For more than 25 years, Melius Bar & Cafe has been dishing out comfort fare and boozy beverages in a casual sports-bar atmosphere with 10 flat-screen televisions for taking in local teams. With a straightforward menu of breakfast, lunch, and dinner items, early birds can munch on traditional cuisine, including the Bucktown special made with two eggs any style, two sausages or three bacon slices, and two slice of texas toast ($3.50), and afternooners can dig into a specialty, such as a burger ($6.25), salad ($2.75+), or fries ($1.75+). Regular happy hours keep parched patrons hydrated with bubbly drinks, and weekly lunch specials remind palates why they choose to go into tasting instead of accounting. With pool tables, shuffleboard, darts, and video poker, bar-room game sharks can hone their sporting skills in a random game play or join a league to show off proper thumb-stretching techniques.
As chefs simmer authentic New Orleans shrimp étouffée and watch gulf shrimp blacken, chicken and andouille-sausage gumbo bubbles in a pot nearby, filling the kitchen with a spicy aroma. Marigny Brasserie’s menu earned a "good to very good rating" across the board from Zagat, thanks in part to its menu of creole favorites and its wine list. Diners at the bar can peer over at a stained-glass inset of the Marigny Triangle, while those who choose to eat outside can catch a glimpse of Frenchmen Street in person. On some nights, guests can taste spicy shrimp while listening to musicians tune guitars and fill their maracas with fresh bees.
Claiming a wealth of celebrities among their past clientele, The World Famous Cats Meow gives songbirds and wannabe rock stars a chance to work their vocal cords and stocks a full bar with a varied roster of liquid courage. The Bourbon Street bar plunks casual crooners into the center of attention by placing them on a glossy wooden stage, separating them from the throngs of new fans and Ed Sullivan booking agents with a low yellow barricade. Vocalists pull songs from a chart-topping list that reaches back to the 1950s before bypassing lines and leaping right on stage with their Head of the Line pass. Between tune-bending sessions, sing-along stars can rehydrate parched throats by knocking back one of 15 Jello shots or one of seven drinks from the well-stocked bar, such as a bubbly Abita beer, a premium cocktail, or a fruity 32-ounce hurricane. An included DVD of the event lets singers watch, critique, and improve their performances in much the same way boxers watch match tapes to hone their jabs or the Kool-Aid Man watches his own commercials to master his wall-smashing skills.
The Cajun kitchen at Dry Dock Café unleashes an extensive menu of authentic New Orleans cuisine, including po boys, crawfish, and oyster entrees. A free, nearby ferry from the French Quarter transports hollow legs to a location within steps of a plate of grilled alligator and pork sausage paired with honey-mustard dressing ($7.25). Crispy crawfish tails doused in a creamy parmesan sauce enlist in a pasta tug-of-war in the crawfish maureeenica plate ($12.95), and brazen red beans transform a mound of fluffy rice into New Orleans’ classic piquant dish ($6.95). Hungry fingers choose from eight po boy sandwiches, including three varieties of sea candy: oysters ($10.95), shrimp ($9.95), or catfish ($8.95)—each brushed with mayonnaise and guarded with Cajun potato spears.
Chris Owens is one of five artists honored with a statue in New Orleans Musical Legends Park. She has been featured in OffBeat and Where Y'at Magazine. Though Chris Owens Club has yet to receive many online reviews, five Yelpers give it an average of four stars, and seven Citysearchers give Chris Owens Club a three-star average.
Joy Theatre straps young comedians to a fully packed parachute of theatre fundamentals—confidence, improvisation, acting, sketch comedy, stage fighting, character development, and more—before giving these young talents a chance to jump onstage in front of a live audience. Most classes meet on weekends and offer students the opportunity to perform in one of the theatre's Saturday or Sunday shows, which are open to the public. Kids 4–11 meet on Saturdays and Sundays from noon to 3 p.m. for the Giggle Gaggle class (with performances starting at 2 p.m. and running the last hour of class); the older set, ages 12–19, meets on Saturdays and Sundays from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. for their own Detention Span class and performance. Shy comedians and outgoing gorillas keeping a low profile in people suits can sign up for The Sunday Funnies. This class for ages 4–19 teaches all the essentials of improvisational comedy through games in a fun and welcoming environment. Instead of a weekly performance, Sunday Funnies keeps young stars in demand with a live performance every 10 weeks.