It's New Orleans: Midnight Menu +1 - podcast cover

It's New Orleans: Midnight Menu +1

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Ray Cannata has eaten at over 750 New Orleans restaurants, so he knows a thing or two about hanging out. Margo Moss has turned Ted's Frostop from a greasy spoon into a considerably less greasy but not quite silver spoon. When the sun goes down on The NOLA Brewing Tap Room in the Irish Channel, Ray and Margo entertain members of New Orleans restaurant community. Their guests bring along a friend, a +1. Anything can happen.

Episodes

Trout Manure Diet Cheater

What s the difference between God and a Goddess The former is everywhere and the latter is in one place at a time, right NOLA Food Goddess Lori Gaudin comes mighty close to challenging that definition. Ray and Margo do their best to list all Lorin s culinary exploits from blogs to cookbooks, podcasts, TV shows, social media, and radio programs, but the list of achievements pales like vanilla against the colorful conversation about Lorin s life. From disparate childhood influences to daring early...

Feb 01, 201953 min

Tequila Is The New Scotch - Midnight Menu +1 - It's New Orleans

Chef Richard Papier still remembers when Mexican food in New Orleans meant Taco Bell. And he s not that old. Chef Richard is changing how we experience Mexican dishes with authentic recipes from Mexico steeped in his fine dining training working alongside Emeril, Susan Spicer, Nathaniel Zymet, Donald Link and Guillermo Peters. Chef Richard s new Uptown restaurant on Magazine Street is a few thousand giant steps up from Nacho Mama s, the space it now occupies. Arana Taqueria y Cantina is the real...

Jan 02, 201851 min

Low and Slow - Midnight Menu +1 - It's New Orleans

Bar B Q ain t what it used to be when dad threw a few ribs and chickens on the grill, pretty much forgot about it while he got loaded on crappy beer and we all had to pray mom s potato salad was edible before we were forced to accompany it with various forms of carbon which we just knew would give us all cancer. Well, we survived. And just as well because we ve lived long enough to learn to bar b q right thanks to the pride of Mid City, Colleen Rush. Colleen wrote the 10 commandments of bar b q,...

May 02, 201751 min

I Am The Rooster - Midnight Menu +1 - It's New Orleans

Many things in life are not as simple as they appear. That goes for sausage. And hogshead cheese. And hearts, bellies, snouts, stomachs and every part of an animal you could butcher that ends up in a meat product or on a smoker. Chris Roos aka The Rooster is a meat broker. A meat middle man whose company Holton Meats See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Feb 09, 201749 min

Food Fighters - Midnight Menu +1 - It's New Orleans

If you re the type of New Orleanian who "goes out" meaning you spend time in bars or music clubs and tend to see the same couple of hundred faces, some of whom you know by name and some of whom you just recognize Joe Armitage is a fellow traveler. Joe has been working in restaurants around New Orleans for, by his own reckoning, 30 years. And he s only 43. For about the same amount of time he s been playing in bands around town. So if you go out there s a fair chance you know Joe. Most recently y...

Nov 28, 201647 min

Based On a True Story - Midnight Menu +1 - It's New Orleans

If you want to know what really goes on at Stein s Deli, Bouligny, Bellocq, Cellar Door, and you want the answer from a chef to the age old question "Do chefs spit in people s food " this show might have everything you re looking for. Then again, everything in this conversation could be a total lie. It s hard to tell. When mixologist, maitre D and film maker Mike Yusko one of our favorite all time guests asked Midnight Menu 1 if he could shoot a scene for his upcoming movie on our show we readil...

Jul 28, 201657 min

Allez Alon! - Midnight Menu +1 - It's New Orleans

Domenica link1 Chef Alon Shaya explains how an Israeli living in New Orleans fell in love with Italy and Italian food and why cooking it is a way of life. His surprise 1 is the real deal. link1 http www.domenicarestaurant.com See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Feb 22, 201659 min

Your Bead Dog Ate My King Cake - Midnight Menu +1 - It's New Orleans

Meredith Timberlake brings along 40 pounds of Haydel s Bakery King Cake to share with Margo and Ray on Midnight Menu 1. In an "only in New Orleans" way of life, Meredith works off her day job king cake by being a cross fit trainer and a power weight lifter. Meredith s 1, Cornell Landry, started out owning restaurants and cooking. When he discovered he could write children s books Cornell left the restaurant business but didn t entirely leave food out of his stories. Cornell is the author of the ...

Feb 03, 201652 min

Mondo Loco Tocco - Midnight Menu +1 - It's New Orleans

Welcome to the amazing crazy world of Tony Tocco, circling the Earth at 5x the speed of life. Ray accurately describes Tony as having an influence on more hip New Orleans places than almost anybody in town. Tony was on the floor the night Bayona opened, spent a decade at Gautreau s, was the co founder of Snake and Jake s Xmas Club Lounge, The Circle Bar, and his current super success, Atchafalya. Tony s plus one, David "Feel No" Payne, has an equally storied NOLA dining pedigree spanning Bayona,...

