Corner of Magazine and General Pershing. Lunch. Glass of rose, white tablecloth. Here's to a new start! ....Never mind that it's my fifth, sixth or seventh new start, lost count, but who's counting anyway?
Yesterday, while looking through Traveler magazine, I read the caption to a picture from one of the scenes in the recent film version of Jack Kerouac's On the Road that listed a number of spots where the movie had been filmed. One area was in the bayous of Louisiana and, while the cast was here filming the movie, they chose La Petit Grocery as their hangout. So naturally, I pulled on my high heel boots care of a good friend I met while living in Seattle and came straight here for lunch to discover what their experience was like. I mean, what better way to celebrate yet another new beginning than by some loose connection to On the Road.
Bibb lettuce, boiled quail egg, buttermilk dressing, lump crabmeat, bacon and finely grated fancy cheese (that I can't pronounce).
La Petit Grocery has an Old World feel in its design with jazzy, New Age and sometimes French music playing in the background. It's a sunny, blue sky, partly cloudy day and the light is streaming through their storefront windows overlooking Magazine. A group of six enjoy wine and lunch out on the sidewalk. Shoppers pass by in both directions on their way to the next boutique clothing store, gallery or antique shop. To my right, in the hull of the dining room a table of ten or twelve ladies in their twilight enjoy lunch together. I could be in France right now but discussion a table over is embedded in the strength of secondary education at McGehee's and Newman.Two pivotal topics for any well-bred Uptown New Orleans lunch conversation. From my booth seat facing LPG's extensive bar, I look out across Magazine and to the right is the Model Cleaners with a sizable neon sign with rolling messages that includes a sort of Japanese-looking character dancing before the words go sliding by. Next door to the left of the Model Cleaners and above the parked delivery truck hauling antiques, I can see the faded sign of Vicky's Supermarket with their retro Coca Cola light-up sign. Just before marching with a brass band in the 2012 Proteus parade, a group of us had some fried catfish and shrimp with fries from Vicky's and, boy, were they good. I actually don't suggest eating them before marching in a parade but otherwise very tasty. Now completely aware that I am still, in fact, in New Orleans and not France, I move for dessert.
Louisiana Style Strawberry Shortcake with Columbian drip coffee and cream. Strawberries from Ponchatoula, as they should be.
Not a bad start for a new life, LPG is a fancy spot and I'm really more of jeans girl but I would go there again and again.
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