[StBernard] FOUND IN TRANSLATION

[Westley Annis]

FOUND IN TRANSLATION
Slices of south shore culture are popping up in St. Tammany 
Sunday, November 26, 2006
By Jenny Hurwitz
St. Tammany bureau 

Some 20 miles north of St. Bernard Parish, along a bustling north shore
thoroughfare, a Katrina casualty has found new life. 

Once a fixture in Chalmette, Armond Meats had served the St. Bernard
community for 22 years as a butcher, grocery and sandwich shop rolled into
one. After the flood, Preston Armond inherited the business from his father.
He then moved it across the lake to Slidell. 

Despite its new address and spruced-up storefront, Armond Meats has largely
maintained its old-fashioned neighborhood appeal and carries the same
sought-after specialties: garlic-stuffed roast beef, homemade Italian
sausage, ground veal and hogshead cheese. 

Armond special orders French bread, trucked in daily from the Alois J.
Binder Bakery on Frenchmen Street in New Orleans, and when he greets
customers, he uses first names. 

At first, displaced St. Bernardians made up nearly 80 percent of his
customer base, and they still come from as far away as Baton Rouge, he said.
That percentage has gradually leveled off, as locals have discovered the
small-scale butcher shop. 

While the transition from south to north has gone smoothly, the store has
adapted in subtle ways since landing in St. Tammany, to meet the needs of a
newfound clientele. Armond no longer stocks a full array of groceries, a
departure from the Chalmette locale, and he expanded the ready-made food
selection after observing daily shopping tendencies. 

"People in Slidell don't cook nearly as much as people in St. Bernard do,"
he explained. "It's amazing how 20 miles away things can be so different." 

When Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast, it drove a number of south
shore businesses to the suburban north, touching off an unprecedented
cultural shift that continues to unfold as the area lurches toward recovery.



>From iconic New Orleans eateries to family-run barber shops, the sudden

migration has allowed pockets of south shore culture to take root, infusing
the north shore with color, flavor and welcome variety, according to some
locals. 

"In Louisiana, people have distinct and unique characteristics, even when
they're only 50 miles away," said Erin Moore, communications director with
the St. Tammany West Chamber of Commerce. "Even though we were all located
in southeastern Louisiana, there wasn't as much opportunity for interaction
before." 

Now, the disparate groups are mixing on a daily basis, she said. And that
shift has the potential to yield even more opportunities. 

"We have a lot to learn from their practices. They're wonderfully
personable," she said of south shore business owners. "They bring traditions
from down there and vice versa." 


Accelerated trend 


According to Brenda Reine, executive director of the St. Tammany Parish
Economic Development Foundation, the northward migration began long before
Katrina entered the Gulf, spurred by an affluent population with seemingly
interminable growing pains. 

"Many fabulous restaurants and chefs trained on the south shore and then
opened second locations over here," she said, noting Patton's in Slidell and
Acme Oyster House in Covington. "For the past 20 years, there's been a
natural progression of businesses." 

The storm accelerated that natural progression, however, as small business
owners from flooded parishes flocked to St. Tammany, seeking retail space on
higher ground. 

As of October, the parish had nearly 10,000 businesses registered, according
to an informal survey by the St. Tammany West Chamber of Commerce. While the
chamber could not provide a comparison of pre-storm statistics, Moore
estimated that number has probably remained stable, due to losses in
hard-hit eastern St. Tammany. 

However, those losses were offset by gains in the rest of the parish, most
notably in the west, where chamber membership has jumped about 12 percent
since the storm, Moore said. 

"We certainly see it as a trend, and it's one that we welcome," she said.
"It's an opportunity to have new culture, new entrepreneurial and
industrious thinkers contributing to the north shore community." 

Likewise, the influx of south shore expatriates who have moved north since
the storm makes St. Tammany particularly attractive to business interests
and investors looking to profit from the sudden surge of income. 

"That's just a function of business," Moore said. "If clients are moving to
the north shore, that's where businesses will follow." 


The food's the thing 


For some establishments, such as Mandina's Restaurant of New Orleans, the
hurricane provided an impetus to branch out, following customers who had
left the south shore long ago and reconnecting with them in a more suburban
setting. 

A Mid-City institution since the early 1930s, Mandina's made a name for
itself serving traditional New Orleans fare such as catfish meuniere, fried
seafood and gumbo in a casual, neighborhood setting. 

After shuttering the Canal Street restaurant due to hurricane and flood
damages, owner Tommy Mandina decided to test the waters beyond the city's
borders, opening an outpost in Baton Rouge and, last month, a second in
Mandeville. 

