Visit their site: ripandmarsha.com
Dine Out July 19 & Benefit NO/AIDS Task Force
Eat, drink and help fight AIDS July 19th for the annual Dining For Life extravaganza throughout the greater New Orleans area. Participating restaurants donate 25% of the evenings proceeds to NO/AIDS Task Force in a huge effort to help people affected by AIDS.
Four of the restaurants participating this year are Ambush favorites. May we recommend the Bombay Club, 830 Conti; Bywater Bar.B.Que/Lorenzo's, 3162 Dauphine; Petunias, 817 St. Louis and Quarter Scene, 900 Dumaine.
The Bombay Club, popular for its marvelous martinis, will feature a Tarragon and Chevre Stuffed Fresh Pompano with Cardinale Sauce as one of the evening's special culinary creations. The popular upscale restaurant will also serve selections from its regular menu which includes Barbecue Shrimp, Peasant Duck, Rack of Lamb and Fillet Mignon.
Bywater Bar.B.Que/Lorenzo's will feature its famous Salmon Florentine (grilled salmon over creamed spinach with rice), and Steak and Shrimp Scampi as two of the evening's specials. The full menu here will also be available, including Bar-B-Cue Ribs, Chicken Fried Steak, and a large selection of unique pizzas.
Petunias, famous for the World's largest crepes, will serve its fresh fish du jour selections, blackened or Cajun grilled as one of its culinary specials. You will also find fresh scallops among the specials, and here you can also enjoy the restaurant's full dinner menu. Evening selections include Cajun Pasta with Shrimp and Andouille, Shrimp Creole, Crawfish Etouffee and the Bananas Foster Flambe Crepe.
The Quarter Scene had its specials menu complete by press time which includes the appetizers Lamb Satay and Farmer's Market Tomato Salad. The entrees will include Oyster Rockefellar Pasta, a blend of fresh Louisiana oysters, cream flavored with fennel and fresh spinach, and tossed with al dente penne pasta; Pan Seared Peppered Tuna - fresh sushi grade tuna encrusted with cracked pepper and coriander, pan seared medium rare and dressed with a ginger, cilantro and lime cream sauce; and Petite Beef Tenderloin Trio - three petite tenderloin medallions grilled to your specifications and finished with a classic Bernaise sauce. White Chocolate Croissant Bread Pudding will be served for dessert. Of course, here also, the regular dinner menu will be available.
Coronation 2001 Names SDGMs XXIX
Coronation 2001, on July 7 at 735 nightclub/bar named 3 grand marshals to lead Southern Decadence XXX. Outgoing SDGMs Tony Langlinais and Thom "Smurf" Murphy announced their successors, Pat "Estelle" Ritter, "Big" Rick Thomas and Bianca Del Rio. As SDGMs XXIX, the trio chose "Menage a trois" as their theme, purple, pink and red as their colors and "Lady Marmalade" as their song.
Ritter is co-owner of Voodoo at Congo Square; Thomas, co-owner of Ninth Circle at Congo Square; and Del Rio, showgirl extraordinaire hailing from Oz, as well as reigning Entertainer of the Year and Bitch of the Year.
The grand marshals recommend that Southern Decadence revelers do something in purple, pink and/or red and be sure you are in groups of three. However, the grand marshals leave the interpretation of the theme up to the individual taste of the revelers.
AMBUSHonLine Hotel Booking Engine
Registers $84,381 in Sales for SD
AMBUSHonLine's new hotel booking engine registered $84,381 in room sales for Southern Decadence, Aug. 29-Sept. 6. As of July 16, gayneworleans.com sold 292 room nights garnering $35,294, while southerndecadence.com sold 387 room nights garnering $48,586.
The AMBUSHonLine conglomerate boasts 36 Web sites with over 375,000 unique visitors per month, registering over 3.5 million hits.
Travelers and locals alike can book rooms online from each of the company's Web sites to virtually any location in the World. Running since Dec., 2000, the hotel booking engine has received 77,326 referrals resulting in the sale of 1,517 room nights garnering $173,126.
