St. Tammany Taste Quick Bites: Wild Bush Farm and Vineyard

There’s a lot more to a successful wine business than just growing grapes! Monica Bourgeois and Neal Gernon are experts on that topic. The two wine lovers met while working in the New Orleans hospitality industry. They gained retail experience managing bottle shops before transitioning to wholesale wine distribution, making great California vineyard friends along the way. Together, Monica and Neal identified a void in the wine business. They began to imagine a way to combine special blends, artistic and fun packaging and what they call “great juice at reasonable prices” - which is how Vending Machine Wines was born over a decade ago.

Meet The Mandinas

New Orleans is well known for its legacy restaurant families. And now, just across the Mississippi River in Gretna, the Mandina clan is poised to claim its own place in our culinary pantheon. On this week's show, we meet three generations of family who have made Tony Mandina’s a Westbank culinary institution.

Give The People What They Want

You can’t always get what you want. That’s been especially true during these unpredictable times. Now more than ever, there’s something comforting about the familiar – like a restaurant where you can order exactly what you want off the menu and are greeted with a smile whenever you walk through the door.

A New Orleans Vacation

The summer of 2022 is looking like a perfect time for a vacation. After enduring a lot of stay-at-home time over the last two years, there's plenty to explore in one of America's favorite playgrounds – New Orleans. On this week's show, we learn about Vue Orleans – the 20-million-dollar multimedia experience that opened earlier this year at the foot of Canal Street.

Back At The Track: More Jazz Fest Tales

It’s Week Two of the 2022 New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, and after a two-year hiatus, that’s something to celebrate! On this week's show, Louisiana Eats is back at the track with more stories of the food, fun, and feasting that's been going on there for half a century.

Jazz Fest Rebirth 2022

It's been a long time since May 5, 2019 – when the high temperature that beautiful sunny Sunday barely hit 72 degrees at the New Orleans Fairgrounds and Jazz Fest 2019 called it a wrap. The following year, the festival went silent, one of the earliest high-profile events forced to cancel due to the unfolding global pandemic. Plans for a 2021 edition of the fest were also scrapped. With the festival gates finally open again this spring, Louisiana Eats is celebrating this happy return with some Jazz and Heritage Festival favorites.

Life On The River's Edge

Between the levee and the Mississippi River is the batture – a lively slip of wilderness that a tiny community calls home. There's batture land right here in the midst of metropolitan New Orleans – but unless you're lucky enough to know a batture dweller, there's a good chance you weren't aware of one of the city’s most unconventional neighborhoods.

Quick Bites: Old Friends Make The Best Friends

Since 1960 the Rouses family has specialized in making customers feel right at home when shopping in their stores - which now number 64 groceries stretching across Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi. One of the ways Rouses ensures that feeling of home is through their employees. There are few better examples of that than Marc Ardoin, manager of the Rouses Market on Freret Street.

Food, Drink, DiningPoppy TookerApril 20, 2022Louisiana Eats, Poppy Tooker, Rouses Markets, Marc Ardoin, Freret Street, Fredo Nogueira, Juan NogueiraComment

St. Tammany Taste Quick Bites: The Gloriette's Chef Steven Marsella

Just across the causeway in the sleepy little town of Covington lies a landmark hotel, The Southern Hotel. Originally built in 1905 the mission-style hotel has lived many lives over the years. Opened in 1907 the hotel boasted hot water electric lights AND carpeting. In 1912 it was bought by a physician and used for a while as a sanitarium/resort treating people with respiratory illnesses.

Food, Drink, DiningPoppy TookerApril 15, 2022Louisiana Eats, Poppy Tooker, The Southern Hotel, The Gloriette, Chef Steven MarsellaComment

A Taste Of Spring

Spring is in bloom in the Bayou State, which means festivals, outdoor gatherings and, of course, Easter! If you grew up in the Gulf South, there's a good chance your Easter basket was filled with treats from Elmer Chocolate – our state's very own heritage candy company. On this week’s show, we hop over to Ponchatoula to tour the factory where Elmer’s prized Gold Bricks, Heavenly Hash, and Pecan Eggs are made.

