Fresh Perks

“I’d rather take coffee than compliments just now.” -Louisa May Alcott From its provocative aroma while brewing to the moment when that first, flavorful sip hits your tongue, coffee … particularly good coffee … is equal to none. For many, it’s a morning ritual, a sacred ceremony wrapped up in […]

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Gastronomical Luck

Tapping Chef Philip Whitmarsh to head the kitchen at their French Quarter restaurant Jewel of the South was culinary kismet for business partners Nick Detrich, Chris Hannah and John Stubbs. Tucked along the edge of the French Quarter in a Creole cottage mere steps from Rampart Street lies Jewel of […]

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Served Straight Up: The Sazerac

What does one say about the Sazerac cocktail that hasn’t already been said? This historic tipple is reputed to be the first American “cocktail,” created right here in New Orleans in the 1830s by famed apothecary Antoine Amédée Peychaud, the creator of Peychaud’s Bitters, a crucial ingredient in any Sazerac […]

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À la mode

What with all of the hoopla of Mardi Gras going on, it’s easy to miss one of the most significant celebrations of February, Great American Pie Month! Naturally this is said with a heavy inflection of snark, but to take it that extra mile, what is even more paramount than […]

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Low-Priced Lunch by the Boxful

Though you’d like to believe that the plate lunch, sometimes called a “meat and three,” is a down-home, Southern or Mid-Western invention, it’s origin is actually Hawaiian. Even more fascinating, the Hawaiian plate lunch grew from the island-state’s Pan-Asian influence, most particularly the centuries-old Japanese “bento.” Defined as convenient or […]

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Thrilled to pizzas

Enjoying pizza is easily one of America’s favorite pastimes. Just saying the word conjures up fond memories of pizza parties after playing a grueling game of softball under the hot summer sun, family night with movies and a pie delivered fresh and hot to your door, or much needed brain […]

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