Tag Archives: City Park

Around Town: Martini Madness (with special deal until noon today)

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The Friends of City Park do a great job in helping to protect, preserve and overall better City Park. Given that we use City Park a lot, we’re happy to be card carrying members or Friends. One thing that the Friends do is put on some pretty kicking events. The best one by far, in my mind, is Martini Madness. Per Friends, Martini Madness is an “evening features an array of marvelous martinis and exquisite eats from top area restaurants with all proceeds dedicated to landscaping the area around the newly constructed Arbor Room at Popp Fountain.”

Last year, the restaurant’s dishing out food included Ralph’s on the Park, Red Fish Grill, Pigeon Caterers, and Slice, to nanme a few. This year, at a minimum includes Three Muses and Ralph’s on the Park. Free food from both of those places is worth the price of admission on it’s own. To wash down this food, you’ve got a number of specialty “martinis” made from gin and/or vodka spread all around the room. Not a bad deal for the $50 asking price ($45 if you’re a Friend of City Park, and you should be). To sweeten the pot, the Friends have offered a buy 2 for the price of 1 special until noon today, just enter “MMTD11″ as your promo code. Tickets can be ordered here.

Happy Friday all!

Around Town: Art Spark in the Park

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By this weekend, you should be at least partially recovered from two weeks of Jazz Fest. If you’re looking for something to do on Saturday, Art Spark in the Park, featuring 100 artists selling their wares, will be happening from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm. From the website:

On Saturday, May 14th, from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm, the new Goldring/Woldenberg Great Lawn in City Park (across from Storyland) will sparkle with 100 Arts Market artists, elegant music, storytelling and local cuisine to commemorate a century of fine art housed at NOMA. The Arts Council of New Orleans, the New Orleans Museum of Art and City Park will present the “Art Spark” as part of NOMA’s year-long centennial celebration.

Think of it as a huge version of the Contemporary Crafts section at Jazz Fest, without that pesky cover charge. One Art Spark artist we are definitely looking forward to seeing is Ginger Kelly. Ginger’s glass work was some of our favorite art at Jazz Fest.
Bracelets by Ginger Kelly (Photo from GingerKelly.com)

Of the remaining 99 artists that will be in attendance, be sure to be on the look out for Lori Felix and Barbara Roberds, whose work is featured at Rhino Contemporary Crafts in Canal Place.

NOLA Brewing Easter Keg Hunt Wrap-Up

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New Orleans, for those that get it*, is like when you’ve found the one. You know, every day something reminds you just how awesome s/he is. For New Orleans, it’s getting caught in a random parade of 15 people in superhero costumes, complete with a Marine Corps color guard and police escort, on a weekday; the endless festivals; impromptu second-lines; and, on and on. The NOLA Brewing Easter Keg Hunt (which benefits the Gulf Restoration Network) is definitely one of those things that reminds you how special this city is.

On a Sunday with perfect weather, you had hordes of costumed freaks people roaming through the streets of Mid-City from place to place in search of trinkets to gain access to the final NOLA Brewing free beer blowout. The various teams all traveled at their own pace (no prize for first place), which led to a collection of mini-parades, all in search of free NOLA beer. While there were definitely a few looks garnered from the onlookers, they weren’t the frightened or concerned. Instead they were delighted and perplexed as to what amazing event they seemed to miss.

The hunt concluded at the Bayou Beer Garden after numerous stops which included Bulldog Mid-City, the Mid-City Yacht Club, Lemonade Parade (awesome lemonade, FYI) and Finn’s. The afterparty was a snapshot of how awesome New Orleans is: Great beverages, great food, great music, great sports and great fun. We had the Hornets sticking it to the Lakers in Game 1, free beer, live music, I slipped next door to Parkway and brought back a couple of po boys, Taceaux Loceaux saddle up to front of the bar, and, of course, costumed debauchery everywhere. In other words, just another Sunday in New Orleans.

Damn, I love this town.

* I’m not saying you have to get. Some people don’t, it just isn’t their thing. And that’s cool too.

