Archive for the ‘Wine & Spirits’ Category
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Restaurant-based fundraisers and benefit dinners were one way people across the country found to give money to Katrina-relief causes after the levee failures here. Similar efforts are taking shape now in New Orleans to direct aid to earthquake survivors in Haiti, and two are on tab for Tuesday.
One citywide event, Called New Orleans Night Out for Haiti, is structured similarly to the annual Dine Out for Life benefit organized by the NO/AIDS Task Force. In this case, each participating restaurant will donate 10 percent of its sales from Tuesday, Feb. 2, to the charity of its choice working on earthquake relief. The public is encouraged to support the campaigning simply by dining at a participating restaurant on Tuesday.
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100-proof Herbsaint and king cake: Luncheon of Champions.
(Third food group in the background: Coffee machine.)
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Move over penicillin, there could be a cure for alcohol intolerance, or alcohol flush. Researchers have discovered a compound that repairs a defective enzyme, which normally is responsible for metabolizing alcohol.
An estimated one billion people have the faulty enzyme, and when they drink beer or wine, they experience facial flushing as well as other possible symptoms including nausea, vomiting and rapid heartbeat. The intolerance is also known colloquially as the “Asian Flush,” because 40 percent of people of East Asian descent suffer from this reaction.
Repairing the enzyme through a molecule, known as Alda-1, won’t only allow people to drink, it could also help save lives. Initially, researchers were investigating how moderate red wine drinking may lower the risk of cardiovascular disease. The scientists isolated an enzyme, ALDH2, which can possibly lessen heart tissue damage during a heart attack. Furthering the study, the researchers then found that Alda-1enhances ALDH2, and fixed the defective alcohol enzyme. It’s also thought that Alda-1 could assist with hangovers.
But if you suffer from this reaction, don’t get your hopes up too high. Alda-1 is still in the testing stage, and as the lead researcher, molecular biology professor Thomas D. Hurley, told Wine Spectator, “It’s a double-edged sword. We could correct the defect but then that increases the risk of other health problems if people are not drinking moderately. If they drink moderately, it’s great, but must be tempered with the fact that some people don’t.”
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Thursday was Misunderstanding Day at the WWL-TV newsroom. First Misty Marshall and the Moonpie King performed, leading to this awkwardly revealing on-air exchange with Paulsen:
Eric: “Actually, Sally-Ann and I are former moonpie kings and queens …”
Band: “(Ba-dum-ch!) I never knew.”
Eric: “Settle down.”
Things only got worse when Paulsen and I were discussing the Over the Line Big Lebowski Party:
Me: “They’re having a dialogue contest, outfits, trivia, lots of Caucasians being drunk around the Rock ‘N’ Bowl …”
Eric: (Looking into camera and shaking head)
Only on Misunderstanding Day could “copious White Russians getting consumed” end up sounding like “a ton of boozed white folks acting the fool.” Although I’m sure the latter is also true.
MUSIC
FILM
STAGE
EVENTS
ART
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The local nonprofit MarketUmbrella.org, parent group for the Crescent City Farmers Market, will soon take over its old pre-Katrina farmers market spot in Mid-City, thanks to some good timing and a long-running proof-of-concept effort from one dedicated local merchant.
Before Hurricane Katrina, the Crescent City Farmers Market held one of its three weekly markets in the parking lot outside the American Can apartment building (3700 Orleans Ave., map) each Thursday afternoon. While the group’s Uptown and Warehouse District markets reopened after the catastrophe, the Mid-City market was put on hold indefinitely.
Enter Jon Smith (above), proprietor of Cork & Bottle Fine Wines, which is located in the American Can building. In April 2008, he organized and launched a new market on the same site, and dubbed it the Mid-City Green Market.
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 Not content with offering bottles of wine for $10 at our Steven Seagal Lawman viewing party tonight, our friends at Theo’s Pizza have arranged for a very special vintage to be served in honor of Jeff Parish’s top Zen-Taser Lawman: the Napa Valley cabernet known as the Ball Buster.
Check out what this review had to say about it:
The Ball Buster blend has been an annual Best Buy and, even at the current asking price, the 2007 The Ball Buster is an awesome value (at least for hedonists). It is composed of 72% Shiraz, 17% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 11% Merlot aged for 12 months in seasoned French and American oak. Opaque purple-colored, it has a nose of cedar, leather, spice box, and blueberry that leaps from the glass. This is followed by a plush, full-bodied wine with gobs of flavor and superior length.
And we’re all about superior length at Gambit. What about you, punk? You comin’ out tonight to our viewing party and trivia contest, where we’ll be giving away excellent Seagal-swag?
WHERE: Theo’s Pizza Mid-City (4024 Canal at Carrollton)
WHEN: Wed., Dec. 9, 8:30-10 pm (show starts at 9 pm)
DETAILS: You pay for your own pizza and beer, punk.
See you there. If you’re man (or woman) enough.
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We take you now to Albany, Louisiana, where a man bet his friends that the Redskins would win last Sunday’s game against the Saints … and if the Saints won, they could shoot up his TV real good.
Expecting this video to go viral in 3 … 2 … 1 ….
