It keeps the phones ringing off the hook. Brown Sugar knows many callers by voice if not by name.

“I went home and told my wife that I wasn’t never coming back,” one caller says midway through her Tuesday afternoon blues show. “And she told me, ‘Brown Sugar ain’t gonna take care of no poor man.’” They both laugh.

“That’s right, baby,” she says. They flirt while the rest of New Orleans listens to Arkansas bluesman Johnnie Taylor. He’s called her for years but won’t send her a picture. She chats with him every time he calls but hasn’t told him her real name.

Brown Sugar is one of 50 volunteer DJs at 90.7 FM WWOZ (referred to locally as Oh-Zee). From the most shoestring of beginnings, the station has become a fixture in the local music scene and in the city. In the early ’80s, the founders started playing tapes from a transmitter located in a shack across the river. With the arrival of webcasting, OZ is now an international beacon of New Orleans jazz, R&B and all the roots music of South Louisiana. Besides Brown Sugar’s suitors, the station has an intensely loyal listenership.

Before becoming the mysterious voice known to New Orleanians as Brown Sugar, she was an avid listener and frequent caller. She was coaxed over the call-in line to come down to the station and volunteer. When she said hello over the air for the first time the phone started ringing. “It was the fellas wanting to know who that woman is,” she says.

Brown Sugar soon had her own show. Not wanting to share her real name she called herself Sugar. “I played Sugar, Sugar by Wilson Pickett a lot so I used that as a name,” she says. Then one day in the studio, station co-founder Jerry Brock suggested she become Bubbling Brown Sugar. She thought Brown Sugar was good enough and she goes by that for her blues show and her Sunday morning gospel show.

As she got more involved as a volunteer she became membership director. She left behind a music club, a liquor store and a carpet cleaning business to work for OZ at its tiny office just outside of the French Quarter. When her air-time rolls around, she grabs a satchel of her CDs from home and walks across the street into Louis Armstrong Park. The studio is situated in a cozy two-story building. She slips on the earphones, slides in a CD and cuddles up to the microphone to ask New Orleans, “Are you all ready for this action?”

Her voice has become part of New Orleans. It’s her voice coming over the airwaves in the opening scene of The Big Easy. She even found her name in a recent mystery novel also trying to capture the feel of the city.

OZ is a round-the-clock soundtrack for the city. Programming features jazz most prominently. The middle of the day is carved out for New Orleans music featuring funked up R&B by everyone from Dr. John to the Radiators. Any other music with roots in New Orleans can be found sometime during the week. That includes blues, Cajun and Celtic music, African and Caribbean sounds, Zydeco and gospel.

“Jazz Fest is a ten day festival,” says station manager David Freedman. “WWOZ puts on a 365-day festival.” Like the Jazz Festival and unlike most commercial radio stations, OZ’s mission is to present a great variety of music, especially by local musicians. Freedman says that the easiest way to see if you’re in New Orleans is to tune your FM radio to 90.7. “You’ll know,” he says.

OZ is a volunteer-staffed and listener-supported radio station. It’s one of the few community radio stations nationally that is not affiliated with a college or university. Members provide the bulk of support that keeps OZ on the air. The loyalty of those listeners is very important to the station. “We don’t have the most listeners,” says Freedman. “We have people who listen the most.” And they take pride in the station. “We have more bumper stickers than all the other stations combined. Anybody can buy a billboard. But not everybody will mess up their bumper for you,” Freedman says.

OZ has drawn enthusiastic support from its inception. Founders Jerry and Walter Brock came to New Orleans in the mid ’70s to start a community radio station. Just barely in their 20s, they had already helped two other community stations get off the ground before coming to the Big Easy. Though they weren’t familiar with the city’s music before they arrived, they immediately recognized it as an untapped resource. No commercial stations featured local artists.

As they applied for a license, local musicians held benefits to raise money for the project. In 1980, they broke onto the airwaves with 12 hours of daily programming. Jerry Brock spent his nights recording 90 minute tapes. The following day he would take them out to the shack that housed their transmitter. “We didn’t even have a phone out there,” he says.

A short time later, they were offered space above the music club Tipitina’s. A small apartment became their studio. They got their first caller on day one. “Snooks Eaglin called and said, ‘We hear you, Jerry,’” Brock says. Other now legendary musicians did programs for them. Art Neville, James Booker and many more got involved with OZ. Occasionally they hung a microphone in the club downstairs and broadcast live shows. Locals tuned in and the word got out. In the pages of Interview magazine, Andy Warhol declared OZ, “The greatest radio station on earth.”

The New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Foundation, the sponsor of Jazz Fest, also recognized OZ as a vital part of the music scene. When the station hit financial woes in the mid-’80s, the foundation stepped in and made a commitment to keep them on the air. The two organizations compliment each other well. OZ now broadcasts live from the festival. They make recordings of those shows and other concerts throughout the year. The CDs are distributed to OZ members and are not for sale anywhere.

