC
MUSI C LISTINGS AND MO R E EVENTS TAKING PLA C E IN T H E NEW O R LEANS A R EA, VISIT CALENDAR.GAMBITWEEKLY.COM
To learn more about adding your event to the music calendar, please email listingsedit@gambitweekly.com
APPLE BARREL — Shwag, 6 pm; Steve Mignano, 10:30 pm
BACCHANAL — Juan Tigre, 1 pm; Noah Young, 7 pm
BJ'S LOUNGE BYWATER James McClaskey & the Rhythm Band, 9:30 pm
BUFFA’S — Charlie Wooten, 7 pm
CAFÉ NEGRIL — John Lisi & The Delta Funk, 5 pm; The Next Level Band, 9 pm
DBA Paradise Jazz Band, 6 pm; The Jump Hounds, 9:30 pm
THE DOG HOUSE Craig Cortello, "Canine Crooner", 4 pm
JAZZ PLAYHOUSE — Amanda Shaw, 7:30 pm
MAPLE LEAF BAR — Gary Clark Jr., 9 pm
OKAY BAR — Irish Folk Jam, 3 pm
ORPHEUM THEATER Pat Metheny, 7:30 pm
SATURN BAR — PS: ELECTRIC FEEL 11.0 w/ Heelturn and Carmine, 9 pm
SIBERIA Brethren Hogg with Blood & Earl and Opium Church, 9 pm
TIGERMEN DEN Coralai Album Release Show with Sari Jordan, 8 pm
SCAN FOR THE COMPLETE GAMBIT CALENDAR
Saturday,March 14,2026 9a.m.toNOON
HynesCharter School 990HarrisonAve., NOLA 70124
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SCHOOLS HIRING TE AC HE RS
Flow state
by Jake Clapp
KYLE KINANE IS NO STRANGER TO EATING a little crow.
The Portland, Oregonbased comedian in the past has occasionally poked at jam bands, including with an extended bit on his 2023 special “Shocks & Struts.” To Kinane, who played in a punk band before starting comedy and has a split comedy-music EP with The Slow Death, jam bands end up with names like Noodley Lou & The Turd Herders, and it’s always five dads in cargo shorts, including one who is short on time and just wants the song to end. But when Kinane was recently asked if he’d want to perform comedy during Phish’s four-day takeover at a Cancun resort, he went for it. He ended up seeing Phish three times that weekend.
of yourself and find happiness in your own little microcosm.”
On “Dirt Nap,” his seventh recorded hour, Kinane jokes about the irony of visiting a national park next to small-government folks sporting MAGA gear. He also goes into a long breakdown of the Fast and Furious movies all for the sake of a dick joke.
“I’m like, ‘Well, I’ve kind of made my mark on that community, and they don’t like me,’ ” Kinane says. “Anytime my knee-jerk reaction is like, ‘That’s gonna suck,’ I kind of have to do it. If it sounds like a bad idea, well, why don’t you go find out instead of just, from a distance, pointing your finger and judging? So I said yes to it and wound up having a great time.”
Kinane says he still isn’t going to put on a Phish album, and he doesn’t know if he’ll include the story in any future sets. He went in for the genuine experience, he says, and surprisingly enjoyed it.
Kinane is touring Louisiana this week with his “Boogie Monster” podcast co-host Dave Stone. They stop in New Orleans on Sunday, March 8, and Monday, March 9, at Sports Drink with shows at 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. each night.
Finding enjoyment in unexpected places tends to come up a lot in Kinane’s material — delivered with a gruff voice and often with self-deprecation.
“If you’re the date of someone who knows who I am, I know the speech you got to come in here,” he says to open his latest hour-long recording, “Dirt Nap.” “‘He looks like a jagoff, but he talks about his feelings. You’ll like it!’ ”
There’s plenty of skepticism about the state of the world in Kinane’s outlook, but he’s also self-aware. If you’re not open to the weird and unexpected, you’re missing out on life.
“Try to find micro-happiness because the world will not make you happy,” Kinane told Gambit. “The universe is shitty, so try and be a champion
Having grown up in a suburb outside of Chicago, Kinane spent a number of years in Los Angeles before moving to the Portland area. On “Dirt Nap,” he digs into some of the strangeness of returning to the burbs, with winding asides and quick callbacks, and he reflects on adopting the titular, bird-eating cat.
Along with some acting credits, including voice work on the show “Paradise PD” and on Comedy Central, Kinane and Stone host the “Boogie Monster,” which initially starts out about UFOs, cyrtids and the supernatural — but usually devolves into talks about food. After a couple years’ hiatus, the two relaunched the podcast in January.
