We've Started!

I can finally announce that real work - the kind that stirs up dust - has begun in our exhibit spaces. This week-end we will begin setting up the library and uncrating the artifacts that have been in storage, and really beginning to plan the flow of the museum. People are beginning to join - at our specially discounted pre-opening rate - and they are beginning to volunteer. It is so exciting to see all of our dreams for a fabulous institution materialized.

In addition to the tangible progress that we are experiencing, people in other cities in the South and out of the South are offering to help through fundraising parties and through opportunities for us to appear and speak. And books are coming into our library. And photographs and other documents are being offered for the archive. Menus continue to be collected.

And we are making international connections to France and England. We hope that these connections will grow and reach into other countries.

What Do YOU Want?

As we are busily trying to invent this new museum, we spend a lot of time thinking about what we want to see in a food and beverage museum. We already have created a good bit of what we have thought about. Right now, one of our exhibits, Restaurant/Restorative, is being readied for shipment to Chicago. It will be open there in August. From there it travels to New York. It means that what we have imagined is coming true.

We have lots more to imagine. Right now we are talking about keeping this exhibit current by focusing on one restaurant that has lots of meaning to the City of New Orleans, Dunbar's. This historic restaurant was flooded and the owners are operating out of the Loyola University cafeteria. That is true grit. We are planning to make their progress a part of our exhibit and show you on our website.

But ultimately we need to know what you want and expect from the Southern Food and Beverage Museum. Do you want recipes, programs, more traveling exhibits that come to your area, a magazine, more web activities? We need to know. Please let us know!

This and That

Last night we had a very interesting program presented by Walter Wolf - thanks, Walter - which was attended by people interested in opening a food based business in New Orleans. It was very heartening to see people who are interested in taking the plunge and start a new business in the city.

I am also excited about the success of the Invitation to the Southern Table events. We have events coming up in Memphis and in Lafayette. More are in the works.

We have a summer camp called "Eating in New Orleans - Who I Am" starting in August. This camp will combine art projects and culinary projects, teaching the art of dining and good nutrition.

We are planning a great event with the French Cultural Attache in New Orleans, our newsletter is being received by an ever-expanding list of people, our library, our artifact collection, archives and menus are growing. We are just riding a rocket, and it is a great experience, establishing this new institution in a city that is emerging from its disaster.

Thanks to everyone who is part of this. And here is a way to celebrate. If you make a show of preparing this, it is even more festive. Ladling flaming coffee into cups is very dramatic. Enjoy.

Café Brûlot

Serves 8

8 sugar cubes
peel of one orange, without pith
peel of ½ lemon, without pith
1 small stick cinnamon
½ tsp. whole cloves
½ cup brandy or bourbon
3 cups hot, freshly brewed dark roast coffee (with chicory if possible)

Rub the sugar cubes with the orange and lemon rinds. Place a sugar cube in each of 8 demitasse cups. Heat the cinnamon stick, orange and lemon rinds, cloves and brandy together in a chafing dish. Flame the mixture. Carefully add the hot coffee. Stir. Ladle the mixture into the prepared demitasse cups.

Salting the Region

Our first goal in establishing this new museum was to become established. By that I mean that we wanted people to know who we are and what we do. So we held exhibits in borrowed spaces, we created a website, we began an ambitious project to collect menus from all over the South. We let folks know about our doings and we became "established." But we knew that we would eventually need a bricks and mortar home. Finding that became our second goal.

Now that we have found that place, although we are not occupying it yet, it is time to make sure that the entire region - the South - is not only aware of us, but knows that we represent them. To this end we have embarked on a series of parties, Invitations to the Southern Table, which will take us to cities and towns throughout the South. This week-end we are driving to Memphis. Besides trying to set up an "Invitation" event, we are planning to meet with people and learn about the region and find our how to best represent Memphis in the museum.

Elizabeth Pearce, the Senior Curator, and I will be taking a classic road trip. I am looking forward to road food, barbeque and Southern hospitality. I'll let you know how it went and who we visited.

The Food Web

One of the most exciting aspects of building a museum is the group of people who assemble the parts. On the most basic level, the first board and very early supporters and staff were people who shared a vision of what could be. Those people made the dream more than just a crazy idea. We were all validated by each other's belief and support. Whenever one of us thought that our ideas were insane or unachievable, some other one of us would help steady the course.

As we have established an identity and become more well known, our circle has grown. It still takes imagination and faith to see where we are going. And as the group of believers grows, the more we seem to accomplish. Now we have a website, have several exhibits under our belt, including one that is traveling, we have a terrific regional board and terrific projects and partnerships.

But on a personal level I am able to meet some great and interesting people who are doing fabulous things. People interested in food are caring and they are doers, and it is great to be around them. Today I received emails and phone calls that make me so happy to be part of this exciting project. I am fortunate enough to have these conversations everyday. The web of people embracing SoFAB is ever-expanding.