Jazz is a mainstay on OZ. On late Tuesday afternoons, Lewis White hosts a three-hour show featuring everything from Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue to the newest recordings of New Orleans jazzmen, Terence Blanchard and Donald Harrison, Jr. A retired press agent and newsman from Alabama, White has always had a passion for music. “I can sing you the lyrics of any popular song between the ’40s and now,” he says.

The cool flow of White’s show belies his studio intensity. White is meticulous and finicky in planning his show. He draws heavily on his own collection of jazz, much of it on vinyl. He cues up a record, notes it in his log and ponders what to segue into next. “It helps to feel it,” he says while scanning down a record jacket. “The best actor couldn’t pull this off.” He stops momentarily to listen to Coltrane. “The blues is the key to this stuff,” he says. Then he quickly sifts through another stack of records.

How the DJs feel about the music is one of the only guidelines working at OZ. There are no playlists, which commercial stations use to keep very popular songs in heavy rotation. “Our DJs are happy if they can play something you’ve never heard before,” Freedman says. That fresh, live feel keeps OZ at the heart of the city’s music scene.

The annual summer gallery-opening party is one of the biggest events of summer in New Orleans. Although linen seems like a good choice for a breezy summer evening, this year the light dress conjures images of tropical spots farther south. The Caribbean and Latin America inspire an evening of Latin beats and colorful décor in the Warehouse District.

White Linen paints a festive portrait of the downtown contemporary art gallery scene. They’ve taken a slow summer night and turned it into one of the city’s more fun art parties. With the art season not formally open, gallery owners have wide latitude to stage more fun and exotic shows. Meanwhile, the entertainment in the street keeps the party going.

White Linen’s tropical vibes will come from music stages set up along Julia Street from 6-9 pm. Among the performers are Ricardo Crespo’s Brazilian jazz trio and the Executive Steel Band playing Caribbean sounds. After the galleries close at 9 pm, the party moves to the Contemporary Arts Center (900 Camp St.), which will feature Honduran-born Fredy Omar Con Su Banda.

Roughly 20 galleries, mostly clustered along Julia, Magazine and Camp streets, will feature new shows. As the main artery of the gallery district, Julia Street will have its own tents, artist demonstrations, bar and food stations, live music and more. Other attractions open as well, including the Louisiana Children’s Museum. The Contemporary Arts Center (900 Camp St.) opens a new show and hosts the after party with live music and a cash bar from 9 pm to midnight. They’ll even offer Latin dance lessons until 10 pm.

The art gallery scene in New Orleans used to be an exclusively French Quarter, Royal Street affair. The Contemporary Arts Center (CAC) formed in 1976 to focus on younger, emerging artists. Since art galleries, lofts, restaurants and lawyers offices reclaimed the rest of the Warehouse District following the 1984 World Fair, which was centered on Julia Street at the Riverfront, the art scene developed a new dimension. Focusing more on living artists and contemporary art, the new galleries and CAC brought new energy to the art scene and transformed New Orleans into more of a regional art center.

The contemporary art scene continues to expand its vision. Last year, the Ogden Museum of Southern Art opened in the district, across from the CAC. The Smithsonian-affiliated institution has the largest collection of Southern art on public display. Based on the collection of New Orleans developer and philanthropist Roger Ogden, it has art in many mediums from the 17th century to the present. Currently under construction just blocks away, Louisiana Artworks will open next year. The project is a combined studio and gallery space, being developed under the management of the Louisiana Arts Council. With so much going on in the arts, White Linen has much to celebrate and an ever wider horizon to view.

Whether the competition is for the next big chef, hottest restaurant or heaviest citizens, New Orleans is a top contender. That means other people are talking about the city’s food as well. From the Food and Wine’s Best New Chefs to reader polls in other gourmet magazines, New Orleans makes news. But beyond the hype lies the simple truth that just the food is worth the trip.

In a sense, eating well is a relatively new concept in the United States. Until the 1970s, the trend in America was towards processed foods. Frozen dinners, cans of soup and squares of jello were taking over the home while fast food was all over the roads, literally. One of the most influential people in giving diners a fresh option was Chef Paul Prudhomme.

Prudhomme learned to cook at home in Opelousas, Louisiana, in the heart of Cajun country. His mother showed him how to start from scratch and cook for his entire family. There was nothing fancy about it, as the best produce from his family’s farm went to market. Prudhomme threw everything into a large pot and stretched what he had to feed everyone. But he learned to get the most flavor out of his ingredients and he developed a love of cooking.

