Mayberry Foodstuffs Grocery Closing

Oct 4, 2011 by SpaethC

As you may recall from my Downtown Grocery post, I’m a big fan of the Mayberry Foodstuffs grocery. While they don’t have enough to completely replace a trip to Kroger, they helped fill in the Downtown grocery void. I usually make a visit once week on my walk home from work and often chat a little with the person working. A couple of weeks ago he notified me that Mayberry will start grocery delivery in the Downtown and OTR areas. I figured business must be good. Sadly today our chat was not as positive as he told me Mayberry Grocery will be closing in late October. When I asked “closing? for good?” he said yes, unfortunately business has not been good enough to stay open. Some of the specialty products found in the store will be available in the other Campbell owned properties such as Skinny Pig and World Food Bar.

While I have noticed a reduction of hours and I’m typically the only customer when I do visit, I am surprised by the news. It seemed like a lot of money and work was put into the renovation of their space. I also thought the previous conversation about delivery was a sign business was ok. Unfortunately I guess it was not to be. At least we can still enjoy Josh Campbell’s food creations at Mayberry, Skinny Pig and World Food Bar.

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Findlay Market Focus- An Interview with David Le of Pho Lang Thang

Jun 9, 2011 by Loki

If you find yourself in Findlay Market do your taste buds a favor and pay these guys a visit. Just go look at the pictures on their Facebook page, your mouth will be watering in no time.

Hot Tip: If you want a real treat they’ll be at The Famous Neon’s Unplugged Sunday around 5 pm serving Bahn Mi (badass Vietnamese sandwiches), while Cue Cao from Kajun Crawfish serves up one of the only authentic New Orleans style crawfish boils I’ve seen outside of Louisiana. It will be fine evening of food at one of my favorite bars in the Queen City. Evil Uncle Loki rates this one five stars!

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Must Do Sunday: Crawfish Boil at Neons

May 10, 2011 by Loki

Okay, two of my favorite local things are coming with the thing I miss most about New Orleans!

From here in the Queen City the two elements in question are:

Pho Lang Thang – finally we’ve got some classic down home Vietnamese cooking in this town! I moved here from a city with a large Vietnamese population and I had missed that more than almost anything. Number one stop on every trip to Findlay Market!
The Famous Neons Unplugged – The living room of the OTR! Chilled out and fun with a brilliant courtyard and a solid bar. Little known to some a certain segment of the populace meet there to watch Dr Who…

From back home in NOLA? Crawfish! (As if you couldn’t tell that from the title.)

This trifecta is, as they say, full of WIN! You can be guaranteed that I’ll be there early, and if you can get me to stop eating long enough I might even teach you the proper way to peel a crawfish…

Trust me on this one. And no, I’m not getting paid or anything like that. I genuinely love both the places involved and if anyone in town can pull off this Gulf Coast tradition it would have to be the guys from Pho Lang Thang. As to hosting, only Neons and Mayday have the right vibe.

The details are here and the boil runs from 5to 8 pm.

I’ll see you there, just don’t get between me and the crawfish!

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Support Tuckers in the Wake of the Violence: Tweetup Saturday

Jan 18, 2011 by Loki

I was sitting on my couch trying to put together a belated post for MLK Day when the news rocketed across Twitter and Facebook: two people were shot in broad daylight at Tuckers in the OTR. My jaw dropped. Even by the standards of someone like myself, who grew up in a much more violent city, this was horrific.

I watched as waves of fear and remorse rippled through our local online community, made even worse by the fact that flying bullets are so rare here by comparison to what I’m used to (one of the reasons we ended up here). Then I started to see the type of reaction that warms my heart. In short order a Tweetup was conceived by Kate the Great (details below), a show of support for both this historic eatery and the neighborhood in which it resides. Let’s pack the house this coming Saturday, shall we?

You see this incident, while hideous, is colorful enough that detractors of the urban core will immediately rally around it. Residents of the area will be justifiably freaked out, and the reputation of this rebounding neighborhood will suffer a blow. While this incident is high profile, and injured people beloved by the community, it is not indicative of the OTR as a whole. If it were no one would be shocked by this outburst of violence. An outburst, I might add, that while uncommon could happen in any densely populated urban area.

Rather than allow this to strike a blow against the burgeoning Renaissance of the OTR let us instead stand up for our home and our fellows. This should become a rallying point for people to come together and enact a change for the better. Residents should look out for each other more and begin neighborhood watch groups. Bloggers and journalists need to ask “cui bono?” and track where our law enforcement budget is being deployed and with what results. It is a call to action, one I hope is heeded.

In the meantime a show of community, a show of faith, and a damn good meal are in order. Join us at Tucker’s on Saturday. We cannot let fear, violence and cynicism win out over intellect, community, and hope.

-Loki, Founder and Curator