Summer has flown! Not that we aren’t still in the thick of it with White Linen and
Dirty Linen nights (Aug. 4 and 11, respectively) approaching, but it still seems like the dog days and nights have had their shares of howling successes.

One was the opening of the new exhibition space at The Historic New Orleans Collections’ Williams Research Center on Chartres Street. Always an engaging resource for scholars, master architect Davis Lee Jahncke turned an old garage space into a thing of beauty. Turned out to be a family project as the architect recruited niece E. Lee Jahncke to faux bois the heavy steel doors—that girl’s got talent. Lots of Jahnckes at the opening, as were Jamie Coleman with dad Jimmy Coleman—in from Newport for the occasion—Neal Auction Company’s Lander Dunbar, Betty and Danny Killeen, and Grover and Bitsie Mouton, who are heading to the Hamptons, and many others who viewed the Jean-Joseph Vaudechamp portraits, which can be seen until Sept. 22.  

Darren Aschaffenburg at Ashish Verma’s birthday party at La Phare.


Post-Vaudechamp, HNOC offers a show on duck decoys—just in time for the season. That’s something Charles Frank, one of the country’s finest decoy crafters, knows a lot about. Frank and wife Jean were spotted celebrating his birthday at Galatoire’s the same night as the Vaudechamp opening. Lots of HNOC crowd had the same
idea, too.

Several restaurant bigwigs, including Galatoire’s Melvin Rodrigue, took a busman’s holiday while participating in the Gala Celebration of the Marquis de Lafayette’s 250th Birthday at the Cabildo. Chefs, waiters and owners from places as diverse as the St. James Cheese Company, Croissant d’Or, La Louisiane Bakery, Cuvée, Flaming Torch and others French in nature partook of each others’ fare and sipped Veuve Clicquot, J. Moreau & Fils wine and a blissful cognac of Pierre Ferrand at evening’s end. All this while the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra played and members of the French-American Chamber of Commerce welcomed several hundred guests—some in
costume, some in military dress and others in summer cocktail finery—from Baton Rouge, Lafayette and other locales. Members of the Council of French Societies,
several L’Alliances, CODOFIL and Friends of the Cabildo also attended this bonne soirée.

Le Chat Noir’s Barbara Motley with chanteuse Andrea Marcovicci.


A more intimate birthday bash for Ashish Verma of the Windsor Court Hotel and Punjab was held at the new Le Phare lounge, tucked into the city’s newest boutique hotel at 523 Gravier St. Leave it to an always-on-top-of-things group like Cat and Darren Aschaffenburg and Amy Twitty to find such a spot, which is helmed by Republic’s Robert LeBlanc, who attended the party with Danielle Webb—they just got married in July.

On the Northshore, Henry Harding Smith slept through 4th of July fireworks. You can’t blame him, he was born on the 1st to Courtney and Craig Smith—he’s their first.

When it comes to cocktails, Ann Rogers knows a thing or two—she’s the force behind “Tales of The Cocktail,” an event that sparked up mid July. Just before the event, she joined WGSO 990 AM “The Wine Show” man Tim McNally to play celebrity bartenders at Anatole on July 12. The money raised at this event—and other celebrity
bartender nights at the restaurant—benefit Deuce McAllister’s Catch 22 Foundation. On Aug. 18, Anatole chef Raymond Toups plans to pour chardonnay and champagne—you can run over before the big American Cancer Society’s “Hope Gala”
at the Shops at Canal Place. With luck, I’ll get McNally and bubbly before I walk a few blocks down St. Charles Avenue to Le Chat Noir, which is mixing a summer cocktail of New York style and local talent. Andrea Marcovicci began the season, which continues with Steve Ross. Spotted swooning at the Marcovicci show, were Arthur and Mary Davis, realtor Eleanor Farnsworth, therapist Sarah Palliat and lots more.

Mrs. and Mr. Pierre Lebovics at the Marquis de Lafayette’s 250th birthday party at the Cabildo.


Things were hot in town when Dennis Quaid blew into town to rock with his band and celebrate with fans at the NetFlix Live presentation of “The Big Easy.” The Contemporary Arts Center steamed it up with a lot of “Bourbon and Burlesque”—Wild Turkey, Buffalo Trace and Woodford Reserve were a match for the “Fleur de Tease” burlesque revue.

Keep your shirt on at the Cottage Living Idea Home sponsored by the magazine and developed by the Preservation Resource Center. The modular showhouse at 4505 Camp St. is open until Sept. 3, and boasts of tons of ideas from color expert Louis Aubert, designers Holden & Dupuy, and many other talents. Even Perch, the chic, quirky shop Caroline Robert and partners opened on red-hot Magazine Street next to the Sake Café pitched in to help. Perch was just recently joined by Logan Howcott’s Cornelia at Louisiana Avenue and Magazine Street. The street Logan lived on in New York, which is also very hot—and cool—street, inspired the name Cornelia.

Okay, it’s August. White or Dirty Linen, everyone in pools—and school starts sooner than you think.