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 “Shane (MacGowan) doesn’t do interviews.” So went the response from the Pogues‘ publicist when I requested a chat with the venerable Irish/English band’s famously capricious frontman. Lucky for Gambit’s Voodoo coverage, guitarist Philip Chevron does do interviews, and he does them uncommonly well. Over 40 enlivened minutes, the sharp-witted and equally sharp-tongued Dubliner detailed his 25 years (give or take a few breaks) on tour with the inveterate boozers. What was worse, babysitting the orbital MacGowan or battling advanced throat cancer and chemotherapy? Read on.
It was a pleasant surprise to see your name added to the Voodoo lineup.
It’s been a long time since we played in New Orleans, so we’re very much looking forward to it. We played in Tipitina’s a couple times, must have been 1988, ’89. We made two or three visits to New Orleans, the Grace of God tour or just after. I love New Orleans. I was there earlier this year as a private citizen, as it were. I was actually checking out the Treme district, because a friend of ours, David Simon, was making his new HBO thing down there. We know him and George Pelecanos. They used “Body of an American” and a few other things in The Wire. One thing led to another, and we kind of hooked up and discovered we were mutual fans. Myself and Spider in particular were early adopters of The Wire.
I just wrote a story about the filming of the pilot. The team of writers he assembled is incredible: Pelecanos, Tom Piazza, Lolis Eric Elie.
I bought Faubourg Treme to have a look at it. And I was fascinated! That tells the story we really don’t know, that New Orleans existed almost as a parallel entity, really, even during the Jim Crow days. It’s a really good film, that. The way they got those narratives from people, and stuck with the same people throughout, was really brilliant. My response when I saw it was absolutely the same as David: I’ve got to find out more about this. This is too good a story not to know.
We’re so used to being portrayed in caricature. Simon’s approach should be quite a change.
I’m fascinated by the city, always have been. I’m fascinated by how it kind of exists likely at an angle from America. Of course the whole business of Katrina revealed so much of what mainstream America, Main Street America, felt about New Orleans. It really did have a quite extraordinary effect outside of America, because it was a bit like looking at pictures of Calcutta. It was hard to believe that there was a Third World country within the United States. I’m very much aware that the political ramifications and fallout of Katrina are still not sorted, and nowhere near resolved. I think that’s a huge shame. But it’s the same old story. The vultures will descend and try to turn New Orleans into a theme park version of itself, if they can. People have continued to fight it. But if anyone can fight it, New Orleans can fight it, because it’s had such an independent history in the past. I’ve always been fascinated by the mixture of elements, in a way. It was in part a great Irish immigrant city and port, and had its own part to tell in that story. So, a fascinating place. I can’t wait to get back.
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Anyone monitoring the official Jefferson Parish Emergency Management Twitter account (now defunct!) at 1 a.m. on Monday must’ve been up for a surprise … a surprise that had nothing to do with hurricane watches, tornado warnings or Black Friday at Clearview Shopping Center.
We’ll let the official JP press release explain what happened:
This morning at approximately 1:00 a.m. an employee of the Jefferson Parish Emergency Management Department was at home e‐mailing a friend on a privately owned computer device. The two were discussing an old girlfriend using some explicit language. In the midst of their e‐mail conversation the employee accidentally sent a reply to the parish’s emergency management twitter account. The employee immediately realized his mistake and removed the content from the twitter site.
We sincerely apologize for this incident and for offending anyone who may have received this message.
The parish is removing the twitter account from the site until such time as more safe guards can be put in place to prevent this from happening again.
We must strike a balance between giving our emergency management staff the ability to send emergency information to our citizens on 24/7 basis from any location in an effort to protect lives and property with the need to prevent accidents and abuses from occurring on these social media sites.
Due to the fact that these messages were sent out on privately owned devices on a non‐parish owned network we do not have any access to the e‐mails or messages.
Fortunately, we do. Courtesy of Gambit reader Champ Superstar, the unexpurgated offending Tweet:
@JPEmergncyMgmt: frm behind. She love DP too. And loved 2 watch me be onside another woman
Reminder, kids: Don’t drink and Tweet!
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 Can’t tell your Viognier from your vodka or your Bogle from your Bloody Mary? There is one wine-soaked event that will teach you everything you need to know - as long as you are willing to work for it. Once a year Gambit’s Reds, Whites & Blues wine tasting brings together 150 different wines (and other beverages) in a bluesy event at the Pavilion of the Two Sisters at City Park. This is a teach-yourself evening where you stroll around the beautiful room, chat with friends, listen to The Harry Mayronne Trio and Leah Chase and nibble on goodies from, among others, Besh Steakhouse, St. James Cheese and Cafe Degas.
The best part? There is a raffle to win 150 bottles of wine. Trust me (my best friend won last year) that is a LOT of wine. It might even get you thru this holiday season.
New Orleans has no shortage of ways to imbibe - but 150 different drinks at one event…and the chance to win a bunch too? This is a must-do. Bring friends. Bring co-workers. Bring visitors. Bring a designated driver.
Thursday October 15
6pm-9pm
City Park Pavilion of the Two Sisters
Cheers!
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