Third Thursdays at the Jefferson Parish Library
In This Issue
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A Little History… – Our feature story
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Notes from the Lakefront – Updates
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Ad of the Week – advertising blasts from the past!
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How you can help NOLA History Guy – Things you can do right now!
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NOLA Six Word Writing Challenge – Exercise your imagination!
A Little History… Restaurant de la Renaissance, 1904
William Woodward painting
”Restaurant de la Renaissance,” by William Woodward, 1904. From the HNOC record for the painting:
View of Chartres Street from corner of Wilkinson Street, (formerly Jefferson), looking toward Jackson Square. At right, two story building houses a restaurant and cafe owned by August Pouy. The Cabildo and Saint Louis Cathedral are visible in the background
There’s no entry on this building from the VCC in the Collins Diboll database, so we’ll come at this painting from a more cultural/romantic side. HNOC’s Blog, “First Draft,” offered an article, Views of the Vieux Carré, on 15-December-2025. The article features Woodward’s painting and this passage from the diary of William C. Ordiorne in 1933:
“I dined at a score of different restaurants . . . none of the great and famous ones. I couldn’t afford them. But the standard of good cooking is higher in New Orleans than in the North. There were little French restaurants which served wine with the dinner, just as in France. Oysters, fresh from the bayous, were ten cents a dozen over the bar . . . and how delicious they were! I made the acquaintance of many dishes new to me, such as shrimp remoulade, jamalai, the famous New Orleans risotto, full of shrimp, peppers, and other mysterious ingredients.”
The smaller restaurants captivated the writer then, just as our “neighborhood” places draw diners in nightly today. While the prices may be higher, particularly the oysters, the sirens’ call of Shrimp Remoulade and other seafood dishes can still be heard.
As the Sicilian influence hit the Quarter in particular in the early part of the Twentieth Century, little French-style places changed their branding from “French” to “Creole-French,” to, in many cases now, just “Creole.” Instead of that interesting risotto described by the writer, “seafood pasta” dishes that swap the rice for fettuccine or linguini are standards on the menus of modern restaurants.
Wilkinson Street
Woodward paints the Restaurant de la Renaissance from the Uptown/Canal Street side of Chartres and Wilkinson Streets. He captures the half-block of Chartres leading up to St. Peter Street, then the Cabildo and St. Louis Cathedral. With the exception of the street activity, the scene hasn’t changed all that much. The building at 620 Chartres is still a restaurant, Doris Metropolitan. When I’m leading guests on an “upriver” French Quarter Walking Tour, we go from Jackson Square, up Decatur Street for half a block, then turn up Wilkinson. That brings us right to this location, where we stand directly in front of the origin point of the Great Fire of 1788. I always suggest to guests they go down the passageway of Sylvain Restaurant and peek into the courtyard (hopefully some of them are enticed to come back for dinner). After stopping for a moment on this corner, we onto Chartres and continue in the opposite direction, with more stories about food, riverboats, Sicilian taverns, and more.
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Notes from the Lakefront
Family time in D.C.
We’re up in Arlington, VA, for a couple of days. My firstborn lives here with his wife and their now-15-month-old son. So, we come up as often as we can to visit and watch him grow.
This trip, my boy asked if there was anything in particular we wanted to do/see, and I suggested the National Air and Space Museum, the original, just off the National Mall. The museum is wrapping up some extensive renovations, and has re-opened enough of the space to make the trip fun. The museum has a large exhibit on NASA’s Apollo missions. Two of the main artifacts are the Apollo 11 Command Module, Columbia, and the spacesuit worn by Neil Armstrong when he stepped onto the surface of the Moon. As a kid, I was very invested in the Apollo programs. As a kid from New Orleans, I was very proud that the massive Saturn-V rocket boosters which propelled those astronauts to the moon were built in New Orleans, at Michoud.
Vintage Ad of the Week
“Commander’s is the sauciest” — Ad for Commander’s Palace restaurant, Washington Avenue at Coliseum Street in the Garden District, in the Times-Picayune, 6-August-1969.
How You Can Help NOLA History Guy
Things you can do RIGHT NOW to help us out!
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Buy my books! Edward Branley is the author of six books on New Orleans history. They’re available from local booksellers and all the usual online suspects.
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Book NOLA History Guy to speak at your event – Edward speaks to groups ranging in size to local groups like Kiwanis and Rotary to major conventions and trade shows.
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Buy me a Coffee on Ko-fi dot com. I just love this concept as a way to say thank you/tip creators you enjoy. Our idea of monetization is buying books and having us come to speak. If you see me at a coffee shop, stop and say hi. Otherwise, I’ll raise coffee cup to you if you treat me.
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Become a patron. Yes, we’re on Patreon. A lot of creators use the platform for direct monetization, and that’s great for them. We don’t have “exclusive content” for patrons. Still, if you think our history stuff is worth a dollar a month, go join!
NOLA Six Word Writing Challenge
In six words or less, write a story about this image. (@ladylunanola photo)
Post your story to NOLAHistoryGuy.com on BlueSky, or to New Orleans Uncovered on Facebook. You can also email yours to nolasixwords@nolahistoryguy.com.
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