Gianna.
I rarely go the the Central Business District, or, the CBD as we like to say in New Orleans. I went to Gianna today, an Italian restaurant on the corner of Magazine and Girod Streets. Sweet Boy says the food is good at Gianna. I was there on other business. I was there to see California Girl. I have not spent an extended amount of time with California Girl since July. How many months ago was that?
A life well-lived is a picaresque novel waiting to be written.
One time, I was driving on the interstate, maybe it was I-12, I rarely visit the North Shore, when I saw a sign for the CBD at exit whatever-it-was. The sign was nowhere near New Orleans, it was for the Pontchatoula Central Business District. I did not know Ponchatoula had a CBD so Mrs. King and I pulled over to check it out.
Ponchatoula, Louisiana is the Strawberry Capital of the World, as the Ponchatoula Chamber of Commerce likes to say.
The layout of Ponchatoula’s CBD is nothing like the layout of New Orleans’ CBD.
New Orleans’ CBD is full of tall buildings. It looks like a real, modern, city. Looks can be decieving.
Ponchatoula’s CBD is mostly old buildings that were built when the train stopped in town. Have you ever seen the movie Bad Day at Black Rock?
New Orleans’ CBD culture is tapestry of law offices, luxury condominiums, various prestigious professional services, hotel rooms, and, of course, the Ernest Moral Convention Center, a building that is one mile long no the bank of the Mississippi River, close to where the cruise ships dock. Ponchatoula’s CBD culture is woven of antique stores and thrift stores, and, breakfast and lunch nooks. There is might be a grocery store. There must be a gas station.
I doubt there is an electric vehicle charging station on Main Street, Ponchatoula
Do you know that the whole point of this essay is to review the experience at Gianna, that fancy-pants Italian restaurant that is located in the new building that Joe Jaeger built a few years ago? The building itself is classic. it is beautiful. That building is prime real estate.
One thing that Ponchatoula’s CBD and New Orleans’ CBD have in common is that both are dullsville, man. Dullsville with a capital D.
Now, after I put up the paywall, I will tell you about what it is like to dine at Gianna. It talked to California Girl, which I always enjoy, and I met someone in the music industry, which I do not usually enjoy, but, this one time, I wanted to learn more. Not about music but about Milneburg.
Milneburg is as much a part of Gentilly as much as it is not. Some say it is Lakeview. I am generally agnostic about this. I have little interest in that part of New Orleans unless I have to. I may have to, soon.
There is oversized octopus wallpaper on the dining room wall behind where I was sitting. Apropos of nothing, I found it to be the best seat in the house.