January 2009 – New Orleans Magazine – Now that the business of electing a president and a new Congress are over, we can hunker down to tallying the votes that count the most – our readers’ selection of New Orleans’ Best.
To further exercise democracy, self-addressed, postage-paid detachable ballots were included in our September and October issues. Ballots were also available online. We tabulated the results from more than 650 ballots and have declared the winners according to the following rules.
- Anyone designated as a winner had to have a significant cluster of votes based on the total votes cast in each category.
- In those cases where the votes were so dispersed in so many ways that there not any clusters, the categories were eliminated.
- In those cases where several names fell above the cluster line, finalists were listed in rank order.
- Whenever there was evidence of ballot-box stuffing, those votes were eliminated.
- Ballots with hanging chads were sent to the U.S. Supreme Court for review.
Finally remember these are readers’ choices, which aren’t necessarily the choices of the editorial staff. Because of that, winners may include franchises and other places not usually reported on. Readers did the voting; we did the tallying.Here then are our readers’ picks of New Orleans’ Best. If you have any comments please send us a Letter to the Editor c/o New Orleans Magazine, 110 Veterans Blvd., Suite 123, Metairie, LA, 70005. We remain in awe of the wisdom of our readers and appreciate that they have the wisdom to be our readers. Most Attractive New Orleanian:
Lucy Bustamante The news in New Orleans isn’t always pretty, though readers think one of the people reporting it to them is easy on the eye.
WWL-TV anchor Lucy Bustamante is our readers’ choice for “Most Attractive New Orleanian,” but the other achievements she has racked up during her career prove this New Orleans native’s qualities are more than skin deep.
With a Spanish mother and Cuban-born father, brother and sister, Lucy was the first member of her family born on American soil. She had an early start in journalism, getting her first job in the industry while still a sophomore at Loyola University. By her senior year, she was reporting for a news station in Houma. Later she worked at a station in Mobile before returning home to join the WWL-TV news team in 2004.
“The staff here is amazing,” Bustamante says. “Everyone comes to work hungry to find a story, give a voice to the underdog and hold politicians accountable. I work with some pretty passionate people, in a city where people care about their surroundings.”
When she’s not working, Bustamante enjoys dancing, swimming, traveling and spending time with her goddaughter Payton.
– Ian McNulty New Orleans’ Best Up-and-Coming Neighborhood
& Best Neighborhood to Raise Children:
Lakeview Prior to 2005, Lakeview might not have topped the list of New Orleans’ “up-and-coming neighborhoods,” but that was before the levee failures threw the future of the once eminently stable community into question.
But from the crucible of so much loss and destruction, Lakeview has emerged as an ongoing success story of citizen-driven recovery and an example of the tenacity of neighborhood pride.
“The feeling in Lakeview right now is really positive. There’s still so much work to do, but we’ve really galvanized here,” says Denise Thornton, founder of the Beacon of Hope Resource Center, a nonprofit helping residents during Lakeview’s recovery. “It’s not as beautiful as it was before, but there’s nothing like tragedy to bring people together. People really do go down the street now to borrow a cup of milk from their neighbor.”
At the same time, the widespread damage has brought some Lakeview real estate prices within reach for more people, she says, which has been a lure for families with young children.
Recovery work continues, while frequent block parties, fundraisers and the monthly Harrison Avenue Marketplace give residents more opportunities to celebrate their progress together. Often, the talk at these events revolves around who just moved back home.
“There’s momentum here. People are coming back now who you thought were gone for good.”
– Ian McNulty New Orleans’ Best Museum:
New Orleans Museum of Art The draw that has made the New Orleans Museum of Art so popular with locals isn’t limited to what hangs on the walls or sits in display cases. Consider, for instance, its Mid Week in Mid-City program, when the museum stays open until 8 p.m. each Wednesday, serves drinks and features film screenings, lectures or live bands.
“The idea was to help bring people back to Mid-City right after Katrina so they would hopefully support a neighborhood restaurant or bar before or after the event,” says NOMA spokesman Jim Mulvihill. “Now the neighborhood is doing well, but the program is so popular we’re keeping it going.”
The museum has been aggressive in reaching out to new visitors and getting locals engaged with their nearly century-old community asset. One new initiative is its Teen Advisory Board composed of local high school students who get to help plan museum programming for their peers. The museum has also waived the admission fee for Louisiana residents.
Later this year, the museum will present what it hopes will be the next blockbuster with “Dreams Come True: Art of the Classic Fairy Tales from the Walt Disney Studio,” featuring hundreds of original pieces from Disney.
– Ian McNulty New Orleans’ Best Asian Restaurant:
Five Happiness For 30 years now, Five Happiness has been the Chinese restaurant of choice for countless local diners, and along the way has helped educate the New Orleans palate to the broader possibilities of a regal and diverse cuisine.
