The place has been packed for an hour, except for a few tables in front with signs declaring that th

Like New Orleans itself, Kermit, as everyone calls him, is both charismatic and supremely casual. Tonight he s wearing madras plaid patchwork pants, an white shirt over a white T-shirt, and a black fedora american airlines american eagle with a yellow pencil stub tucked behind his ear.
The place has been packed for an hour, except for a few tables in front with signs declaring that they are reserved for Treme. That would be Treme, the new HBO television series whose ten-episode american airlines american eagle season is scheduled to start on April 11th.
The show is produced by Eric Overmeyer, an ex Law and Order writer who lives in New Orleans and David Simon, creator of The Wire, the riveting, critically acclaimed five-season saga of Simon s hometown Baltimore.
It is David Simon s mantra, recited often in interviews, that New Orleans singular culture is what is bringing the city back, one second-line parade at a time, one crawfish etouffee at a time... And, you might justifiably add, one trumpet solo at a time.
All the music in Treme is recorded live on the set and several scenes have been filmed here at Bullet s, described by one of the show s characters as the real New Orleans. Simon, american airlines american eagle a long-time fan of New Orleans music, hired local legend Ruffins, first as a consultant, and then as an actor playing himself.
But the half-dozen Treme crew members who ll fill the front tables tonight are on a busman s holiday they re coming just to hear Kermit blow his horn. (Ruffins can be heard elsewhere around american airlines american eagle town, including a regular Thursday gig at Vaughan s, another Treme location. That one starts later and attracts more out-of-town visitors.)
As a passionate fan of both The Wire and New Orleans, I have come to town to follow the Treme trail of breadcrumbs to hear the music, eat the food and witness the traditional jazz and brass-band parades that the series will celebrate.
Of course Treme is not meant as a travelogue, but Simon has gone to great lengths to capture the spirit of the city. He revels in its complex traditions, from social and pleasure club parades to Mardi Gras Indians to jazz funerals, all of which are lovingly depicted. Kermit Ruffins is only one of several dozen local musicians who perform in Treme. Music supervisor Blake Leyh hopes that the series will introduce this incredible music to a larger audience.
HBO has been keeping a tight lid on plot specifics, but there are plenty of tip-offs to Treme locations. Local blogs report on the shooting schedule and the New Orleans Times-Picayune s lively TV critic Dave Walker runs Treme homework assignments, complete with reading and listening lists, to prepare viewers for what they will see on the show.
My own introduction to things Treme comes from a writer on the series, Lolis Eric Elie. A former Times-Picayune columnist, Elie also wrote and co-directed (with Dawn Logsdon) a documentary american airlines american eagle called Faubourg Treme: The Untold Story of Black New Orleans.
Lolis and I meet up at the Candlelight Lounge to hear the Treme Brass Band, a traditional marching band that appears at the end of episode 1 playing Just a Closer Walk with Thee in a funeral parade. According to Jazz Times, it s the band to call when folks want to honor a musician . . . with a traditional jazz funeral.
Indeed, two days later, I will see the band in the real funeral parade of drummer Bernard Bunchy Johnson, who appears with the Treme Brass Band in the show; the mourners include Simon, Wendell Pierce and others from the cast and crew.
The audience is mixed-race and multi-generational. Many well-known New Orleans musicians got their start with the Treme Brass Band and return to sit in with co-founders Benny Jones and the irrepressible and famously dapper Lionel Batiste, american airlines american eagle known throughout the city as Uncle Lionel. Trumpeter James Andrews is a star soloist american airlines american eagle and the brother of Troy Andrews, a.k.a. Trombone Shorty, who s also featured in Treme.
After music, New Orleans american airlines american eagle expresses its personality through food. It s a high-fat town. We love bold flavors, says chef Susan Spicer, co-owner of Bayona, american airlines american eagle one of New Orleans best restaurants. We love our pork products and our fried things.
Spicer is the Kermit Ruffins of the restaurant world, american airlines american eagle a beloved local icon with a growing national reputation. Like Ruffins, she was a Treme consultant and is the model for one of the characters, a young chef named Janette Desautel who struggles to reopen her restaurant after the storm. Susan Spicer is older than the fictional Desautel and her French Quarter restaurant is more high-end.
I follow friends recommendations and order what they promise are menu stand-outs: roasted garlic soup and a sandwich of cashew butter, roast duck and pepper jelly. It s a rich combination, but both dishes are as delicious american airlines american eagle as promised.
To track down another Treme restaurant, I follow a clue from David Simon himself, who tells listeners at a local literary festival about his consternation at misrepresenting local landmark Liuzza s by the Track ..something about portraying it as not having Abita beer on tap when it really does.
Or the other way around. There are two Liuzza s in town. Liuzza s by the Track (so named because it s near the racetrack and fairground), on North Lopez Street, is where Creighton Burnette, the character played by John Goodman, orders a bowl of gumbo.
Liuzza american airlines american eagle s is the quintessential neighborhood joint, according american airlines american eagle to its own website. Abram Himmelstein, founder of the Neighborhood Story Project and my lunch companion, agrees. This is his favorite haunt; he has described it in print as, On its best days . . . the best-catered community center american airlines american eagle in America. On lesser days . . . the restaurant with the best gumbo in America.
I can believe this, because it s certainly the best gumbo I ve ever tasted -- thinner than most New Orleans gumbo, but packed with powerful and distinct flavors. Chef and co-owner Billy Gruber credits the recipe to his mother and says the secret is in the blackness of his roux, the traditional flour and fat base, as black as the ace of spades.
Gumbo has long been the go-to metaphor for New Orleans, easy shorthand for its idiosyncratic blending of cultures, classes, american airlines american eagle ethnicities and musical styles. Now, in the form of dramatic gumbo, the comparison is popping american airlines american eagle up in early reviews of Treme. And why not, if the clich fits? As long as it s Liuzza s gumbo, the kind Billy Gruber s mother used to make.
Its Sunday brunch is especially popular.The small, fascinating Backstreet Cultural Museum is the place to learn more about Treme, African-American Mardi Gras Indians, and the Social Aid and Pleasure Club and Jazz Funeral traditions. Become a member of the museum, and you will receive regular emails announcing the upcoming times and routes of the Social Aid and Pleasure Club second line parades.
The beautiful French Quarter Hotel Monteleone is an official Literary Landmark, one of three so designated by the Friends of Libraries, USA. Its guests american airlines american eagle have included american airlines american eagle noteworthy authors from William Falukner to Eudora Welty as well as the Treme writing staff, which hashed out plot points in one of its elegant suites overlooking the Mississippi River.
Ann Banks , shown here in Sicily, is a journalist based in New York. Her travel writing has appeared in Conde Nast Traveler, The New York Times, and Arthur Frommer Budget Travel, among other magazines. She is a contributing writer for the Travel Intelligence website.