Top site bookings include gayneworleans.com - $65,425, gayatlanta.com - $2,698, gaychicago.com - $8,359, gaynewyork.com - $1,904, gaypalm-springs.com - $1,756, gaysanfrancisco.com - $3,006, gaybars.com - $5,464, gayamerica.com - $6,647, gaymardigras.com - $5,266, southerndecadence.com - $52,533, gaynew-orleans.org - $1,070, ambushonline.com - $5,683, crescentcity.com - $4,511, gayworld.net - $1,782, and ambushmag.com - $2,466.
The sales thus far from the booking engine has astounded local officials. It will be interesting to see what the conglomerate will generate in hotel room sales after the engine has been online for its first total year.
St. Louis Cathedral
Replica Raffle Ends Aug. 25
Gino Perrone, a retired architect, and his wife Angela, a former furniture artist, have created a rendition of the historic St. Louis Cathedral. The Huber House Gallery, 1522 St. Charles Ave., is hosting a raffle whose proceeds will benefit the upgrade to the sound system inside the Cathedral.
The drawing is set for Sat., Aug. 25, the Feast of St. Louis, King of France at the Cathedral. Tickets are $10 a piece and can be purchased by calling 504.561.0628 [ask for Gayle Bird] or visit huberhousegallery.com.
This magnificent work of art is hand carved down to the wooden doors and tiny brass doorknobs. This unique bird sanctuary features hand-painted slates on the spires, iron railing and stained glass painted windows of the Cathedral. The architect and artist began the construction using birch wood which took six months to complete.
Pride Volunteer Party
July 22 at The Country Club
The beautiful Country Club, 634 Louisa, will host the Volunteer Party for Pride Fest July 22, 5-9pm. Quartermaster, The Nellie Deli will serve up many of its creations as culinary sponsor.
New Orleans Alliance of Pride, producers of the 22nd Annual Pride Festival, honor past, current and prospective volunteers at this bash. The all-volunteer board depends heavily on the support of festival volunteers to undertake the massive task of producing the parade and festival.
This year, the week-long event begins Sept. 22 and runs through Sept. 30. The annual parade begins at Washington Square Park at 2pm and winds through the streets of the French Quarter, ending at Armstrong Park, followed later that evening with a party honoring this year's grand marshals. The Pride Board hopes to have activities throughout the week culminating with the actual festival on Sat. and Sun., Sept. 29 and 30, 10am-6pm at Armstrong Park.
According to Board Chair's Jim Bailor and Crystal Little, the organization is trying the parade outside of the festival weekend so that the board can participate and enjoy the parade itself. The all volunteer board is swamped on festival weekend and, since the group is small, it would be extremely difficult, if not virtually impossible, for the board to put their whole- hearted efforts in producing the best parade possible. It's not too early to start planning for the parade. Contact Bailor at 504.588.9143 or Little at 504.943.1999 to register for the parade. Businesses and organizations can also contact Bailor or Little to host fund-raisers and find out about sponsorship opportunities. It takes loads of money to put on Pride Fest, and New Orleans Alliance of Pride needs your help and support.
Ambush is proud that its $87,410 sponsorship package won the approval of the Pride Board making Ambush "exclusive major local media sponsor for New Orleans, as well as all of Louisiana and the Gulf South." If Ambush is going to sponsor a major event, it does not believe in doing the least amount necessary in order to have its logo featured as a sponsor as some publications apparently do.
Pride Fest benefits from 10 full page/full color ads in Ambush Mag valued at $6,650, a one year "A List" link at gayamerica.com and a "Triple C' link at crescentcity.com valued at $5,760 and a banner ad on 35 of AMBUSHonLine's Web sites for the months of July, Aug. and Sept., a value of $75,000.
Ambush urges its clients, readers and friends to support Pride Fest this year so New Orleans can be proud of the festival it deserves.
