A love letter to New Orleans…
I had to write a speech after the Twin Towers fell in NYC for an event for which I was the keynote speaker. It was the hardest thing I ever wrote.
I made long posts and wrote blogs after Katrina, the Boston Bombing, the Orlando and Las Vegas Shootings, and then COVID-19. I love writing, but I hate writing these articles. I hate that I am writing this now.
But I must…
Instead of talking about what happened, I have decided not to give that person any more notoriety or power. Instead, I want to express why I love New Orleans so much. This is my love letter to New Orleans.
I love you, New Orleans, I really do.
And no matter how messed up you get, or how bad you look (or smell), you will always be my favorite. Mi Amour. My wingman and my muse. The water couldn’t wash you away, the plague couldn’t close you, and no amount of evil would take you away from me. We will always be forever locked together, no matter what.
This city is so great and so fucked up. It is full of amazing music and great food, and it can, yes, it ain't the cleanest or most modern city; I don’t think I would love you so much if you were. New Orleans is a Catholic city that feels like a frat party broke out at its confirmation. Nola has taught me a lot about myself and who I should be, and who I shouldn’t be. The city is a melting pot of people who have come together to create a great gumbo that couldn’t be without diversity, which creates its distinct flavor.
If you haven’t participated in a second line, caught beads, or, better yet, rode in a Mardi Gras Parade, you have to at least once in your life. You won’t be the same afterward.
New Orleans doesn’t make sense to me sometimes, but that is why I love her so. Sometimes, I don’t make sense either, yet we coexisted so well for many years.
I never heard New Orleans Jazz until I moved to New Orleans back in 1996, but I fell in love with Kermit Ruffins at Vaughn’s, the Treme Brass Band at the Candlelight Lounge, and a skinny little 18-year-old kid nicknamed Trombone Shorty at Ray’s Boom Boom Room. The music still lives inside me even though I have moved on and no longer reside in the “Big Easy.”
Within two weeks of moving to New Orleans, I knew I had found my forever home. Even though I tend to travel a lot and I may not live full time in New Orleans, she will forever be my home in the US. She will always be the place where I feel like I belong. I have never felt that way anywhere else, and I am sure I never will.
The only thing that helps me in times like these is knowing that there is much more good in this world than evil. That one person cannot take away a city’s spirit. One evil act cannot undo the magic of New Orleans and cannot break the spirit of the people who live and work there. I hate everything about what happened at 3:15 am on January 1st, 2025, but I love New Orleans more.
I tried to come up with one word that summarized my love for New Orleans, but it was impossible.
Resiliency. Character. Culture. Lively. Delicious. Loud. Festive. Self-Indulgent. Unique. Old. Mystical. Cultural. I could go on and on…
Other cities have great restaurants, but New Orleans has its own cuisine. Gumbo, Jambalaya, Étouffée, Po Boys, Crawfish Boils, Alligator, Begniets, Pralines, Red Beans & Rice, Muffulettas, Bananas Foster, Turtle Soup, King Cake, Bread Pudding, Andouille Sausage, BBQ Shrimp, Boudin, Oysters Rockefeller, Oysters and Fried Seafood to name a few…
New Orleans also gave us cocktails (thank you, Dr. Peychauds) like the Old Fashioned, Sazerac, Hurricane, Brandy Milk Punch, Daiquiri, French 75, View Carre, Grasshopper, Pimms Cup, Cafe Brûlot, Brandy Crusta and the Hand Grenade (there are more…).
But New Orleans gave me more than cocktails, great food, and music; it gave me her soul, and I gave her mine in return. I don’t know what it is. I do not think it is Voodoo, but whatever it is, it keeps bringing me back and filling my soul until I need a break, and I head off into the world again.
But I will always come back.
I am pretty sure there is a voodoo doll somewhere in New Orleans with blue hair and a pin in its heart, which always makes me ache for New Orleans.
Bob Hannaford, Naughty Events CEO
On another note:
Please support New Orleans in the upcoming month because they will need it. And come to Nola in the summer when the service industry needs it so much. Boston, Orlando, and Las Vegas all got back on their feet quickly, but it was the service industry people who suffered the most when people avoided those places after similar acts of terror. The only way to make this moment worse is by giving in to the fear these acts instill.
New Orleans will be safer than ever. Bartenders and others on Bourbon Street and the Quarter depend on tourism for survival.
Be part of the solution and the answer,
#NewOrleansStrong