He made his name at Commander’s Palace in New Orleans but he also began to leave left his mark on American cooking. In the early 70s, even fine restaurants were using frozen fish. Prudhomme started to change that. He reinvigorated Commander’s French-Creole cooking and was well on his way to becoming the first celebrity chef. At the time, fine restaurants across the country were dominated by European chefs. Their menus were written exclusively in French.

Prudhomme left to start his own restaurant, K-Paul’s, with his wife. He became famous for blackening redfish. The dish became so famous that the Gulf was almost emptied of the species and it had to be protected by law. Now restaurants use a lot of farm raised redfish or other Gulf fish in the same family. As the dish became popular across the nation, Prudhomme was saddled with several misconceptions he has since labored to rectify. “Most people were saying ‘blackened’ but they were just burning it,” he says.

Prudhomme started opening his own restaurants across the country to set the record straight. As his fame grew so did the popularity of Cajun culture, but Prudhomme and Cajun cooking became misunderstood anyway. While he called himself a Cajun, Prudhomme called his food South Louisiana cooking, meaning it incorporated Creole cuisine as well. While it was bold, flavorful and spicy by comparison to most other American regional cooking, “Cajun” became a synonym for raging heat. He hasn’t been able to turn the tide as national advertising has seized upon the term.

As his combination of New Orleans Creole cooking and his Cajun background gained in popularity elsewhere, American cooking was essentially reborn. Fine restaurants opened specifically to cook American regional dishes. Southwestern cooking enjoyed a wave of popularity. Later Fusion cooking muddled boundaries. But a whole generation of American chefs were free to replace French dishes with their own creations. Menus in fine restaurants were written in English. By the ’90s, a trained, professional chef who had never apprenticed in a European kitchen could open a restaurant in just about any decent-sized American town and make it. The path was clear for chef Emeril Lagasse, who had replaced Prudhomme at Commander’s Palace before opening his own restaurants, to go on television and get a studio audience to hoot and holler as he threw garlic into a dish. Cooking with fresh ingredients wasn’t a new idea, but it actually had to be rescued by American chefs like Chez Panisse’s Alice Waters. The concept was rpopularized under the term California Cuisine.

New Orleans is now full of celebrity chefs and budding talents. Locals like chef Susan Spicer have multiple restaurants just like Emeril. After making her name at Bayona, she added Herbsaint and Cobalt in recent years. The men who trained in Prudhomme’s kitchen have opened their own award-winning restaurants. Frank Brigtsen opened Brigtsen’s, Greg Sonnier opened Gabrielle, Paul Miller is in charge of Prudhomme’s K-Paul’s and Randy Barlow opened several acclaimed places before moving on to a consulting role. Other recently recognized chefs include John Harris at Lilette, John Besh at Restaurant August and Anne Kearney-Sand at Peristyle.

Famous restaurants are everywhere. Among the best known names in the restaurant business is that of the Brennans. Different branches of the family run different restaurants, including Brennan’s and Mr. B’s in the French Quarter and Commander’s Palace in the Garden District. Dickie Brennan, Jr. presides over Palace Café on Canal Street as well as the two newest restaurants, Dickie Brennan’s Steakhouse and the recently opened Bourbon House on Bourbon Street. Ralph Brennan runs Bacco’s in the French Quarter as well as Redfish Grill.

Famous restaurants are nothing new in New Orleans. Perhaps the most famous restaurant in the city is Antoine’s Restaurant, opened in 1840 by Antoine Alciatore. It is the second oldest continually operating restaurant in the country. The fifth generation of his family now runs the massive and exceptionally traditional establishment. With seventeen dining rooms, it occupies most of the block. Famous dishes invented in its kitchen include Oysters Rockefeller and Pompano en Papillote. Tujague’s is also more than a century old and maintains a traditional Creole style of serving a multi-course, prix fixe dinner with several entrée selections. Arnaud’s is the third most senior restaurant. “Count” Arnaud opened it in 1918 and launched its signature Shrimp Remoulade with his own spicy sauce.

While fine cooking is nothing new in New Orleans, Creole cooking is not just for professional chefs. Home cooking shares many of the recipes. Plenty of locals will put their gumbo up against any chef’s. Comfort food in the city comes from old French and Spanish dishes that are everywhere. Jambalaya is like a Creole paella, though usually made with sausage and chicken instead of seafood. Crawfish etouffee sounds fancy, and can be, but is crawfish tails smothered in a rich dark sauce and served over rice.

Even everyday staples have gained a reputation. Po boy sandwiches stuffed with fried shrimp or oysters are everywhere in the city. Beignets are just donuts with powdered sugar. The locals don’t even put holes in them and yet they’ve got a certain caché. Even stuff that goes uncooked, like raw oysters, draw foodies from far away.

