Month: May 2025

Terranova Brothers Superette

Terranova Brothers Superette marked their 100th anniversary today by closing their doors forever. The old butchery and small grocery store is no more. Their deli infamously authored the best muffaletta in the city and did so with verve by only making 10 on Saturday morning.

First come first serve.

We rolled by there bright and early to snag a pair but the butcher informed me that since it was their final day they decided to go out with a whimper instead of a bang and not make their signature sandwich one final time.

I wanted to roll him but instead wished him a happy retirement and quit the premises.

Rest In Peace: Original Brown Derby II

By rlreevesjr2@gmail.com

On May 25, 2025

In 500 Po Boys, Rest In Peace

The Original Brown Derby II. 755 N. Claiborne Ave, New Orleans, Louisiana

One of New Orleans best and cheapest po boy, hotplate joints is no more. We were rolling on a second line today and noticed a track hoe sitting astride what had formerly been a neighborhood lynchpin.

Rest in peace Brown Derby II.

500 Po Boys: Bobby’s Seafood In River Ridge

By rlreevesjr2@gmail.com

On May 24, 2025

In 500 Po Boys

“You’re not from around here are you?”

The smiling elderly lady greets us as she walks in the front door of Bobby’s Seafood. We’ve been fingered as outsiders but a parking lot beatdown does not feel imminent; she’s just being friendly to strangers.

Slow Difficult Recipes: Agata’s Lasagna

By rlreevesjr2@gmail.com

On May 18, 2025

In Recipes

Back when I lived in Alabama I became friends with a girl whose grandmother, Agata, was from Sicily. We’d ride out to the sleepy little town of Alabaster on Sunday afternoons where the granny would be busying herself in the kitchen-dealing out culinary trump cards of obscene deliciousness.

My all time favorite dish she made was an intensely garlicky red-sauced lasagna that boasts three pounds of cheeses.This recipe needs no meat. Meat would just get in the way of this profoundly Italian tasting casserole.

The Birth Of Iced Tea In The American South

By rlreevesjr2@gmail.com

On May 17, 2025

In Features

1911 advertisement for Luzianne coffee and tea

A cold glass of iced tea is the saving grace that carries southerners through the sweltering days of summers that seem to stretch on forever in the American South.

And it’s due to the efforts of an 18th century French botanist and a Louisiana entrepreneur who built a beverage empire in the first half of the 20th century that ice tea is the common language of southerners across the United States.

When Andre Michaux, at the behest of King Louis XVI, arrived on the shores of South Carolina in September of 1786 he was set to make a centuries-long impact on the drinking habits of Americans and southerners in particular.

The French plant expert was on a mission. He had been commissioned in his home country to visit the young United States to secure new strains of trees for development in the war-depleted forests of France.

Pony Poindexter: Lost Titan of New Orleans Jazz

By rlreevesjr2@gmail.com

On May 16, 2025

In Fame and Infamy in Louisiana

Pony Poindexter: Lost Titan of New Orleans Jazz

Pony Poindexter’s old jazz group, the Black Panthers of the Figuerettes had a good run in Ibiza back in the fifties. They were booked by Bad Jack Hand, an ex-US soldier who had taken it on the lam before briefly making his way to the white isle. I say briefly because he ended up back on the mainland serving a life sentence in a Spanish penitentiary for a murder rap.

Field Report: 2025 Original Big 7 Mother’s Day Second Line in New Orleans

By rlreevesjr2@gmail.com

On May 12, 2025

In Field Reports, New Orleans Street Fashion, Second Line Culture in New Orleans