Attendees of the 35th annual Preservation Resource Center of New Orleans Holiday Home Tour wait to view the home of Nan & Ed deMontluzin at 2714 St. Charles Avenue Saturday afternoon. Seven historic Garden District homes and the Opera Guild Home were included in the self-guided tour. The Holiday Home Tour continues Sunday, December 12, 2010. (Sabree Hill, UptownMessenger.com)
Attend a Christmas bash, catch up on shopping at the market, or belt out Handel’s Messiah — there’s no shortage of options to get into the holiday spirit this weekend. See below for a snapshot of what’s going on Uptown.
A new restaurant called Cowbell planned for the far Uptown end of Oak Street is nearing an agreement with its neighbors to be able to serve alcohol, despite a city moratorium on new liquor licenses in the area.
The Carrollton-Riverbend Neighborhood Association generally supports allowing Cowbell to serve drinks, if the restaurant’s owners will sign and abide by a good-neighbor agreement, said association president Jerry Speir at a Thursday night meeting. Continue reading »
Two more armed robberies have been reported this week, continuing a rash of the crimes in various Uptown neighborhoods over the last two weeks. Continue reading »
Kara Morgan, President of the Irish Channel, smiles while wearing a Saints-emblazoned Saints hat at the Irish Channel Neighborhood Association Christmas party at Tracey's Thursday evening. "We decided to have it at Tracey's to bring a more diverse crowd and because you can bring kids here," said Morgan. "We hope to pick up new members that haven't heard of the Neighborhood Association." The Irish Channel Neighborhood Association collected toys at the Christmas Party for Christmas in the Sixth, a toy drive by the NOPD Sixth District. (Sabree Hill, UptownMessenger.com)
The five-member board of the Hurstville Neighborhood Improvement District filled two vacancies at its annual meeting Thursday night.
Marshall Page and Dennis Brady will replace outgoing members Arthur Huguley and Emily Arata, based on the unanimous vote of the members present. Remaining on the board will be president Louis Gertler, Bridget Bories and Mary Margaret Gorman.
A new dining phenomenon and a new interior-design store, both on the lower end of Magazine Street, are profiled in separate online publications this week.
MV Burger, the once-a-week hamburger experiment at Slim Goodies diner, gets a rave review at iheartnola.com, while Modern Market also receives high praise from Valerie Hart, the Visual Vamp at GoNOLA.com.
[Editor's note: The following letter was sent by Greg Sonnier, owner of The Uptowner, to the Audubon-Riverside Neighborhood Association after that group decided to withhold their support for his restaurant Tuesday night. Sonnier also sent a copy of the letter to UptownMessenger.com as a comment on the original story, and it has been reprinted here in full.]
Dear ARNA,
I was notified by a reporter from the UptownMessenger.com of the ARNA meeting where our application request for Gabrielle restaurant at 438 Henry Clay Ave was brought up. I apologize for not being able to attend but would like to take the time to address my request for the zoning change from non-conforming use to a restaurant (table service).
I think it best to summarize our predicament for you from the beginning in order to present the facts. Continue reading »
An aspiring chef was stabbed just off Prytania and a bank manager was robbed in his car while driving through Fontainebleau in a wave of seemingly unconnected muggings around Uptown New Orleans over the last week, police said Wednesday.
Investigators have made arrests in several cases and have developed suspects in several others, but with no single underlying cause or pattern, the holdups are difficult to prevent, authorities said. Meanwhile, a rash of car break-ins have been reported all around Uptown, investigators said. Continue reading »
The Uptowner, 438 Henry Clay
Amid unanswered questions about the plan for the proposed Gabrielle Restaurant on Henry Clay Avenue, the Audubon-Riverside Neighborhood Association decided Tuesday evening to withhold its support as the project heads to a crucial city planning commission meeting next week.
The owner of the restaurant, Greg Sonnier, said upon hearing of the association’s decision that he has been primarily focused on preparing for the Dec. 14 hearing before the City Planning Commission, and that he had hoped to work with the neighborhood association later in the process. Continue reading »
Two yoga studios have just opened on the quickly-growing Freret Street commercial corridor, and four new restaurants are on the horizon, area business leaders said Monday.