Jan 27, 201650 min

Two Girls One Shuck - Midnight Menu +1 - It's New Orleans

If you re looking at the title of this show, Two Girls One Shuck and think the name of this oyster shucking duo is a play on the f word, you re in a better place than knowing the truth. Don t, for the love of God, Google "Two Girls One Cup." Your life will never be the same. Becky Wasden and Stefani Sel met one unlikely evening in a straight bar in Salt Lake City after every lesbian in the state of Idaho had spilled out of a Melissa Etheridge concert. They ve been together ever since and when an...

Nov 19, 201547 min

Rum and Folk - Midnight Menu +1 - It's New Orleans

Phil Minissale visited New Orleans for the first time when he was 17. An impressionable age, Phil got the bug and as the years unfolded found himself visiting the city as often as he could get here. As a traveling songwriter, Phil made his way through New Orleans on extensive tours, either playing the Blue Nile or Neutral Ground Coffeehouse each year. In 2012, with nothing but a fierce impulsive desire, Phil stuffed his 97 Civic Hatchback may she RIP with all his clothes, guitars, and potato chi...

Oct 07, 201553 min

Little Gem - Midnight Menu +1 - It's New Orleans

Nick Bazan started out washing dishes at Shoney s in New Orleans East. Two years later he was the longest serving and hardest working sucka in the history of Shoney s, still making a little over minimum wage as a line cook, working "It s illegal by the way" 12 hour shifts without a break. The he wised up, got the heck outa there and started on a career working the gamut of famous New Orleans restaurants till he ended up as an owner of Rio Mar and now the historic Little Gem Saloon. If the walls ...

Aug 25, 201552 min

Katie Dreams of Sushi Fest - Midnight Menu +1 - It's New Orleans

If you're the type of person who love's sushi with a passion, then you're probably like Cheryl Lemoine. If you're the type of person who creates an entire festival around sushi, and then comes onto Midnight Menu 1 to talk about it, then you most likely are Cheryl Lemoine. Cheryl sits down with Ray and Margo this week to discuss the second annual New Orleans Sushi Fest and Competition. But Cheryl isn't just the brains behind Sushi Fest; she also works for Renaissance publishing and enjoys rabbit ...

Aug 04, 201548 min

Roast 'em If You Got 'em - Midnight Menu +1 - It's New Orleans

Ironically it s the worlds crappiest coffee that started the international "second wave" of coffee drinking that continues to crank up the world on caffeine. Having gotten us all hooked, the green St Joan of coffee watches implacably from her ubiquitous seal as those with more discerning taste enter the era known as The 3rd Wave of Coffee, pursuing an ever growing flight to quality. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jul 21, 201550 min

It's The 90's, Dad - Midnight Menu +1 - It's New Orleans

Calling Luke Deadnettlez a barista is a little like calling Richard Branson a businessman, or Mick Jagger a vocalist. While it s essentially true, the job description doesn t begin to do justice to the scope of their influence. Luke holds court daily at Zotz coffee shop on Oak Street. He doesn t own the place that distinction belongs to a couple Luke describes as "Old school New Orleans Goths" but Luke s been there for a decade and his brand of intensity, humor, politics, and ambiguous relations...

Jun 30, 201552 min

Old McLocal Had a Farm - Midnight Menu +1 - It's New Orleans

If you catch and smoke a raccoon, an event that involves neither a farm or table, is that strictly "farm to table" That is just one of the many vexing questions posed by the annual Eat Local Challenge in which you re challenged to eat only locally sourced foods for 30 days. Eric Bucich is a board member of the Eat Local Challenge. He s a raccoon smoker. And he eats bugs. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jun 16, 201546 min

Yelp: It's What's For Dinner - Midnight Menu +1 - It's New Orleans

Of all the TV shows, radio shows and podcasts about food of all the years of restaurant reviews in newspapers probably nothing has revolutionized dining out more than the smart phone app, Yelp. Yelp puts the power of approval or disapproval of a restaurant in the hands of regular people. But it also means in New Orleans that tourists have discovered every great little neighborhood restaurant that we used to consider local. That s just one of the daily issues that local Yelp Community Manager Mor...

