iPhone users, download this parade tracker!

It's often hard to figure what the parades are doing when all you have to go on is heresay. Use this parade tracker from Channel 6 and you will rightly become the Grand Marshall of "Where da parade at?"

First, open the app store and search for "parade tracker"

Click the "Free" button next to "WDSU Parade Tracker" from Channel 6 and download.

Once downloaded, open the app and make sure to click "OK" when it gives you this prompt.

Select the parade you want to track...

And Boom! It gives you the route (blue line), you're location (the blue dot), and once the parade rolls, the parade's position in real time.  

Happy Mardi Gras!!!

JON PETERSON

SEXYBACK

(FEAT. NAPKIN LOCAL, HADI KTIRI, MEAGAN BURKE)

Photo by Frank McMains

Jonathan Peterson

is not what you'd call clean-cut.  He wears his beard like he lives his life -- full, majestic, and at times, a bit prickly.  Now a 1 1/2 year veteran at Bar Tonique, Jon is a fixture in the New Orleans cocktail business.  We sat down with him last week to discuss drinks, fighting, and Nick Jarrett. 

Napkin Local: Shaken or stirred?
Jon Peterson: For me, for the most part, stirred.  The citrus gives me heartburn these days.  Maybe one or two of those (citrus drinks) a night is all I can handle, but I can drink Sazeracs all day long.  
NL: Speaking of shaken, when did you and Sonali first start that piggyback shaking move that you do some late nights at Tonique?
JP:  Oh the Sex Shake? Or as I like to call it, the Kali Quad shake.  I don't remember exactly when we started.  But nights me and Sonali worked were always fun, and sometimes they were a lot more fun than other times.  One night when everyone was having a good time and we had a nice lively sort of party going... she just told me, "I should get on your back and we should shake at the same time." And I was like yeah, of course we should.  
NL: Where were you before Tonique?
JP: I was at Sobou full time - on the opening staff there for the first four months.  And then I had some 1 or 2 day a week side gigs at Perestroika before it was Cane & Table, and the Bridge Lounge.
NL: PBR or Miller High Life?
JP: PBR.  I drank a lot of High Life when I was younger and first started drinking.  I don't have anything against it, and I'll still drink it, but my taste buds changed and PBR is my beer now.
NL: Do you prefer big or small boobs, on a man?
JP: I mean... If a man's gonna have some boobs, I would hope that they're big enough to be worth writing home about.
NL: Where is home?
JP: I was in Baton Rouge for a couple years after I moved back from Brooklyn - I was doing a little layover there - and I worked at Port Royal and our sister bar, The Cove.

"I mean if a man's gonna have some boobs, I would hope that they're big enough to be worth writing home about."

NL: Besides Ann Tuennerman, who do you think has done the most for the New Orleans cocktail industry?

JP: That's kind of a tough question.  I would be inclined to say that Neal Bodenheimer and Kirk Estopinal have done a lot just through opening, you know, now several different establishments.  I know that in my personal interactions with them they were super nice, very forthcoming and they just got a great attitude.  It's sort of the attitude that pervades the New Orleans cocktail scene.  Just that a rising tide brings all the ships up -- or whatever the fuck that saying is.  Basically... they're always willing to help and show people the ropes... they're just some good dudes.
NL: A group walks into the bar at 1:45am and orders 7 Ramos Gin Fizzes.  What is your first thought?
JP: Fuck these people.
NL: And the first words out of your mouth?
JP: At 1:45 in the morning the first words out of my mouth would probably be, whether or not they're true are, we just did last call.
NL: What are your least and most favorite request from customers?
JP: My worst request at Tonique, which is the same at every bar I've ever worked at, which is, "Do you have blue cheese-stuffed olives?"  My favorite... "Can I have a beer and a shot?" 
NL: Speaking of beer and shots, if you had to pick 2 well-known New Orleans bartenders to be your parents who would you choose?
JP: (Amidst laughing) Um, I would have to say Nick Jarrett and Kimberly Patton-Bragg.  I think that would be a very interesting house to live in...
NL:  If they gave you a punishment, what do you think it would be?
JP: I would imagine they would throw a party for all their friends and I would just have to make Ramos Gin Fizzes for like 75 people.
NL: Random question, what dead politician would you want to fight in a hockey brawl?
JP: Andrew Jackson, because that was a bad mother-fucker and that would probably be a pretty good fight.  
NL: What's your favorite Chris Hannah saying?
JP: Shit... I'm not sure I've been around him enough to have an informed opinion on his diverse vernacular.  Probably something incoherent that he might say right before falling down.    --NL


 

Quote of the Week

"Would you like your martini shaken or stirred?"

"Would you like your bills crumpled or straight?"

Punch your hangover in the jimmy

Enjoying New Orleans the way you should often involves upwards of 8 cocktails, four courses and one jazz show.  It is the most fun you'll ever have in a bow tie or cocktail dress.  But living life at this level has a price.  That price is a hangover.  A price we all pay gladly.

First, never start your night with spirits.  Wine is a magical journey on a fresh palate.  Start with that.  Then move on to aperitifs like Campari or Sherry.  Only after dinner should you begin the booze adventure that will inevitably lead to your moral repose.

I don't believe in hangover cures. They don't exist.  I do, however, trust in hangover treatments.  Everybody has their own way.  This is mine:

Go to this liquor store

Loads of people ask me where they can buy wine and spirits nearby.  I imagine many of them use Google.  This is a mistake.  Keife & Co. doesn't even show up on the top 20.  No idea why.  Then again, Sylvain and Cane and Table don't show up under best New Orleans seafood.  Use Napkin Local and move on with your intoxicating life of magic and dreams.   Cheers.