This also makes the dining scene in New Orleans a great place to taste the city’s history. It’s based on the combined techniques of the early colonial mix of European, African and Native American residents of Louisiana. Even Cajun cooking, which was once distinct, has traded recipes and ideas with Creole cooking to the point where many chefs speak about the region’s cuisine as that of South Louisiana, rather than Cajun or Creole. Later, Creole cooking incorporated influences from other migrations as well including Italian and Sicilians throughout the 19th century and up to the most recent influx of Asian culture and cuisine.

In New Orleans, everyone has their own version of Creole cooking. It can be high or low brow, so you’ll find sublime gumbos both in fine restaurants and in greasy spoons. Some Creole cooking follows the European vein with more cream sauces and pretty presentations. Others follow the African-American vein using more tomatoes and brown gravies. But both embrace the city’s unpretentious love of food.

Brennan’s Restaurant (417 Royal St., 504-525-9711) is one of the city’s legendary Creole restaurants and is the creator of such signature New Orleans dishes as Bananas Foster. Located in the heart of the French Quarter it is a longtime favorite for its extravagant “Breakfast at Brennan’s.” But no matter when one goes, there are Creole classics on the menu like their oyster soup, New Orleans-style turtle soup and seafood gumbo. For entrees, they offer Trout Amandine, Shrimp Creole and several different redfish dishes, many enhanced by succulent mounds of crabmeat, like the Redfish Perez.

Down Royal Street, the Court of Two Sisters (613 Royal St., 504-522-7261) is a slightly more senior Creole establishment named for the founders Emma and Bertha Camors. The Court offers a buffet style brunch everyday. Everything on the extensive spread is homemade, from the biscuits to the ice cream and omelets, and Eggs Benedict are made to order. In the evenings, the dining rooms offer a la carte dining from a menu of traditional Creole dishes from baked oyster dishes, such as Rockefeller or Bienville, Trout Meuniere, their version of Pompano en Papillote (pompano cooked in parchment paper) and veal and beef dishes.

Also in the Quarter, Broussard’s (812 Conti St., 504-581-3866) offers a more contemporary touch on Creole. Local staples like chicken and andouille gumbo, crabmeat or crawfish cakes and shrimp remoulade are offered as starters. For entrees the Louisiana Bouillabaisse with Gulf fish and shellfish is their twist on a traditional Creole dish often called Court Bouillon. The rest of the menu incorporates local ingredients in more continental dishes. And as a sort of wild card, chef/proprietor Gunther Preuss prepares a Hunter’s Game Grill in his native German style.

Creative Creole cuisine is the driving force behind Palace Cafe (605 Canal St., 504-523-1661). Crabmeat cheesecake leads the way for Chef Gus Martin’s innovations. Some dishes have lightened up the Creole tradition, like the Gulf fish served with a court bouillon sauce, which is more like a broth.

For Creole cooking with a heavy dose of character there’s Jacques Imo’s (8324 Oak St., 504-861-0886) in Uptown. The menu runs from Creole soul food like their fried chicken done to order to the more creative dishes like shrimp and andouille cheesecake or the gumbo served in a hollowed out loaf of bread. The entrees include blackened redfish the way Paul Prudhomme did it and more rustic dishes like paneed rabbit. The neighborhood restaurant has an earthy, casual charm and almost diner-style approach of letting guests choose sides like corn maque choux or greens with alligator sausage to accompany the entrees of creative Creole cuisine.

But New Orleans is by no means limited to Creole restaurants. Bacco’s (310 Chartres St., 504-522-2426) approaches Italian cuisine with the same zest. They make their own flat pastas but they import all of their cured meats from Italy. They offer Italian specialties like beef carpaccio, raw, paper thin beef served with a kiss of truffle oil and shaved parmesan. And they offer some Creole specials as well.

Keeping with the city’s Spanish heritage. RioMar (800 South Peters St., 504-525-3474) focuses on Spanish and Latin American dishes. Their Zarzuela de Mariscos is a seafood stew in a tomato saffron broth that shouldn’t look unfamiliar at all to local diners. But many dishes are more uncommon in New Orleans, like their selection of ceviches, fish and shellfish cooked only by the juices of a citrus marinade. There is also a garlic soup, a salted white fish called Bacalao and some richly sweet Latin American desserts.

When it’s all said and done, New Orleans is a city in love with its traditions. Like red beans and rice. So to check out the more home style cooking of Creole soul food, there’s the Praline Connection (542 Frenchmen St., 504-943-3934). They start with a base of beans or greens and build up with everything from chicken fried to order, to turkey necks, to smothered pork chops. They also serve two gumbos, crawfish etouffee and stuffed crabs. And to top it off, they serve their own pralines, the super sweet sugar treats made with pecans instead of the French recipe’s favored almonds. Like every dish that emigrated to the city, it’s got a unique local flavor.

