Silver Lining Series

Silver Lining: Magazine Street fabric shop is ready for the next transition

By |

Chateau Sew & Sew Fabric & Sewing Studio on Magazine Street seems like an anachronism in the time when the number of people who sew (sewists as they are now called) is declining. But the folks at Chateau Sew have a plan. It was started in 2015 by the mother-daughter team of Susan Jackson, a quilter, and her daughter Karen Flournoy, who mostly made garments. When Flournoy’s son was about to start school full-time, her mother suggested that, because she loves fabrics and had made clothes for her young son, they open a shop. “In 2014, I went to work on a business plan, researching how to source fabrics.

Business Profile

Silver Lining: Vegan meal service flourishes during pandemic

By |

A pot of red cacciatore sauce bubbles on the stove, sliced eggplants roast in the oven, and bright green bowls of salad are piled high with chickpeas and jewel-like cherry tomatoes. An Italian feast is being prepared – but while Mediterranean flavors abound, there’s no cream, cheese or meat to be found. At Clairly Vegan, owner Claire Steiner has been attracting customers with plant-based versions of classic flavors. Steiner started her vegan catering and delivery business just this June in her own kitchen, with her mother, Anna Cannizzaro Steiner, helping out. “She would come over and we would cook away all day,” she said. 

The business now sells 75 to 100 orders per week out of Carrollton Commissary, a rented kitchen space on Willow Street.

business

Silver Lining: Parcels & Posts celebrates its first decade on Magazine Street

By |

Parcels & Post on Magazine Street is celebrating its 10th anniversary and Carnival in a big way. It will host a float installation to be unveiled in February. Parcels & Post is also helping us celebrate Carnival by offering 20% off the regular shipping price for king cakes. They ship them all over the world. Owner Heidi Hammond and her husband moved to New Orleans in 2007.

Silver Lining Series

Silver Lining: Shop discovers jewelry repair is another pandemic trend

By |

Behind the glittering offerings at Symmetry Jewelers lies a pandemic story despite how very busy they are and have been. 

Like other non-essential businesses, Symmetry Jewelers closed down when it was mandated on March 22. They reopened a couple of months later, on the first day it was allowed. They bought masks for staff and customers alike, installed sanitizer stations and social-distancing markers, and developed a regimen for regular sterilizing. And like other local businesses, they had to register with the city to be permitted to open up. During those two lockdown months, the business took out a line of credit to pay employees while they applied for the Paycheck Protection Program.

Silver Lining: New Orleanians are lining up to get their furniture repaired

By |

This is the third Silver Lining, an Uptown Messenger series on locally owned small businesses that are thriving during the COVID-19 pandemic. For almost five decades, Uptown Restoration has been repairing furniture at the corner of  Zimpel and Cherokee streets in the University section of Uptown New Orleans. 

Though off the beaten path, the repair shop does a steady business. But this year, it’s been especially busy. Not long after the lockdown in March, more customers began showing up with broken furniture and pieces that needed to be restored or refinished. “With everyone staying at home, and many working from home, they had the time to attend to repairs they had been meaning to do for a long time,” said Uptown Restoration proprietor Bobby Franks. 

For a while, Franks had to rent storage space for the backlog of furniture in the queue to be worked on.

business

Silver Lining: Urban Roots branches out as Uptowners find relief in gardening

By |

This is the second Silver Lining, an Uptown Messenger series on locally owned small businesses that are thriving during the COVID-19 pandemic. Like other New Orleans businesses considered essential, the Urban Roots Garden Center did not have to close down during the COVID-19 lockdown. It was considered to provide essential services because they sell edibles and fruiting plants. Also, like other businesses in Uptown Messenger’s “Silver Linings” series, this one does not rely on the tourist trade or out-of-town visitors. At the beginning of the pandemic, Urban Roots offered a new service: curbside pick-up.

business

Silver Lining: Maple Small Animal Clinic is busier than ever during the pandemic

By |

This is the first Silver Lining, an Uptown Messenger series on locally owned small businesses that are thriving during the COVID-19 pandemic. Maple Small Animal Clinic has a different pandemic story to tell from many of our local businesses. For one thing, it does not depend on the tourist trade. And veterinary clinics are considered an essential business, so it never had to shut down. The clinic changed its protocol to curbside drop-off and pickup, but it stayed fully staffed and did not need to limit its services.