“This is one of the few areas in New Orleans where every time I drive by, there’s a new sign hanging on a door,” observed Jon Atkinson, a small-business consultent with SeedCo Financial attending the quarterly meeting of the Freret Business and Property Owners Association. Continue reading »
A stretch of Magazine Street featuring a cluster of high-end clothing retailers has become the repeated target of shoplifters as the holiday season has begun, police said. Continue reading »
[The following letter to the editor was written by Tim Garrett, administrator of NOLAhoods.com]
I would like to propose some changes to the way New Orleans Police Department uses NOLAReady.info to disseminate information. Currently, the volume of email being generated through NOPD’s 12 “channels” – representing eight Districts along with four administrative offices – is so enormous that it overwhelms readers’ in-boxes. In fact, since it first began using the City’s NOLAReady service in mid-August, NOPD traffic has been several times that of all the other channels (for example, weather advisories, Amber Alerts and boil water orders) combined! Continue reading »
Pat Orlando (left), Ralph Dicosola and Marc Bellony celebrate after a touchdown during the first quarter of the Saints vs. Bengals game at Carrollton Station Sunday afternoon. The Saints won the game 34-30. (Sabree Hill, UptownMessenger.com)
Art lovers had much to celebrate Saturday night, with the opening of exhibitions tied to PhotoNOLA and to Prospect 1.5 along Magazine Street Uptown.
PhotoNOLA, now in its fifth year, is an annual celebration of photography coordinated by the New Orleans Photo Alliance that features exhibitions and events during the first two weeks in December. Prospect 1.5, a series of exhibitions that grew out of the Prospect.1 exhibition in 2008, will run until the middle of February.
Attendees look at "Cosmic Territory" a Cibachrome print by Christy Speakman at The Machine in the Garden at Octavia Gallery Saturday evening. The opening was part of Prospect 1.5 New Orleans, a fifteen-week program of exhibitions, symposiums, and public events taking place November, 6, 2010 through February 19, 2011. (Sabree Hill, UptownMessenger.com)
Jewelry maker Anna Quinn looks in to a Paraph mirror by Caitlin Waugh as shoppers pass by at Freret Market Saturday afternoon. (Sabree Hill, UptownMessenger.com)
Dressed as Santa Claus Jack Sullivan asks Merrik Green, 5, what he wants for Christmas at the Magic Box on Magazine St. Saturday afternoon. Sullivan wanted a cash register and a new dvd. The Magic Box had arts, crafts, face painting, refreshments and visits with Santa Claus as part of Merriment on Magazine. There were many sales and specials along Magazine St. to welcome the holiday shopping season. "Today has been fabulous. It has just been constant all day. We had customers since 9 a.m.," said Betsy Ordemann, owner of the Magic Box. The Magic Box will be raising money for Children's Hospital until Dec. 18, 2011. Those who donate will be entered in a raffle for a limited edition Saints Superbowl Monopoly game. (Sabree Hill, UptownMessenger.com)
Thousands of screaming children can’t be wrong.
And that the screams at the First Annual Children’s Book Festival — which took place Saturday afternoon at the Milton H. Latter Memorial Library on St. Charles Avenue — were screams of joy, shows that somebody got it right.
Marley Early, 4, Alana Dumas, 6, Jiyah Payton, 4, and Jaelyn Payton, 8, wait in line to get a book at the First Annual Children's Book Festival at the Milton H. Latter Memorial Library on St. Charles Avenue Saturday afternoon. The first 2,000 children at the festival received a free book donated from Scholastic. The books ranged from beginning level books to 8th grade level books. (Sabree Hill, UptownMessenger.com)
Students and faculty members of the Newcomb Art Department will be selling creative pieces in glass, pottery and other media at the Newcomb Art Department holiday sale. The money raised through the sale of the one-of-a-kind gifts helps buy supplies for the art studios. The sale takes place from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. in room 200 of the art building in the Woldenberg Art Center on the uptown campus.
Weston Lambert, a graduate student in the Tulane/Newcomb Glass Art program, shows Julie Babin hand-blown glass ornaments that he created with other students at the Newcomb Art Department holiday sale Friday afternoon. The hand-blown glass ornaments ranged in price from $5 -$25. Babin bought several of the glass ornaments for Christmas presents. (Sabree Hill, UptownMessenger.com)