I'm posting from Fair Grinds Coffee House. Which has been open 1 week. Yay! Back in October of 2005, I incorrectly guessed they were likely be the first place back open back from Claiborne Avenue -- they're on a part of Esplanade Ridge that only flooded less than knee deep, and repairs were already under way in October '05, but what with the too common post-K contractor nightmares etc, it took a while, though they did valuable service with a community gatering place and post disaster supplies in their side patio. Now they're back in business with Wi-Fi and nifty two bladed belt driven ceiling fans overhead. Support your local coffee house.

Meanwhile, the city is losing another culinary institution: La Spiga in Marigny is closing after this weekend. Contrary to the old saying that a bakery can excell at pasteries or at breads but not both, La Spiga triumphed not only in those categories, but tasty quiches and good sandwiches as well. The owners are retiring; while folks are sad to see them go, in some ways its good to see a NORMAL organic non-disaster related closing. I'd usually get La Spiga bread at wine tastings or stuff at the farmer's markets, seldom visiting their shop/restaurant as I'm not usually downtown the later part of the week when they'd be open. I made a special trip and enjoyed a tasty lunch and got a piece of quiche and a couple baked goods to take with me for later. If you want a final La Spiga fix, go on down there, 'cause come Monday they'll join the "Ain't Dere No Mo" list.

Looking at La Spiga's display case, I was briefly tempted to make a "Fazola" order to go. Irving Fazola was a rotund clarinetist who in his brief time up north won out over Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, and Edmond Hall as clarinet king in the Downbeat polls, but who decided he was more comfortable back in his home town of New Orleans gigging at local clubs in between happily eating himself to an early grave. The story is that Fazola would go into local restaurants, study the menu, and then give his standard order: "One of everything, except the soup." He somehow lived to be 36.

Last night went to Snug Harbor to hear Morton Gunner Larsen and his Ofelia Orchestra. I first heard the phenomenal Norwegian pianist Larsen at a concert symposium on Jelly Roll Morton in the early '80s, when Larsen succeeded in playing Jelly's showcase "Fingerbuster" a bit better than Jelly's own recording of it. Last night he played Eubie Blake's "Charleston Rag" equally astonishingly. His band was formerly the Ofelia Ragtime Orchestra, but it's since branched out into a variety of related music including Caribbean, Brazilian, and Weimar era German hot music. They played an old style Cuban danzon with a sound I'd never heard other than off acoustic era recordings. A friend remarked that the musicians listening attentively in the audience would make a fine band as well-- no doubt a sign of a good musical event.