Around Town: Hogs for the Cause

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So much has been happening lately. Both Cupcake and I have celebrated another year since we were born and this here site eclipsed the one year mark. With all these birthdays, there was some serious celebrating to do. Through it all we managed to pick up some new spots for featuring in the Fresh 50, enjoyed some interesting new booze to discuss and received some kick ass kitchen tools that we’ve been testing out.

But I’m not here to talk about all that right now. Today is about supporting yet another great cause with Hogs for the Cause, which is this weekend. We did a preview piece of the glorious City Park event over at GoNOLA.com, here. It’s important to note that while it is all going to a great cause, tickets will go from $10 now to $15 at the door. So buy your tickets now and use that extra $5 to help propel your favorite team to victory.

On a vastly more humorous note, I was asked to help judge this year. Without a doubt, this is an honor and responsibility that I do not take lightly. For those of you competing this year, please remember that all bribes are created equal, but gin is more equal than others. As always, I love to meet the folks out there so stop on by and say hi!

Around Town: Holiday Celebrations

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So Chanukah has started and Christmas and New Years are right around the corner. The shopping malls are already packed and will remain so until the end of Christmas, so what can you do to avoid them?

Well, there are the month-long Reveillon dinners taking place across town. Here’s the piece we did for the GoNOLA blog.

Once you’ve finished eating, you can pack the family into the car and head on out to City Park for Celebration in the Oaks. Although the link says they’re closed on Christmas Eve, I’ve seen reports to the contrary on da twitters. Want to burn off some calories from dinner you can hit up a little ice skating for $5.00 for 30 minutes.

Downtown? You can check out The Miracle on Fulton Street. With lots of live entertainment and regular “snow” falls, there will be plenty to see and do. Of course, the “snow” is more like a soap mixture, so don’t go expecting anything close to real.

Anything you love to do for the holidays? Let us Know in the comments!

Around Town: Reds, Whites and the Blues

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It’s Thursday (finally), so that means for many people it is the unofficial start of the weekend. For those of you in a business program, it is the official start of your weekend. If you’re week has been anything like ours, you haven’t had time to even think for a minute about your free time. Unless of course you’re thinking about how stuff keeps popping up to take it away from you. All this comes down to two things, you need something fun to do and you need a drink.

Enter Gambit’s 8th Annual Reds, Whites and the Blues event. Sure there will be the some music, some food from great restaurants and a pretty decent collection of wines to taste from. However, one of the greatest things about this event is the raffle, a chance to win a 200 bottle wine collection. Raffle tickets are only $5 or 6 for $20.

Reds, Whites and The Blues
City Park
Pavilion of the Two Sisters
Today from 6-9 pm
Tickets are $70 at the door.

Proceeds to benefit the Big Easy Awards Foundation for Entertainment Development and Education, which supports culture and the performing arts in New Orleans.

She Said: Ralph’s On The Park

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$1.25 and I head to Ralph’s when we need a treat but don’t want the effort of a big night out.  The good thing about Ralph’s is that it’s a very versatile place.  While we had on jeans this last visit and sat in the bar area, we’ve also been in the main dining room on New Year’s Eve in festive cocktail attire.  That’s my kind of place.  I absolutely love the ambiance at Ralph’s.  The main dining room is light and airy with beautiful views of the oaks in City Park.  The bar area is cozy, with exposed brick, lower lighting, and the same great view of the park.  Upstairs there are private rooms with french doors leading to wrap around balconies perfect for cocktail hour or a morning brunch.

The only problem I have with Ralph’s is I don’t ever love everything I order.  Usually I have something outstanding, something so-so, and something I wouldn’t order again.   This last visit was no exception.  I checked out the menu online earlier in the afternoon and was really excited to try the Crawfish Fritto Misto from the lenten specials section.  When I re-read the description that night at Ralphs,  “corn fried crawfish tails, pickled cherry peppers, Italian provolone, frisée, butter lettuce, remoulade sauce”, I didn’t even consider anything else on the menu.  Our waiter sealed the deal when he recommended it as well. Continue reading →