Culture club: New theme nights for Bull Branch
By Susan Pugh on Sep. 07, 2007
By Casey Gillis
Last month, Bull Branch saluted the Caribbean.
This month, owner Scott Cardwell is transforming the downtown bistro/bar into New Orleans.
Cardwell recently decided to begin hosting monthly theme nights celebrating the food and culture of a different area. The theme nights will be held the second Wednesday of every month.
“On a daily basis, we’re what I consider (to be) a global bistro, and it’s just fun once a month to focus on one place,” Cardwell says.
“My restaurant has a certain feel about it, but it definitely is kind of a blank palate you can paint with,” she said. “It’s fun to immerse yourself in those cultures.
“For the night, it’s completely somewhere else, which is always fun.”
To transform Bull Branch into the Big Easy, Cardwell and her staff are going to pipe in zydeco and New Orleans jazz music. They’ll project the Marlon Brando classic “A Streetcar Named Desire” onto the walls.
“The black and white films look really great in there,” she says.
The dinner menu — conceived by Cardwell and Bull Branch chef Dave Ellis —will feature shrimp and grits, a seafood, andouille and chicken gumbo, a chickory salad with lardons and lemon vinaigrette, a crab imperial roasted cod with red beans and rice, fried okra and a red pepper remoulade. Dessert options include pecan pie with homemade French vanilla ice cream, and beignets with powdered sugar and honey.
Sazerac, a classic New Orleans cocktail of Peychaud bitters, rye whiskey, sweet vermouth, a splash of Pernod and a lemon twist, will also be served.
In addition to being a night full of entertainment and food, the event, which begins around 6 p.m., has a deeper meaning for Cardwell. She’s using it to raise awareness and funds for Emergency Communities, a United Way relief partner agency for Hurricane Katrina victims.
“I wanted something that was community-based … with the least number of middlemen,” says Cardwell. “The closer (I) get to the person (I’m) trying to get relief to,” she said, “I always feel more confident that my dollar will make a difference.”
According to its Web site, Emergency Communities’ mission is to rehabilitate disaster-stricken areas through the creation of temporary community centers based on service, passion and creativity. Since Katrina, it has operated four relief sites, and has served more than 300,000 hot meals and 25,000 residents of New Orleans.
“This group sprang up out of the need (that existed in New Orleans),” says Cardwell, who found the organization online after doing extensive research. “People who were there on the ground formed this group out of need.”
After a disaster, “you think basic needs,” she adds. “But after they’re met, there needs to be a next step.”
And that’s what Emergency Communities is trying to do.
Organizers currently run a community center in Plaquemines Parish, La., where Katrina first made landfall. There, they serve hot meals and run a free laundromat, Internet café and distribution center. They also host live music by New Orleans bands, supply the local Meals on Wheels program and run an after-school program.
“They say … ‘comfort and respect are as much a part of recovery as a hot meal,’” Cardwell says.
There is no cover charge for the event, but Bull Branch will accept donations and food for Emergency Communities.
“It will be amazing to turn it into New Orleans,” she says. “It already feels like it’s right off of Bourbon Street anyway.”
COMMENTS
This group sprang up out of the need (that existed in New Orleans),� says Cardwell, who found the organization online after doing extensive research. �People who were there on the ground formed this group out of need.