Blue Plate Artist Lofts.

All the big signs outside say that the building is called the Blue Plate Artist Lofts. It is an art deco building with apartments for rent, artists preferred. I know a fire eater and a flea circus impresario. They both live there on different floors. The rent is good. So are the amenities. They tell of nights spent on the roof deck looking between the big BLUE PLATE neon letters at they city's skyline a mile and a half away.

This used to be a mayonnaise factory. Times change. Everything in New Orleans is only a wish away.

The story of the Blue Plate Building in New Orleans starts, as few things do, in Monroe, Louisiana, 282 miles to the north and west. If you tell somebody that you are going to Monroe, they roll their eyes and say, "You mean Funroe." They'll do it every time.

William B. Reily got his start in Monroe, in the packaged goods business. His apprentice years were the 1890s. When a young man gets to be a certain age, he wants to make his mark in the world. In 1900, the population of Monroe was 5400. The population of New Orleans was 287,000. There is no fun like New Orleans fun, not in even Monroe.

Mr. Reily moved to New Orleans in 1902. A product of Ouachita Parish public schools, he founded Luzianne Coffee that very same year. From his small plant, he roasted, ground, packaged, and distributed his product. It was when pre-ground, vacuum-packed coffee was just becoming popular. It was so convenient.

Ever since the Boston Tea Party, when drinking coffee became distinctly American, New Orleans has been the nation's coffee port. in 1900, the Port of New Orleans handled 85% of America's coffee business. People drank coffee then like they do now.