Do any of you Remember Ponzza Mid-City Resturant

In New Orleans years ago, or Musso's, or Wise Cafeteria?:bncry:

 

Fitzgerald's at the lake, Liuzza's, Mandina's

 

Fitzgeralds at the lake...Brunning's...How can I forget thee?

Those days are gone forever. Chocolate city has changed everything. This is not racist, I'm talking about how the city is doing everything in it's power to suck money from businesses and their employees who work there so that they may continue in their extortion. They only place red light cameras on the routes to and from the CBD and uptown...none in central city. This cancer has spread to Jefferson Parish and the Northshore as well. Polital "entitlement". St Tammany has the highest millages, assesments, sales taxes, etc. in the state. NOT very business friendly at all !!! :dis:.

In this climate, no one will ever rebuild places like that...unless you're planning to lose money on purpose for tax reasons or something.

 

liuzzas and brunnings. i remember first time we drove along the lake after katrina to the area brunnings used to be. i dont even want to try to describe it.

and you are wrong steve. it is katrina that changed everything. places like brunnings that had been there forever, and only having the building gone including the foundation made it go away.

or in bucktown, the new levee and locks and levee on the 17th street canal where the fishing fleet used to be and that it took away the land where - oh crap, blonde moment, cant remember the name of the restaurant - used to be.

i am disgusted with nagin and a lot of the shenanigans going on in nola as much as anything. but dont kid yourself. katrina was the tipping point. katrina is what changed everything. and im convinced nagin. he wasnt half as bad before katrina. she pushed him over the edge too.

i love nola still. it breaks my heart we have to sell our house there now and are having to walk away. i get angry when people continually run her down and dont see that there is still hope, still potential. and if i hear "chocolate city" one more time, i am gonna slap someone. its new orleans, damnit!

now, to not railroad the thread,

the sauteed softshell crab at brunnings was out of this world. a couple of those and some of their sweet potato fries and i was a happy camper. and a poboy at liuzzas....

 

I agree Katrina changed everything. when I referred to chocolate city I was using that phrase for the entire political establishment in Orleans parish. Not many places in the entire greater New Orleans area are business friendly. Jefferson Parish and St Tammany as well for the reasons listed above. The municipalities are trying to rake in as many $$ as they possibly can with the red light cameras for example. It's like free money for the politicos to spend and spend some more. Planning is non existent and development is willy-nilly. Lots of big problems here post Katrina.

Any way, My favorite memory from Liuzzas was One Friday after wrestling practice, a teammate and I were eating onion rings and drinking a beer from one of those frozen chalices they use. The bartender came up to us (in our Jesuit uniforms) and told us to leave now because the vice squad was on the way. (He had gotten the warning by phone from his friend who was on the squad.). He didn't even want us to pay. On the way out, we saw the cops coming down the street. They were busted, not for any minors like us, but for having one of those old time gambling pinball machines that had no flippers on the premises. We read about it in the police reports the next day.

I miss the days when the neighborhood bars had bookies that used to take bets on the horses and football. It's not just Katrina,...the internet changed everything too.

 

To quote Merle Haggard: "Are the good times really over for good?"

 

T Pitari's and Sclafani's :thumb:.

 

Lenfants :thumb:

 

Sid Mar's