In the heat of summer, the alligators are quite active and not the least bit shy about swamp boats. Whether it’s instinct or wishful thinking, they will check out a boat to see if a meal is involved. While not the predators that sharks are commonly portrayed as in the movies, alligators will eat any chance they get. But since they are reptiles and have very low metabolism, they hunt mostly through stealth, gliding through the water with just their nostrils and eyes poking above the surface, or they lie in waiting and see what happens by. They don’t have much energy for a chase, but once they get their jaws on something, it’s a meal.

The swamps of Louisiana are unique in the United States, with or without gators. So the excursions provide many interesting insights into the natural world and some of the folklore of cultures that have lived in the region.

Samurai (239 Decatur St., 504-525-9595) One of the city’s more senior sushi spots is run by Atsushi and Shinobu Morishita. Atsushi learned his sushi cutting skills in Japan and keeps it simple by following the two main rules: use the freshest fish and the sharpest knife. Samurai has a small dining room and sushi bar. Sushi and sashimi, or slices of fish not mounted on vinegar rice, are the mainstays. For the rolls favored by American diners, he has a special Crunchy Dynamite Roll and a Spicy Tuna Roll. For desserts, Atsushi gets creative with banana and pineapple tempura.

Rock ‘N Sake (823 Fulton St., 504-581-7253) Nestled in the Warehouse District near the Convention Center, Rock ‘N Sake combines a sleek bistro look with Asian elements. The music and décor are much more rock ‘n roll than tuna roll but the menu sticks to Japanese cuisine. The long sushi bar can accommodate many diners. From the kitchen there are dishes of tempura fried vegetables and shrimp, noodle soups like udon, with thick noodles, and there are meat dishes like chicken teriyaki.

Wasabi (900 Frenchmen St., 504-943-9433) The growing scene of clubs and restaurants along Frenchmen Street finally has its sushi restaurant. Named for the green horseradish served with sushi, Wasabi occupies an unassuming corner spot. The bar has a neighborhood feel but runs somewhat seemlessly into the sushi bar in the dining room. Chef Phat Nguy offers standard and creative sushi pieces and rolls. The Frenchmen Roll bundles eel, salmon and vegetables. The kitchen offers everything from meat dumplings like shumai and gyoza to ginger ice cream for dessert.

Sake Café (2830 Magazine St., 504-894-0033) Just on the edge of the Garden District, Sake Café joins the uptown sushi scene. While considerably more spacious than most restaurants you’ll find in Japan, Sake Café is very traditional in the attention to detail and the array of specialized and stylized plates that arrive with sushi and appetizers. Both the sushi and cooked-item menus offer extensive choices. Some of the fancier options include tempura fried lobster tails.

Just south of the station, which is gone now, lay the French Quarter. And lining the tracks on the northern side were the saloons, bordellos and cribs of Storyville, the nation’s first legally designated prostitution district. Over its twenty-year lifetime, the district grew more and more crowded with prostitutes, early jazz musicians and saloons. And it anchored the city’s reputation as the Babylon of the South.

Ironically, Storyville was created in an attempt at social reform. But the outrageous district defied many of the sensibilities of its times. And that’s probably why it thrived.

At the end of the Victorian era and in the middle of growing national progressive reform movements (like the temperance movement that resulted in Prohibition), Storyville was created by city ordinance in 1897. Social reformers in the city wanted to limit and regulate prostitution. So they turned a not so nice residential neighborhood into the only district where prostitutes could live and work. Supposedly this would keep brothels from trashing other neighborhoods in either their morals or their property values. More significantly, they created a nationally known center of vice. Councilman Sidney Story, who sponsored the reform, was rewarded by having the district unofficially named after him.

The bordellos of Storyville became great mansions of vice. Many madams became extraordinarily wealthy. As did saloon owners and politicians and policemen who took a large cut in graft. As the years passed, the neighborhood changed so that by the time it was closed down almost every available building was either a bar or a brothel. Much of the money made in Storyville came from the outrageous prices charged for liquor. And while many of the bordellos, like Lulu White’s Mahogany Hall, were lavish and catered to customers who could meet her prices, there were also hundreds and hundreds of “crib” girls, who charged much lower rates and worked out of small one and two room cribs, furnished with only a bed and a chair. They might rent a crib for a night for as much as three dollars. Then they might charge men anywhere from ten to fifty cents. Competition tended to keep the prices brutally low in the cribs.

Some of the better sources of information on Storyville are the “Blue Books,” which were directories of the more expensive prostitutes working in the district. Billy Struve, a former police reporter, published many of the books. At times he kept an office in Lulu White’s saloon. And he was also known to work for Tom Anderson, the unofficial mayor of Storyville. Anderson owned the largest saloon and had a stake in many others.

