To kick off the Spring season, Saint John is excited to announce its new spring menu items and an exciting champagne campaign with Mumm, featuring the most affordable Mumm prices in the quarter! 
 
MUMM’s BRUNCH (available daily, 11 am – 4 pm):
- Bottomless Mumm Mimosas: Choice of Mumm Napa Brut Prestige or Brut Rose for only $45.
- G.H. Mumm by the Bottle for ONLY $75 (Over $40 difference in savings when you dine for brunch!!).
- Saint John is also adding Bottomless Bloody Mary’s featuring Kettle One Vodka and Zatarains to the brunch menu ($25).

MUMM FOR DINNER:
Mumm Napa, Brut Prestige:  $16/gl   $62/bottle
Mumm Napa, Brut Rose:    $16/gl   $62/bottle
G.H. Mumm, Grand Cordon Brut     $30/gl  $118/bottle
Photos:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1UH-kUvMS166UCBFvX_dMq1ZDqkvDKWwx/view?usp=share_link
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Kqk96BeBcXCpvIe_ThGzzo74yax2EwTI/view?usp=share_link
 
AND NEW TO THE MENU:
CRAWFISH BREAD & BEAKFAST (brunch): Louisiana Crawfish Tails, Melted Pepper Jack Cheese, Holy Trinity on Toasted Leidenheimer French Bread with Fried Eggs and Green Remoulade Sauce
PORK CHOP YAKAMEIN: Double Cut Duroc Pork Chop, Creole Yakamein Broth, Hard Boiled Egg and Green Onions with Bucatini Pasta
CHARGRILLED FILET: 8oz Creole Seasoned Black Angus Filet with Crispy Oysters, Oyster Dressing, Grilled Eggplant and Herbed Garlic Butter
BROWN BUTTER SEARED SCALLOPS: U-10 Diver Scallops, Cracked Corn Grits, Broccoli Rabe with Nola Bordelaise, Hot Chili Oil and Toasted Herb Bread Crumbs
RIVER ROAD CRAWFISH ETOUFFEE: Breaux Bridge Crawfish Tails in Melted Butter, Holy Trinity and Garlic with Brown Roux and Steamed Louisiana Popcorn Rice

Devil Moon BBQ has opened its doors at 1100 Girod Street. The restaurnt couples a respect for the mainstays of American barbecue with a reverence for the lesser-known Cajun smokehouse traditions of South Louisiana. Located in the heart of downtown New Orleans and helmed by local chef and award-winning pitmaster Shannon Bingham, it conveys a sense of time and place not often reflected in barbecue joints by bringing Cajun smoked meats to the forefront. A robust whole-animal butchery program allows for the production of foundational Cajun dishes in tandem with iconic barbecue meats and sides like Texas-style brisket and Carolina-style pulled pork. Gumbo, sausages, and fermented local vegetables bring a depth of color and texture that nod to the restaurant’s local roots. 

In a city famous for po-boys and crawfish boils, Devil Moon BBQ sets out to shine a light on the time-honored smokehouse traditions of South Louisiana. Executive Chef Shannon Bingham taps into the formative flavors and techniques of his Louisiana childhood while incorporating more mainstream approaches picked up across stints in acclaimed BBQ joints from Texas to Georgia. The result is a menu that honors far-ranging American influences while retaining a deep sense of place.

Just in time for Mardi Gras and Jazz Fest, Miss River at Four Seasons Hotel New Orleans reinvigorates its buzzy weekend brunch with new menu items and a Jazz band every Saturday and Sunday starting Saturday, February 11. The hotel’s signature lobby-level restaurant – affectionately known as Chef Alon Shaya’s “love letter” to New Orleans – gives guests another reason to celebrate with a new bloody mary bar and a decadent family-style dining experience as guests take in the spirited sounds of a local jazz trio.

 The new brunch menu builds on fan favorites, like the restaurant’s signature Fried Chicken, while adding in new dishes for guests to fall in love with. Chef Alon will lead tables through a a multi-course journey beginning with a spread of warm sweet potato brioche rolls with cane syrup butter. Other playful table starters include pickled crab claws, deviled eggs, a yogurt vinaigrette salad, and Best Stop boudin served with crackers, mustard and scallions.

