Field Report: 2024 Young Men Olympian Benevolent Association Second Line

2024 Young Men Olympian Benevolent Association Second Line

We rolled straight into the heart of Central City, New Orleans, at lunchtime today to document the second line of Young Men Olympian Benevolent Association. The group was established in 1884.

2024 Young Men Olympian Benevolent Association Second Line

This is what we saw: Continue reading

Field Report: 2024 Mermaid Parade in New Orleans

2024 Mermaid Parade in New Orleans

After last years stunningly well-attended debut of New Orleans’ Mermaid Parade we were determined to venture down to the Moonwalk along the Mississippi River to see what the sophomore effort held for revelers.

2024 Mermaid Parade in New Orleans

This is what we saw:

2024 Mermaid Parade in New Orleans

2024 Mermaid Parade in New Orleans

2024 Mermaid Parade in New Orleans

2024 Mermaid Parade in New Orleans

2024 Mermaid Parade in New Orleans

2024 Mermaid Parade in New Orleans

2024 Mermaid Parade in New Orleans

2024 Mermaid Parade in New Orleans

2024 Mermaid Parade in New Orleans

2024 Mermaid Parade in New Orleans

2024 Mermaid Parade in New Orleans

2024 Mermaid Parade in New Orleans

2024 Mermaid Parade in New Orleans

500 Po Boys: Koz’s in Harahan


In June of this year I drove from my home in New Orleans 9th Ward to Harahan, Louisiana, to visit Gary ‘Koz’ Gruenig, legendary raconteur and old lion of the greater New Orleans po boy scene.

Gruenig’s restaurant is tucked away on a leafy side street adjacent to a tree-lined common surrounded by parking for po boy lovers who have poured into the restaurant for nearly 20 years. Continue reading

500 Po Boys: Mr. Shrimp’s Kitchen

Bragging about selling locally caught Louisiana seafood but actually plating up fishes from Vietnam, China or some other far-off land has been a feature of New Orleans restaurant life since the first Creole cooks fired up cast-iron pots filled with daube glacé.

That Hollygrove fish fry joint touting Des Allemands catfish? It just might be Swai or Basa, frozen, then shipped in from thousands of miles away. Continue reading