The Blue Books advertised the beauty and quality of the bordellos and the women who worked there. Sex was never mentioned in the books and no mention was made of prostitution. But the message was clear. One of the early books carried the title “Blue Book” at the top and “Tenderloin 400″ at the bottom. Tenderloin was one of the terms for districts known for prostitution. The 400 parodied a published list of important and influential Americans.

The books contain portraits and descriptions of some of the better known madams. Lulu White, Josie Arlington and Willie Piazza were among the most famous. Before Storyville, White had been arrested countless times on charges of prostitution and assorted civil disruptions, the result of which was that she eventually seemed to know all the right people. During the Storyville era she became very wealthy and was known for wearing diamonds on all her fingers and a wig of wild red hair. In Belle of the Nineties, Mae West’s character was supposedly based on White’s persona. White herself considered moving to Hollywood to break into movies but never did so.

Josie Arlington was another notorious prostitute who reigned in Storyville. Born into the demimonde of society, at seventeen years old she became involved with Philip Lobrano, who introduced her into the world of “sporting houses,” or brothels. She worked as Josie Alton for a while, and as Josie Lobrano, and even Josie Lobrano d’Arlington. As her business acumen improved she opened the Chateau Lobrano d’Arlington. But her more simply titled Arlington was one of the biggest and bawdiest of the bordellos, allowing Josie to support Lobrano and many others who lived in her home. She went on to buy herself an expensive mansion on Esplanade Avenue, and later a lavish tomb in a historic cemetery.

The Blue Books also highlight one of the biggest draws to Storyville, says Katy Coyle, a historian researching the lives of women who resided in Storyville. Politics of the times enforced racial divides. Plessy vs. Fergusson had recently been handed down and segregation was legally instituted everywhere, she says. Segregation legislation was passed in New Orleans in 1894. But Storyville held out the allure of sex across color lines. The books listed prostitutes by race, noting whether they were white (W), Creole (C) or octoroon (Oct.). French women and Jewish women were also designated.

New Orleans had always had a reputation for interracial social mixing, especially because so many free people of color lived in the city before the Civil War. There was a special society niche of mixed race people. Quadroon and octoroon balls were held to match white men and women with one quarter or one eighth black lineage. It was understood that the couples would never marry, and the women were set up like mistresses in homes of their own. Against this backdrop, Storyville’s social mixing was to be expected. And often preferred. White women were known to work in brothels which advertised themselves as Creole establishments, Coyle says.

Aside from the books, not much remains of Storyville. In 1917, the Department of the Navy closed it down saying it was a threat to national security. On the eve of World War One, a military base opened in New Orleans and it was illegal for prostitution to operate within five miles of a base. So the district was officially closed, but not before the mayor went to Washington D.C. to try to save it. He even let the local papers know that that was his mission. He lost the battle because Washington was dominated by social reformers. Prostitution certainly didn’t stop, but it was no longer centralized in the district even though many madams continued to work there.

Eventually, the city razed most of the district to build the Iberville housing development. Most of Storyville’s buildings were lost. Only three currently remain and none are likely to be land-marked or preserved, although two were famous addresses. On the corner of Basin and Bienville streets is part of the building that housed Lulu White’s Saloon, which was adjacent to her famous Mahogany Hall. Only the first floor of the current building dates back to her ownership. Further in on Bienville Street, at the end of the block, is what remains of Frank Early’s saloon. It’s now a convenience store.

Much of what is known of Storyville is archived in the history of jazz. Many early jazz musicians, like Jelly Roll Morton, played in the parlors of Storyville. Though jazz started its development elsewhere in the city in the decades before Storyville, many believe that the music came of age there. As that view became more common, some musicians exaggerated their careers there. Photographs show Jelly Roll playing piano in Mahogany Hall and he later claimed that he played there for fifteen years, but that is unlikely.

Jelly Roll was a “professor,” the term for piano players who worked in bordello parlors. They worked entirely for tips and were expected to know a great variety of music to entertain whomever dropped in. Jelly Roll was renowned for his scandalous versions of all sorts of popular songs. Other famous professors included Tony Jackson, author of Pretty Baby, and Frank “Dude” Amacker.

Many early jazz musicians played in Storyville orchestras and bands, including King Oliver, Buddy Bolden, Kid Ory, Bunk Johnson, Sidney Bechet and Louis “Big Eye” Nelson. The bands played in the saloons, though there were also establishments that considered the new music vulgar and unworthy of their clientele. Louis Armstrong got one if his first jobs in Storyville, carting coal to the cribs.

Looking back, it’s probably the emergence of jazz that encourages such a romanticized image of the District. Its characters were certainly colorful. But what we know least about are the lives of the women who lived in Storyville. Historians like Coyle are trying to fill in those details. It’s welcome scholarship. While the city never seriously tried to recreate the legal red light district, the curiosity remains.