Pansies & Dirt
Cowpokes was the setting for the 1st Annual Miss Possum Holler Contest. The gang here was treated to a festive event complete with competitions including talent and the best "possum holler." Lana Kane, representing the Crescent City Outlaws took top honors with Cowpokes own Twila Louise Pearl coming in as runner-up.
According to emcee Mena Hernandez of Crescent City Outlaws, the celebrity judges had a tough time picking a winner. Contestants were judged by Phoenix's Jamie Temple, Bywater Bar.B.Que/Lorenzo's Mike Murray and socialite Jack Pruitt.
Oz celebrated its ninth anniversary blowout with its hit Neon Party. It was packed wall to wall with all the beautiful people in town. The Men of Manwatch dancers were hunkier than usual and were a great opening act for the talent to come. Yes, a little after 12:30am, London diva Rozalla rocked the crowd with her dance hits live center stage. New Orleans own circuit DJ Joe Gauthreaux did the honors throughout the evening, never emptying that dance floor even once.
Orlando's Society Page was up next for its mega Beach Party weekend. Here the fellas had another entourage of hot male strippers to tantalize revelers. One of the highlights was the annual drawing hosted by the Krewe of Mwindo for Essence Fest tickets. Errol, Evans and Michael had to get behind the bar to keep up with the party goers here.
Michael Elias, new bar baron of the Corner Pocket, hosted a fab Independence afternoon cookout. Local celeb chef Chuck Wegmann dished up burgers and dogs with his own homemade chili. The cookout was only a teaser of what was to come. Another "Wet Jockey Shorts" contest was on the horizon, and the boys here aimed to please.
July 4th arrived and it was off to LazFest. Arriving early, we had a chance to bid on various auction items, get raffle tickets and try one of the hot sausage sandwiches offered. It was great seeing so many of our friends there including all those who volunteered. Some $70,000 was raised benefiting Project Lazarus.
From there it was off to Double Play to have some potato salad and a burger. We ran into Alabama (now Biloxi) socialite Charlie Hooper, in town for the festivities.
Then we hopped a cab to the Phoenix to try one of their dogs along with grilled jalapenos. Chef Catt and the lovely Miss Upper Schwegmann Heights Stephanie prepared the feast here. Next up was Voodoo for Estelle's potato salad and barbecued chicken. The gang here was just starting to surface after another late night at Congo Square.
But we can't forget Ninth Circle. Here we reminisced about Irish Mike and his World's smallest drink. Apparently Mike was out to teach Miss Abrasive Tongue a lesson and served her wine in a teeny tiny shot cup, and still charged her full price. That was okay cause Mike got his martini the same way at Voodoo later, courtesy of Miss Abrasive Tongue.
South Beach in Houston?
Twenty-two foot tall Canary Island date palms from Southern California majestically frame the entrance to South Beach, 810 Pacific Ave., the newest nightclub/lounge in Houston. Built from the ground up, the club encompasses a whole city block and features the latest in sound and light technology. A thousand days in the planning and building, Houston's most anticipated club opened to rave revues Fri., June 8, 2001.
"There are a lot of similarities between Houston and Miami's South Beach," said owner Charles Armstrong. "Miami's South Beach is the southern-most tip of Miami Beach. It's hot, humid, tropical, mulit-racial - has a large Latin population with a vibrant and youthful nightclub and restaurant-oriented population...Houston, and more specifically Montrose, is the melting pot of cultures and races.... Montrose is truly the gem in the social crown of Houston.... Also, our two cities share the distinction of being leaders in style and fashion."
The 10,000 sq. ft. club features a 44' long ice bar, sub-zero freezer for vodka, 20' long, 12' tall crescent-shaped water-wall, the latest technology in lights and speakers, a 50' X 30' white oak dance floor, and Kryogenifex Liquid Nitrogen Special Effects Ice Jets - which can lower the temperature by 20 degrees and make the entire dance floor seem to disappear in a heavenly mist in less that 30 seconds!
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