A selection of main dishes – each with a dazzling display – includes buttermilk-fried chicken and biscuits served with dipping sauces; pain perdue topped with bananas, pecans and artisanal sugar cane syrup; clay pot dirty rice with duck egg and creamy liver pate; eggs crème de la crème over toasted brioche and topped with hollandaise and paddlefish caviar; shrimp and grits; and Chef Alon’s take on classic steak and eggs. Guests will be treated to a sweet finish with butter-fried beignets and vanilla toasted cream sauce. Miss River’s family-style brunch menu starts at $70 USD per person for three courses.

Couvant is bringing back its lunch service with a new menu beginning this Wednesday, February 1! Couvant will offer lunch to hotel guests and New Orleans locals/visitors Monday – Friday from 11 am – 2 pm, perfect for the Warehouse District/Downtown/CBD community looking for an easy lunch stop during a busy workday. The restaurant will serve reimagined French-Southern dishes including:
 
A butternut squash velouté (Fekette farm squash with wild mushrooms and pancetta).
Tuna Tartare (yuzu kosho aioli with kambu tapioca crisp).
Grilled shrimp and Israeli couscous salad (grilled Grand Isle shrimp, vegetables Provençal, roasted tomato vinaigrette).
Tuna niçoise (seared yellowfin tuna, boiled eggs, green beans, anchovies, olives, romaine lettuce, Dijon-shallot vinaigrette).
Maggie’s Mushroom Tagliatelle (farm egg yolk dough, Nduja, aged parmesan).
Gulf fish chaudree (grilled Grand Isle shrimp, bacon lardons with a creamy shellfish infused sauce).
Croque madam and monsieur (Jambon de Paris, Gruyere, truffled mornay, with mixed greens and parmesan salad).
Duck confit (green lentils, triple cream blue cheese, grilled broccoli rabe, seasonal vegetables, candied orange peel).

Review by Emily Hingle

The hip stretch of Magazine Street between Jefferson and Henry Clay Avenues is home to several boutiques catering to the aging Millennial, quick-service eateries specializing in healthy foods (Playa Bowls) or tasty foods (District Donuts), and a brand-new piercing boutique called Studs. 
This cool, clean, studio is a perfect fit for the neighborhood, all eye-popping neon accents, uptempo pop tunes and translucent neon green stands showcasing the goods.

Studs is all about the ear. Staff are happy to consult about earscaping: the art of strategic ear piercings in order to stack jewelry for a dramatic look. You fill out some forms, provide ID, and you are shown a selection of jewelry. Using a chart, you select exactly where you want that new piece of jewelry to go. My piercer, Raynbow, met me in the lobby to discuss piercing location, the heal time, and what jewelry would be best for that particular area. I decided to get the Snakebite Midi, which is two piercings close together.

Raynbow invited me back to the freshly-sterilized room. It looked almost like a doctor’s office with a sink, a cushy patient table, and sterilized instruments, but the bright yellow accents and hair clips in jars brings it all back to ear piercing. After confirming things, she explained in detail how she would do the piercings, and how the flat-back jewelry works. She really put me at ease, and I imagine that she is amazing at helping nervous clients get through the process well. 

Raynbow spoke to me throughout, making sure I was handling the process. Some people can experience light-headedness or actually faint while being pierced, and it was clear that she was ready for that possibility. Afterwards, Raynbow again went over the after-care regimen and handed me a guide. As I left, the staff gave me a goody bag with holographic stickers, a scratch-off game to possibly win a discount, and a stick-on diamond tattoo (which I have not seen in 20 years!).
 
As a young girl, I was taken to the mall to get my ears pierced. It was a rite-of-passage for girls in the 1990s and 2000s to sit in the store’s window with everyone watching, and get pierced via piercing gun by a possibly inexperienced (and nervous) clerk. It wasn’t unheard of at these mall stores for the piercer to set off the gun when you weren’t expecting it. She might say, “I’m going to do it on the count of three. One…CLICK!” After the event, you were told to wash the piercing and turn it regularly to get it healed up. As an adult, I’ve also had piercings and tattoos from various tattoo parlors. They can be noisy and intimidating places. 

Studs is a spot for kids to go to have a fun, safe, and private piercing experience, and it’s a tranquil environment for adults as well. It felt good to be in a room by myself instead of out in the open. It’s certainly safer to be pierced with a needle rather than a gun that shoots an actual earring through your lobe, but I never knew about not twirling your earring until the knowledgeable staff here explained why that’s a terrible idea. 

I would certainly go back for single piercings, but the boutique’s emphasis on earscaping and the jewelry sets that they create for that are making me think about doing more. 
​
Studs is open at 5705 Magazine Street, 11am-7pm daily. 