Pictures and information regarding Storyville can be found at the Louisiana State Museum jazz exhibit at the Old U.S. Mint. (400 Esplanade Ave., 568-6968). Blue Books are archived at the Williams Research Center (410 Chartres St., 598-7171).

Spicer’s popularity came about the old fashioned way: from her restaurant Bayona, occupying an old Creole cottage on Dauphine Street in the French Quarter. Spicer is finally breaking into the media, though. She just signed on to do a cookbook.

“It’s on the front burner now. I’m compiling list of recipes and things,” she says. “I know from teaching cooking classes what people are interested in. But it also has to be pretty. It’s gonna be for the home cook.”

Since opening Bayona in 1990, Spicer has been one of the restaurant scene’s brightest and friendliest faces. She speaks modestly about her food and keeps her hair back with a signature red or purple bandana, a holdover from her hippie days of trekking to pop festivals. But Bayona is marked more by its elegance and has consistently ranked as one of the city’s top restaurants, as well as one of its most beloved. In 1993, the James Beard Foundation named Spicer the top chef in the Southeastern United States. The Beard Foundation awards are the Oscars of cooking.

Bayona is where Spicer’s style came together. She’s translating some of that style into her book. She describes it as being ingredient-driven, using solid technique and mixing tastes and textures in a dish. Her menus mix everything from Creole dishes to Indian and Thai curries, though not within a dish. She’s no fusionist. But putting together a global menu even sounds easy when she talks about her approach. “For me it’s just matching one from column A and one from column B,” she says. “Today, I bought redfish and Copper River salmon, hangar steak and I have some chicken. Then I look at what sauces and sauce bases I have on hand. Then the produce. We have baby artichokes and some tomatillos I got at the market.

“I say, so these are the things we have to use, and, well, I can use the blackberries and blueberries with the chicken and just do a little pan sauce. Why don’t we use the artichokes and chanterelle mushrooms with a nice little snapper. It’s just matching things.”

Breaking down the approach is what her book will try to do. “[It's] how to have a certain amount of spontaneity at home. Buy a piece of chicken or fish and bring it home and see what you have on hand and what you can do with it.”

Though she established herself very quickly, she didn’t get an early start. At the end of high school, Spicer thought about going to the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York, but her father refused to pay for it. Since she had done well in school, he was hoping she’d enter a field like engineering. Instead, she spent time traveling and trying different things. She tried working as a secretary, working for a printing company and cocktail waitressing.

Then a friend convinced her to go work in a fine dining kitchen. In the late 1970s, it was very uncommon to see women working in such kitchens above the rank of prep cook. Spicer had always liked cooking and was ready to try it seriously. In Chef Daniel Bonnot, she found a mentor. In the kitchen of Louis XVI in the French Quarter, she soaked up everything about cooking and food. Soon she took off to Paris to work for Chef Roland Durand in the Hotel Sofitel. When Spicer returned to New Orleans, Bonnot put her in charge of a new restaurant, Savoir Faire. The position was intimidating at first. As resumes came in, Spicer knew she was hiring chefs with more formal training and more experience. But that worked in her favor. “I came to a realization after a year,” she says. “I discovered that my standards, what I was willing to aim for and adhere to, seemed to be higher than what those people were willing to do. It was kind of a turning point for me. I realized I was more of a perfectionist. I had the maturity. My work ethic was pretty well developed.”

Spicer worked at Savoir Faire and traveled to California and France again to learn more. Eventually she opened another new restaurant and became one of several chefs who launched their solo careers at the Bistro at the Maison Deville. With its small kitchen and intimate dining room, it’s a natural showcase for whomever is in charge. While there, Spicer met a regular customer who convinced her they should open a restaurant together. They opened Bayona in 1990 and turned a profit just six months later.

While her early focus was simply Bayona, Spicer has expanded her reach and notoriety. She was one of the early enlistees in the Superbowl weekend’s Taste of the NFL. Spicer has been New Orleans’ sole envoy to the annual party and fundraiser. In recent years, she started Wild Flour Breads, a baking company that provides many of the city’s top restaurants with different varieties of bread. In 2000, she launched a new restaurant, Herbsaint, downtown on St. Charles Ave. She’s a partner in the restaurant and chef Donald Link oversees the menu of Louisiana-French cooking. Spicer has also served as a consultant for newer restaurants, as well.

As her notoriety and that of the profession has increased, opportunity is knocking often. In November, she will be a guest chef at a major Tokyo hotel in a series presenting top women chefs.

“Travel is one of the new perks,” she says. “That’s one of my big loves.”

The thriller shed light on the toothy predators and stretched some truths. Hewitt knows because he has first hand experience. He swims with them every week in the Gulf of Mexico Theatre.