Proprietor Peggy Lee first opened the restaurant in 1978, replacing an earlier Chinese restaurant on South Carrollton Avenue. It was a relatively small space, but Five Happiness was soon to grow by leaps and bounds. The Lee family took over first one and then another adjacent business in the same building, uniting them as one large restaurant where the décor spoke of imperial Chinese glory. Later, Five Happiness would expand even further by buying the neighboring building and turning it into a banquet facility.
The menu is longer and deeper than most typical Americanized Chinese restaurants, introducing Sichuan, Hunan and Mandarin dishes that go beyond fried rice and Gen. Tso’s chicken. Though more familiar fare has always been a cornerstone of the kitchen, the adventurous find whole steamed fish, bubbling hot pots of seafood, meats, vegetables and such traditional presentations as Peking duck.
Ravaged by Hurricane Katrina, Five Happiness returned to business quickly, picking up with all the dine-in and take-out for which its regulars hungered. – Ian McNulty New Orleans’ Best Ice Cream Flavor and Best Gelato Flavor:
Angelo Brocato’s Spumoni & Tirasumi Gelato parlors are cropping up all over the country, but the Italian-style ice cream is hardly new to New Orleans. Angelo Brocato’s has been selling gelato since 1905, though it hasn’t always been known by that name.
Third generation owner Arthur Brocato explains that even though most of his family recipes begin with a rich base of custard, the Italian term gelato and its English equivalent, ice cream, have been used interchangeably for much of the shop’s history.
“When my grandfather first started making ice cream, it was gelato. But back in the 1930s, when the health regulations starting coming around, gelato just wasn’t in their vocabulary, so it became ice cream,” says Brocato.
No matter what it’s called, any Sicilian would recognize the product’s dense texture and intense flavors as deeply traditional. Brocato’s still sticks to small-batch production, making flavors at just five to 10 gallons at a time and rotating seasonal favorites into its line-up throughout the year.
“Spumoni was one of the first flavors my grandfather made, back before there were freezers when it was packed in ice and salt and scooped right from the barrel for the customer,” Brocato says.
Tiramisu was added to the menu 25 years ago, a relative newcomer by the standards of this New Orleans classic.
– Ian McNulty New Orleans’ Best Place to Get Raw Oysters:
Acme Oyster House Oysters are easy. Inexpensive and abundant locally, you just open them and eat. But there is a big serving of ambiance that comes with eating at dedicated oyster bars in New Orleans, and for many locals a trip to Acme Oyster House is as much a part of the experience as the wet ceramic sound of the shells opening and the zing of a lemon wedge squeezed over the meat.
Acme has been a New Orleans institution since opening on Royal Street in 1914. The business moved around the corner to Iberville Street in 1924, and has been shucking (and frying and grilling) oysters there ever since. The company has grown from there, adding four more restaurants as close as Metairie and as far off as Sandestin, Fla.
But the old French Quarter oyster bar is still the revered location for many Acme fans and a magnet for visitors hungry for a taste of the local bivalve bounty. It is common to see a line form outside Acme’s door, and competition for the coveted stools right at the oyster bar can be intense. But wedge your way in, and it may be hard to stop at just a dozen.
– Ian McNulty New Orleans’ Best Dive Bar:
F&M Patio Bar The two four letter words you never want to hear at F&M Patio Bar are “last” and “call.” That would be a clear sign that you have stayed out too late because, if those words are uttered together within this Uptown party hall, the morning sun will surely greet you just outside its door.
Time is a relative concept at F&M. As happy hour is being toasted across town, F&M’s is barely open. By 10 p.m., when other Uptown bars are riding high, the squat, red Tchoupitoulas Street watering hole is usually still schlepping along. Pull open the door at 3 a.m., however, and the party is in full swing.
On weekends, limousines pull up outside to disgorge tuxedo- and gown-clad wedding parties bent on keeping the good times rolling. The entire front barroom can become a dance floor as the jukebox pumps out party music. On busy nights in the patio area, late-night patrons whose last meal may have been many hours ago rip into hamburgers and football-sized baskets of waffle-cut cheese fries.
And then there’s F&M’s famous pool table, which, at the stroke of 2 a.m., is covered with a sheet of battered plywood and officially converted to a raised dance floor.
– Ian McNulty People
New Orleanian of the Year: Arnie Fielkow. Readers looking for some leadership from City Hall are increasingly looking toward the council. Former Saints exec knows what it is like to play tough.
2) Bobby Jindal
3) Chris Paul
New Orleanian I admire most (male): Jim Letten. U.S. Attorney is gradually restoring confidence in government integrity and perhaps sending a message to others who might be vulnerable to straying in the future.
2) Garland Robinette and Arnie Fielkow (tie)
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