FIRST NIGHT REVIEW
​Sects and Violins
Fiddler on the Roof @ The Saenger Theater

The themes of tradition being challenged by new ideas is one that looms large in many ways over this beloved 60-year old musical. The staging itself creates these very tensions, and in this touring ‘Broadway in New Orleans’ production, a couple of small modern touches are introduced to emphasize the ongoing relevance of the story. The story is book-ended by the lead in a modern, bright orange parka, driving home that the themes ring true for the people of Syria, or even more topically, Ukranians (to whom the show is dedicated). 

Tevye (Jonathan Hashmoney) is an impoverished milkman in a Jewish village in Tsarist Russia in 1905, who nevertheless delights in the rules that bind society and will help him marry off his five daughters. If there’s a stronger, more emphatic opening number than ‘Tradition’ then I’ve yet to see it, the central tensions of the show set up with incredible gusto from the off. “People ask me where these traditions come from,” Tevye confides to the audience, “And I’ll tell you…I don’t know.”

Tevye lives happily with his wife, Golde (Maite Uzal), a hard-working pragmatist with a no-nonsense outlook. His three eldest daughters are approaching marrying age, and although the meddling matchmaker Yente (Gabriella Green) fusses around them, they each have their own ideas, which slowly but surely come to the fore.

Tevye speculates on how life could be, and while being grateful for his faith and culture, wishes for just a little more in life. Hashmoney brings a fresh charisma to the number ‘If I Were a Rich Man’, ramping up the laughs as his imagined life of wealth gets ever more decadent. 

At first, life is comically exasperating for Tevye, as his eldest Tzeitel (Randa Meierhenry) ducks away from an arranged marriage to bluff elder butcher Lazar Wolf (Andrew Hendrick). She has eyes for the local tailor Motel (Daniel Kushner) and Tevye goes against his better judgment and relents. 

In these early scenes, fast-paced humor dominates, and the lines come thick and fast. Lazar Wolf offers Tevye a drink - “I won’t insult you by saying no!” comes the reply. Perchik (Austin J Gresham), a young student, tells Tevye that money is the world’s curse - “Then let God smite me with it!” yells the dairyman. There’s also a telling part where Perchik interprets a bible story as saying that “all employers are evil” and let me tell you, only the back half of the theater laughed. 

Tzeitel and Motel’s wedding comes as a first act climax, with joyous scenes of incredibly gymnastic and inspirationally-arranged dance numbers. People usually think of West Side Story, but Fiddler on the Roof is low-key one of the greatest musicals for dance numbers. Back flips, feats of agility, and of course the famous bottle dance, explode on the crowded stage. All credit to the truly outstanding work by choreographer Hofesh Shechter. 

Already, though, the cracks in age-old practices are starting to appear. Perchik dances with unmarried Hodel (Graceann Kontak) to initial outrage, and the wedding is broken up by Tsarist militia men, in a stark warning of the violence to come. 

Tevye’s world begins to crumble as we start the second act. Hodel and Perchik declare their love, Tevye’s permission overstepped. He very sheepishly gives his blessing, with a lament: “Love! It’s the new way!” His limits are severely tested, though, as Chava (Yarden Barr), falls for a visitor, Fyedka (Carson Robinette), who isn’t Jewish. He questions his own relationship with Golde, as they duet on the gorgeous second half highlight, ‘Do You Love Me?’.

The family unit is strained, as is the community as they are violently evicted from their village by the Tsarist forces. New ways and ideas come in many guises, from cheeky loopholes that allow teenagers to dance together to the extermination of a people and their culture. It’s a pretty bleak ending but the power of hope is never extinguished. 

Breathing new life into a 60-year old musical can’t be easy, but Michael Yeargan’s sets and Catherine Zuber’s costumes do fabulous work in updating the aesthetics without losing the ambience of an early 20th-century East European village. Tevye’s incredible dream sequence wouldn’t look out of place in a Tim Burton movie, and classic set pieces such as the expertly-rendered bottle dance are utterly compelling, visually reinforcing the subtle, growing tensions.

I’d only ever seen half of the epic film, and so to experience the full range of emotion, from belly laughs to near-unbearable poignancy, was unexpected but very welcome. This production of Fiddler is as fresh, challenging and relevant as it must have been in the 1960s. We can pay respect to theatrical traditions while accepting new ideas, and when a huge ensemble uses both to create something this powerful and entertaining, that’s surely the real sweet spot. (PO)

Fiddler on the Roof plays at the Saenger Theater through Sunday March 5th. Click here for more information and tickets.