“They’re not the blood thirsty monsters people think they are,” he says. “Sharks are tuned into finding their next meal. They don’t waste energy on hunting healthy animals. They find weak creatures.” But when the sand sharks in the Gulf tank swim too close to the divers, they know it’s time to get out of the water.

New Orleans’ Aquarium of the America’s is a premier Aquarium. It celebrated its 11th anniversary in 2001. The Aquarium has come a very long way in a very short time, to the delight of more than 12 million visitors. Current exhibits include everything from rain forest dwellers to rare Southern Sea Otters and a white alligator. And everyone can brush with a shark.

Most people don’t want to come so close to a shark that they can just reach out and touch it. But the shark petting zoo invites visitors to do just that. The two-foot baby nurse sharks are fairly docile and their brownish skin is very coarse. Volunteers are on hand to guide visitors. Eventually the sharks will grow to as long as eleven feet. Some will be released into the wild and others will travel to other aquariums. Up close and personal experiences with larger sharks are reserved for the staff.

Twice a week divers plunge into the Gulf tank, which is filled with sand sharks and two other species of shark. As well as 25 species of fish, including redfish, tarpon and sting rays. The Aquarium feeds the fish three times a week. In the wild, though, sharks may eat only once or twice a month. “They’re very efficient,” Hewitt says. “They conserve energy and prey on the weak.” Thus they haven’t emptied the tank of other species. Though there are no sickly looking fish in the exhibit. And once when a sting ray gave birth to young, the sharks got to several before Aquarium staff could scoop them all from the tank.

“The truth is: living in nature is very hard,” Hewitt says. “There’s a lot of disease and competition for food and territory.” Animals at the Aquarium probably have much longer life expectancies than they would in the wild. That’s particularly so for creatures like the Aquarium’s white alligator. In the wild, it’s extremely rare for white alligators to be born. But without the camouflage of regular alligators it is even harder for them to survive. Birds like Herons prey on alligator young.

Many creatures are far more susceptible to competition from humans. Even shark populations are down considerably as a consequence of commercial fishing, says Hewitt. Tuna populations are also down. This year the Aquarium added sea horses and dragons. These exotic creatures are also being overfished. For the next Aquarium expansion, Hewitt would like to see an exhibit on migratory fish, like blue fin tuna, whale sharks and marlin, before they’re extinct.

The Aquarium houses several creatures whose species are battling extinction. Two otters moved into their New Orleans home this year. Buck and Emma are among the estimated 2,000 Southern Sea Otters known to exist. Both are rescued orphaned pups from off the coast of California. Emma hadn’t adequately mastered hunting for food, and Buck had taken to pursuing and trying to climb into canoes and kayaks. Both were deemed better off in protective environments.

Otters normally spend most of their time grooming their fur and eating. In the chilly waters off Monterrey they stay warm by nuzzling tiny air bubbles into their fur and by constantly eating. Otters eat as much as a third of their own weight every day. Buck and Emma spend their time rolling in ice, eating and diving at the Aquarium.

Scientists hope the young pups will be the first Southern Sea Otters to reproduce in captivity. That’s an area of particular interest at the Audubon Institute, which includes the Aquarium, the Zoo and several other area attractions and institutes. The Audubon Institute Center for Research of Endangered Species has made news in the past few years with its efforts to birth young from frozen embryos implanted in surrogate mothers from other species. Jazz, a baby African wild cat, was born that way at the center in 2000. The institute is creating a frozen zoo of eggs and genetic materials so that as the technologies develop, they’ll have the potential to re-populate endangered or extinct species. The new technology is becoming part of the effort to preserve the natural world.

While aquariums have always entertained, conservation is at the heart of any aquarium’s mission. They inherently educate viewers about creatures people would never stumble upon. While old aquariums tended to present boxes of fish, new aquariums have become more like modern zoos. They try to display creatures in ecosystems as closely approximating their natural habitat as possible. So the Aquarium’s Rain Forest Room is suitably lush and balmy. The Caribbean tank is full of reef fish that share the natural environment.

Maintaining an Aquarium is in many ways more demanding than a zoo. Hewitt and the animal husbandry staff and the engineers are responsible for maintaining each creature’s entire environment, from water temperatures to monitoring the interaction of species sharing ecosystems. Staff are on hand 24 hours a day to manage the nearly million and a half gallons of water in the Aquarium.

In spite of the requirements to maintain an ecosystem, the Aquarium is changing all the time. Locals are often surprised at what’s been added since their last visit, says Hewitt. And the Aquarium also has space for visiting exhibits. The current temporary exhibit focuses on frogs. It’s a fitting exhibit, since the presence of frogs in an ecosystem indicates a healthy marine environment.