May 26, 201549 min

Green to Go Sweets to Stay - Midnight Menu +1 - It's New Orleans

Ray and Margo sit down at an especially lively night at the Nola Tap Room to welcome our first official returning guest, Gia Di Leo of Green to Go. Gia has to shout to be heard over the noise, but she s so excited that she d probably be shouting anyway, because Gia is just days away from opening Green to Go s first brick and mortar store See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

May 19, 201539 min

Grand Isle Jubilee - Midnight Menu +1 - It's New Orleans

Margot was on a hot streak at the dog track and couldn t make it these week, so Ray is flying solo. But don t worry, Chef Ryan Haigler of Grand Isle is never short on conversation. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

May 12, 20151 hr 2 min

Beer Barbecue and Bertucci - Midnight Menu +1 - It's New Orleans

Kirk Coco s inspiration for opening NOLA Brewing is inextricably entwined with the US Navy, Hurricane Katrina, Dixie Beer, and the clap. In a city of colorful characters, Kirk Coco is a colorful character. A wonderful combination of impetuousness, frank honesty, and business acumen, Kirk s venture into brewing is from his telling something akin to a blind man wandering drunk along the edge of a cliff. But in this case the blind man s sense of direction is impeccable. What could a guy who was a l...

May 05, 201558 min

Jack and Jake and Marc and Nina - Midnight Menu +1 - It's New Orleans

Nina Camacho and Marc Quiroz have known each other before they were born. Their fathers were college room mates and had kids within a month of each other. Those kids, Nina and Marc, have stayed friends ever since. Today, after a circuitous route that has taken them individually across the country, they are both back in New Orleans. Nina is part of the team opening Jack and Jake s Public Market on OCH Blvd and Mark is working with returned veterans. Nina and Marc are both as passionate about New ...

Apr 07, 201542 min

Not Dissin Dem or Dissin Dat or Dis n Dat but Dis n Dem - Midnight Menu +1 - It's New Orleans

Like many New Orleans kids, Colin Provensal was hanging out in bars way too young. In Colin s case, 7. And he was playing piano. By 13 he had a regular Saturday night piano gig in a restaurant on the Orleans Jefferson parish line at the beginning of Veterans Boulevard. At 14 he was working in his first restaurant, dropped out of high school, and he s been in the food biz ever since. Colin s current gig is a breakfast pop up in a restaurant that, depending on when you read this, is either still c...

Mar 17, 201538 min

Jambalaya Girl - Midnight Menu +1 - It's New Orleans

If you shop at a New Orleans Sam s Club pretty much any weekend you ll see a guy or a girl stirring a giant pot of jambalaya. The girl wearing yellow plastic fork earrings is Jambalaya Girl Kristen Preau and the guy is her brother Kevin. When you get home from Sam s you can cook up the same jambalaya from a pack of Cook Me Somethin Mister jambalaya. Kristen and Kevin aren t cooking at Sam s out of desperation for you to sample their jambalaya, Cook Me Somethin Mister is available in over 600 sto...

Mar 10, 201552 min

Magic Beans and The Different Colored Soup - Midnight Menu +1 - It's New Orleans

"Food evangelism" probably doesn t sound too appealing, but spend a few minutes in the fresh food revival tent with Emery Sonnier and Kimisha Sawyers and you ll be testifying you ve seen the light and a holy band of green angels. Emery is the Associate Director of Market Umbrella, the folks who put on 4 Farmers Markets a week in New Orleans. Kim is the market s Evaluation Manager. Growing up in a Sicilian New Orleans family and working as Assistant Editor of Food and Wine magazine New York, Emer...

Feb 10, 201545 min

Simple Things Done Right - Midnight Menu +1 - It's New Orleans

You might think naming a restaurant after a ditch is maybe sending the wrong message about the standard or even type of food you d expect to get there. But when the ditch is "Trenasse" the Cajun French word for a cut through in the bayou and the location is the tony Intercontinental Hotel on St Charles Avenue in New Orleans, it all starts to make sense. Chef Jean Pierre Guidry has a prestigious name in American kitchens, having worked this way through both the CIA and the culinary college of rea...

Jan 27, 201551 min

Trucks Powered By Figs - Midnight Menu +1 - It's New Orleans

When Barrie Schwarz went home from work as a food runner in a restaurant and tried to figure out what she could do to open a business in between throwing parties at her house, she realized that maybe if she combined all three parts of her life throwing parties at her house for the people at work as a business she d hit a home run. Well, it wasn t totally a home run but it was a lead off double and led her to the next step throwing parties at places other than her house and getting people other t...

Jan 20, 201552 min

You Can't Beat Wagner's Poboy - Midnight Menu +1 - It's New Orleans

Scott and Jane Wolfe got married and opened their first grocery store when he was 19 and she was 17. A few grocery stores later Jane and Scott were to discover a factoid about marketing that changed their lives and etched an indelibe icon into the minds of all New Orleanians. Dispensing with every other daily special in their grocery stores, Scott and Jane swung for the fences and hit a home run with their never ending meat specials. Now, all these years later, after pre katrina i.e. voluntary r...

Jan 13, 201547 min