As he nears 50 at the end of this year, Kinane says he’s approaching how he views success in his career a little differently. He’s not a fan of having to “massage the algorithm” in order to get in front of more people, but he’s hired a social media company to take on that burden, and he’s sharing more clips from shows.
Still, success is really about getting to have more control in his life, like being able to take breaks for the summer, own a home and get out to kayak and bike trails.
“Over the last couple years, (I’m) realizing that fame and success are different,” he says. “I’ve accomplished what I want to. It might not be outwardly successful in terms of what other comedians have, but (I’m) grateful for what I do have and appreciative of the friends and what I’ve gotten from comedy.”
Kyle Kinane PROVIDED PHOTO
Dining Issue Spring
GOING OUT
Color splash
by Will Coviello
THE KREWE DA BHAN GRAS BROUGHT INDIAN AND SOUTH ASIAN DANCE to Carnival parades from Marigny to Uptown in recent weeks. Now it’s got a stage spot and another parade at the NOLA Holi Festival. The Indian festival Holi heralds spring and is meant as a celebration of unity.
The third NOLA Holi Festival is Sunday, March 8, in Washington Square Park from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and there’s a parade in the Marigny and French Quarter starting at noon.
The festival features music, dance performances, food vendors and the holiday’s signature dousing of colors. Holi is a celebration of unity and the triumph of good over evil and has its roots in Hinduism and an account of the love between the god Krishna and goddess Radha. Krishna saw Radha’s fair complexion and applied colors to her skin to make the two of them seem more alike. That’s the inspiration for the splashing of colors, and that part is more specifically called Rangwali Holi.
likely end up looking like a Jackson Pollock-esque splattered canvas. The colored powders are made of dyed corn starch that’s non-toxic, biodegradable and shouldn’t stain. The powder packets will be available in the park. It’s appropriate to get consent before throwing powder on another person.
Though it’s now most commonly done through colored powders, all sorts of things have been used in the past, from flower petals to fruits. Some colors have significance, including red for love, green for new beginnings and blue for Krishna.
The festival’s ancient origins trace to northern India and Nepal, but now the festival is celebrated across the globe, and elements vary, sometimes including bonfires, prayers and more. There are big Holi festivals in Houston, Dallas and Atlanta and several events in New York.
In Louisiana, there has been a Holi celebration in Lafayette’s Girard Park since 2011. Its founder, University of Louisiana at Lafayette professor Arun Lakhotia, launched the New Orleans festival in 2024. He dedicated it to his late wife Michelle Lakhotia.
The initial festival featured a bhangra parade through the French Quarter that ended at Washington Square Park. Now it’s a daylong event in the park.
In the park, there will be constant eruptions of clouds of colored powder, some thrown in the air and some applied more directly. It’s recommended to wear white clothes to the event, and expect that they’ll most
The entertainment lineup features Houston percussionist Dave Sharma playing the dhol, DJ Rxxo from New York, and DJ Prashant from Texas. Performances include folk and classical dance as well as Bollywood dance and more. Performers include the Krewe da Bhan Gras and Ruby Creative Dance.
The parade features the Krewe da Bhan Gras, Indo-Caribbean ChutneySoca, DJ Shivvy, Dave Sharma and more. A Hare Krishna group will start the parade with an opening invocation, a Bharatanatyam dance. The route starts on Royal Street in the Marigny and proceeds into the French Quarter. It turns onto St. Philip Street and then returns to Marigny on Chartres Street. The public is invited to walk in the parade or watch. The festival’s food vendors primarily offer Indian dishes, but there are other options as well. Vendors include Aroma, Destination India Restaurant & Bar, Indian Delight, LUFU NOLA and more. There also are kids’ activities, a market and an information booth about the history of the festival.
PHOTO BY WILL COVIELLO
PREMIER CROSSWORD PUZZLE
TURN YOURSELF AROUND
By Frank A. Longo
NE W TO MARKE T
“Wise”
Neat, stylish denim fabric? 51 Fork-tailed songbird that’s not as tall as usual?
“So yummy!”
Mendes of “Ghost Rider” 67 -- Canals
Message on a tour guide’s badge
“Pshaw!”
Dutch cheese
Scottish black cow calf?
Mutated chromosome unit, compared to a normal one? 77 Advanced math, in brief
Gift label 79 Selfie, say 80 Haul to court 81 Rd. crossers
82 Disentangled 85 Thread disentangler
88 “Far out!,” ‘90s-style
90 Thin wire nail decorated with an intricate pattern of teardrop shapes?