Beaucoup Beignets

The beignet. That simple square of fried dough is undeniably one of the Crescent City’s most famous foods. Few visitors leave town without a ceremonial dusting of powdered sugar that occurs with every beignet bite. Since the mid-nineteenth century, the ubiquitous donut has been sold from French Market stands accompanied by steaming hot cups of café au lait. Twenty-first century chefs and restaurateurs have taken that simple fried dough to new heights, filling them with ingredients both savory and sweet and featuring them on menus far from home.

Food, Drink, DiningPoppy TookerApril 2, 2022Morning call, Bob Hennessey, Jaclyn Robinson, Gulf Coast Blenders, The VIntageComment

Cookbooks: A Deep Sea Dive

In today's fast-paced world, where virtually every recipe can be conjured up by doing a quick search online, do cookbooks really matter? After hearing this week's show, we think you'll join us in a resounding yes. Cookbooks teach us techniques and introduce us to new ingredients and cultures. They expand our palates and remind us of old-fashioned ways of doing things – ways that can evoke memories of our long lost loved ones.

Festive Feast Days

Down here in Louisiana we love any excuse for a party. Our very Catholic culture dictates that Ash Wednesday is supposed to usher in 40 days of fasting and abstaining, but thanks to a few saints whose feast days fall during that Lenten period, our party just continues.

Food, Drink, DiningPoppy TookerMarch 12, 2022St. Patrick's Day, St. Joseph's Day, Laura Kelley, Purim, Berney Bernstein, Laura GuccioneComment

To Ignatius with Love: A Culinary Tribute to a Confederacy of Dunces

John Kennedy Toole's novel A Confederacy of Dunces is internationally revered for having captured the essence and eccentricity of New Orleans — and for introducing readers to its larger-than-life protagonist, Ignatius J. Reilly. On this week's show, we take a culinary look between the pages of the book that was posthumously awarded the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1981.

Hospitality's Black History Toasts The Future

Racism in many forms has played an outsized and unfortunate role in Louisiana history. But throughout that history there have been strong, brave leaders who have worked to right the wrongs of the past. On this week's show we introduce you to pioneers past and present who have made a difference.

Food, Dining, DrinkPoppy TookerFebruary 12, 2022Louisiana Eats, Poppy Tooker, Toure Folks, Todd Price, Vance VaucressonComment

Beverage Pioneers

There’s a lot brewing in Louisiana today. On this week’s show, meet the innovators, the brewers, and the mixologists who are making that magic happen.

Long Live The King Cake!

Down here in Louisiana, we're currently enjoying one of the longest king cake seasons possible. On this week’s show, we explore our favorite Carnival treat with Matt Haines, author of the "The Big Book of King Cake." Matt uncovered amazing historical facts and chronicled the lives and cakes of 75 bakers while writing his new coffee table tome.

Food, Drink, DiningPoppy TookerJanuary 29, 2022Louisiana Eats, Poppy Tooker, Matt Haines, Martha Gilreath, King Cake Hub, Jennifer SamuelsComment

An Acadiana Road Show

On this week’s show, we’re traveling through Acadiana to explore traditional and contemporary Cajun foodways. We begin with George Graham, who shares his obsession through stories of cooking in the region through his nationally recognized blog and book, Acadiana Table: Cajun and Creole Home Cooking from the heart of Louisiana.

Spirited Celebrations

It's the time of year for gathering together family and friends to celebrate all that has been and all that will be. An important element to all those spirited celebrations are the spirits themselves. On this week's show, we look at cocktail culture and mixed drinks perfect for any type of get together.

Coping With Disaster

There's no denying the last two years have been a major challenge for everyone. Between the pandemic and the surge of natural disasters across the nation, we've seen it all. On this week's show, we learn how people are coping from coast to coast.

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