Both have done brisk daily business, a testament to the restaurant's New
Orleans-based reputation, said Gary Robertson, general manager in
Mandeville. 

"Tommy Mandina realized he could take a concept and bring it somewhere else,
and it would still be successful," he said. 

Set back in a strip mall, between a music academy and a sporting goods
store, the Mandeville branch lacks the historic charm of its Mid-City
counterpart. But Robertson stressed that food still has that home-cooked
quality and the dining room maintained that quintessential familial
ambiance. 

"It's translated beautifully," he said. "Once you walk in that door, it no
longer feels like a strip mall. It feels like a New Orleans restaurant." 

Similarly, Lucy's Retired Surfers Bar and Restaurant, a CBD hot spot, opened
a Mandeville offshoot along the lakefront in efforts to capitalize on St.
Tammany's favorable demographics and tap into its young professional
circuit, a group that had long patronized the original location for lunches,
dinners and drinks. 

Like Mandina's, Lucy's has enjoyed early success in its new north shore
location, due in part to its name and reputation. 

"We're associated with a kind of local scene in the CBD," said owner Kelly
Super. "A lot of people tell us they knew about us from our restaurant on
the south shore." 

Cafe du Monde is also banking on the north shore surge, adding a Mandeville
beignet cafe that is slated to open by the beginning of 2007. Plans were in
the works before the storm, said General Manager Joe Mesa, but the need for
a north shore outpost is now greater than ever. 

"Some of these people have known us all their lives," he said. "It's nice to
finally be in the neighborhood." 


Familiar faces 


Not all business owners had the opportunity to cross-pollinate, however. And
for many, particularly those from St. Bernard, the move north was not so
much a calculated business risk as an attempt to stay afloat, and one that
came after many months of uncertainty. 

After his Chalmette seafood shop was demolished by floodwaters, Johnny
Thonn, owner of Johnny and Joyce's Seafood, scoured the metro area for a new
location. He pondered prospects in Metairie and Slidell before finally
settling on a place in Mandeville. 

Thonn, who lives in Venetian Isles, initially objected to a Mandeville move
based on the commute. But since opening his seafood and po-boy shop, he has
realized that it was the right choice. 

"The north shore really needed this food," he said. "We have people coming
in every day telling us, 'Chalmette's bad luck is our good luck.' " 

Norman Lewis also lingered in limbo after the storm, uncertain about the
fate of his now-defunct barbershop in Chalmette. He knew he couldn't return
to Chalmette -- "it was pretty much a closed case," he said -- and he toyed
with the notion of retiring after moving in with his family to Mandeville. 

It wasn't until months later, after he had begun recognizing familiar faces
from Chalmette in the Mandeville grocery stores, that he realized he might
have enough clients to start up again. Now Lewis operates his business, the
eponymous Norman's Barber Shop, out of a small strip mall in Mandeville. 

A steady stream of newcomers has diluted his St. Bernard client base,
although he still gets his fair share of old-timers who stop in for haircuts
and chats that have been known to last for hours. 

"It's become a meeting place" for St. Bernardians, said Lewis' daughter,
Susie Wozniak, who has cut hair beside her father for 18 years. "They
haven't seen each other since the storm, and then they run into each other
here." 


A cultural drain? 


While the north shore is clearly prospering from the storm-driven growth and
influx of culture, the effects on harder-hit south shore parishes remain
unknown. 

An exodus of economic vitality from Orleans and St. Bernard could hinder
recovery prospects, according to Louisiana State University geographer Craig
Colten, who has studied the hurricane's effects on the region's cultural
climate. 

Even so, the resulting cultural shift could ultimately strengthen the south
shore, by stretching the city's reach and enlarging its sphere of influence,
he said. 

"An expanding culture is usually a healthy and dominant one," he said. 

Either way, the shift appears to be in its early stages yet, according to
Moore, with the chamber of commerce. She expects even more businesses to
launch in the coming year, as people get back on their feet. Representatives
of Mandina's and Lucy's confirmed they are interested in further expansion,
although neither could offer specifics. 

North shore customers are eager for the future prospects and appear ready to
absorb the glut. 

"I'm waiting for Commander's to move over!" joked Donna Ramon, 40, of
Mandeville, while lunching on spaghetti and meatballs at Mandina's. "And
Tony Angello's!" 

. . . . . . . 

Jenny Hurwitz can be reached at jhurwitz at timespicayune.com or (985)
645-2848.