A Riverwalk Interlude

The Louisiana Film Museum opening was last Wednesday, September 2. The latest addition to the NOLA museum scene is located at the Riverwalk, inside the Southern Food and Beverage Museum (SoFAB), also the home of the Museum of the American Cocktail.

It was a subdued opening with a small but engaged crowd wandering about. A gallery along one side of SoFAB has been dedicated to movie posters, production stills and other documents chronicling Louisiana’s continued role in the motion picture industry since 1908 and the film Faust (not sure what the Louisiana connection is) and the 1912 silent feature A Bucktown Romance .

Speaking of Bucktown romances, I was always enamored of Bruning’s whole broiled flounder (and my fave bread pudding); the restaurant’s original Bucktown building was damaged by Hurricane Georges in 1998 and the restaurant moved to a modern building across the canal on West End. It was the third oldest restaurant in the city and its renowned bar, built in the late 1800s, survived Georges but was swept into Lake Pontchartrain along with Bruning’s original building (still waiting repair from Georges) and the rest of Bucktown and West End by Hurricane Katrina. Bruning’s bar was rescued from the bottom of the lake, restored and now is a centerpiece of SoFAB.

The film museum is a nice little addition. Its web site, LouisianaFilm.org is a great resource with a comprehensive Louisiana filmography. At the opening, and in a total moment of NOLA randomness, Mardi Gras Indians showed up. Although I’ve gotten over any romance I may have had with the post-K resurgence of the fleur de lis, I was briefly smitten by this young lady’s shoulder-blade tattoo playing peek-a-boo with her ponytail while she was talking to one of the Indians.

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I love taking pictures at sunset, and I love being near the river. A very pleasant evening at the Riverwalk, including a passing parade of ships. A parade, floating, but no floats and no beads.

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2 Responses to A Riverwalk Interlude

  1. Nola on September 5, 2009 at 5:40 pm

    “Parade of ships.” Lovely description. Sounds like a nice NOLA summer evening.

  2. saintchick on September 14, 2009 at 2:28 pm

    I loved Brunings, one of my favorites. I used to be so afraid eating in the back room, over the lake, that one day it would collapse and we’d all fall in! Thanks for reminding me how much I miss those Pre-K days !

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