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New Columns appear each Tuesday. 28MAR06 Doral Chenoweth writes about the business of restaurants and the food industry in the Columbus, Ohio, Metro area. Reader comments are welcome by telephone. 614-538-1822. Email the Grump: thegrumpygourmet@wowway.com Send food stuff here: iPLATE@grumpygourmetusa.com Send weird stuff here: alferd_e_packer@wowway.com E-mail messages must include name and telephone for a reply. |
Where Canal street meets Bourbon street. Paul Prudhomme |
28MAR06 Be Happy Columbus; Think About Saving the Soul of New Orleans Food The largest employer in Columbus is the food industry. Stats as far back as the mid-1990s noted that some 80,000 people in Franklin County worked in all facets of food - growing, cooking, packaging, serving, marketing. Think of the importance this way: What if every person, all 80,000 souls, suddently were denied those food-related jobs? Food and restaurants are a major cog in the machinery that keeps Columbus going. Turn it off over one night and you will experience what happened to New Orleans when Hurricane Katrina swamped the city. Food is the soul of New Orleans. In all my visits to New Orleans, business or otherwise, my primary thoughts centered in where I would eat.When Katrina hit, my first thoughts centered on the soul of New Orleans cooking. Save Creole Soul. It is a national treasure. But saving such poses problems so complex that my mind wanders. Should, and it could as it has in my memory's past, a flood shut down Columbus, what would we save? Food. Save the food chain that feeds a million a day. If stormed out of business, give priority to Kent Rigsby and Henry Butcher. In New Orleans, get Willie Mae Seaton's chicken skillets frying and Ella Brennan's shrimp remoulade on the tables,
The Wall Street Journal’s headline (Dec. 7, 2005) gave me encouragement. New Orleans is seeking corporate sponsors for Mardi Gras. If Wal-Mart and the Disney Corporation can save that lost city, then I intend to rebuild Pompeii. If Katrina’s wasteland can be recycled, why not rehabilitate what Vesuvius left? Just think of all the lava lamp plants we could put back in business. Wal-Mart is my first choice as a corporate sponsor for the simple reason their stores were prime targets for Katrina vandals grabbing bedding, water and shopping carts. A side benefit with Wal-Mart sponsoring the rebuilding of Pompeii retail: All lava lamps would carry the imprint of Made In Italy, not Made In China. Since I am not privy to numbers left by Vesuvius devastation, I will apply a plan for rebuilding New Orleans, starting with what’s left. Big Easy is not so big anymore. Also, it is sinking behind levees never intended to contain a Level 5 hurricane. To rebuild the city is something akin to transplanting hemorroids. I’ve experienced New Orleans many times over the years, few of them without concern for my safety. I once advised conventioneers to avoid the city unless they had their Mugger’s Express cards handy. As a convention city, exhibitors always had trouble with casual labor demands. Hire three roustabouts to do the work of one. Hire a fourth to plug in a convention center exhibitor's booth lamp. At least one major convention, the International Council of Shopping Centers, gave up on New Orleans for reasons of street safety and unionized labor demands. The only thing ICSC moguls miss: New Orleans restaurants. Here’s my New Orleans solution: Save the good stuff. The restaurants that make Creole-Cajun cookery a reason to go in the first place; the French Quarter for the touristy bars, and, yeah, Mardi Gras.; the Times-Picayune because that newspaper has been sounding doom alarms for decades to no avail; and the sea port which barges in most of the concrete this nation vitally needs. Before all that, New Orleans is a great place to use fair and balanced eminent domain to get lasting recovery in place. The now familiar Ninth Ward, under water for weeks, below sea level beyond repair, and populated with uninhabitable row houses, should be bought and turned into Government Greens. Disney has a record of running entertainment venues. Beyond the docks, lease the city to Disney for a buck a year. If for no other reason, Disney knows theme park security. Fire FEMA. Hire Hilton to work the dozens of existing chain hotels wanting to stay the course. And that police department? Hire Wackenhut if Disney balks. Canal Street? Welcome Wal-Mart on one side, Target across the street. Zone out legally all the T-shirt shops except one. Devote one alley block to sanitized tattoo parlors as a tourist need. Everyone gets a percentage lease with Government Green as a unifying landlord. |
Commander's Palace |
A street car named Desire? Keep it. But build this nation’s first all encompassing monorail (elevated, of course) network serving all wards and districts.
Jax Brewery? Pearl Beer? Willie Mae's Scotch House. The New Orleans Saints? Jocks must be served. Antoine's, Big Easy's oldest, crawfish in season from Halloween to Memorial Day. Café du Monde? Commander’s Palace? Galatoire's in the Quarter is a busy seafood destination, Katrina hit but reopened in January and still serving crab meat Yvonne, the big plus - the big minus: My crepes dropped from the menu. Blame Katrina. Paul Prudhomme above all others for the sheer weight of his personality and culinary value to the city. Emeril Lagasse? Oh, go ahead. Invite him to return. Dooky Chase? Declare it a national treasure. Stella. the restaurant. Stella, Tennessee's Stella. Bourbon Street. Bourbon Street. Designate it as a Historical District thus giving it Federal protection. Look at my plan thusly: To rebuild New Orleans as it was in early 2005 equates with implanting replacement eye teech. (*) Life's Irony: Narvin Kimball, 97, last founding member of Preservation Hall Jazz Band, died March 17, 2006, in Charleston, S. C., where he was living with a daughter after being forced out of New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina. by Doral Chenoweth 614-538-1822 |
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