April at Fair Grinds

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by Wade Rathke
fairgrinds-rathkeApril is always a fantastic Fair Grinds month as spring bursts into final blooms and the Jazz and Heritage Fest knocks on our door, so let’s see what we have in store here for the month.

This month’s Fair Grinds Coffeehouse’s Dialogue on Tuesday evening, April 9th, is a special call for all of our poets and writers that make Fair Grinds so important in the New Orleans literary community. We are going to be discussing “artisanal” or self-publishing as an important modern tool thanks to advantages in technology. Glenn Smith from Birds in the Sky Press, one of the authors who has used self-publishing will testify about the experience, and I will share our experience with Social Policy Press. We have a theory that a lot of our Fair Grinds regulars and assorted randoms have things they have written from full blown books to family histories that need to find their way to print and the public. If this is true for any of you or folks you know, of if you are simply curious about how it all works, be there…

muffins-fairgrinds1aTuesday, April 9th – 7 PM

Fair Grinds Common Space – 2nd Floor

April as always is a musical month. Here’s the tentative schedule of coming musical attractions including local groups and talent from this area as well as folks from around the country. Check the Fair Grinds calendar at www.fairgrinds.com for more details on each performance.

Swamp Lillies – Sunday, April 7th 5 PM

Open Mic with Robert Eustis – Thursday, April 11th 7PM

Lips and Trips – Friday, April 19th 7:30 PM

Snail Party (Canada) – Saturday, April 21st 8 PM

Randy Harsey – Saturday, April 27th 7 PM

Linda Kolda and Work for Hire – Saturday, April 27th 9PM

McMain Piano Recital – Tuesday, April 30th 7PM

Getting the coffee cart ready to roll over the Dillard University for a couple of hours to introduce 100% fair trade, organic coffee at their annual Health and Sports Fair on Saturday, April 6th. The same night we have a new organization, DEAF-Louisiana doing a movie night in the Common Space.

Great to see people enjoying the balcony now that the weather is so nice.

Improvements at Fair Grinds

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August 21st, 2012

Dear Fair Grinds Community,

PARDON OUR DUST!
That’s what the construction signs usually say, but actually it’s not going to be that bad, and in fact I think all of you will find this special bulletin welcome news.

We’re fixing the balcony, “waterproofing” the outside patio, and preparing to open up more chairs, tables, umbrellas, computer electricity outlets, and space in our open area. How about that for an exciting addition as we prepare to celebrate our second year of “great coffee for a change?”

Here’s more than you want to know about what’s happening. We’re shoring up and replacing some of the piers and supports for the balcony. We’re replacing all rotten wood and redoing the decking on the balcony. We’re raising the wrought iron fencing on the balcony to the required 42 inches to assure safety for our customers. We’re surfacing the balcony so that rain doesn’t pour into the patio scurrying our customers when we’re facing our current deluge. We’re adding gutters to the balcony so that when the rains come then it will drain to the back, rather than spill over our sides.

Our contractor making these repairs is going to work in sections, so that only a couple of feet of the patio is unavailable at any time during the construction and so that in fact there really isn’t dust or disturbances on the first floor. Furthermore, this should be a quick process finding Labor Day back to normal with the balcony “open for business!”

Frequently asked questions include:

Will the common space be affected?
No. We will continue to operate the common space as usual.

Will dogs be allowed on the balcony?
This is a matter between you and your dog, as long as the dog is not a jumper!

What about smoking? The front sidewalk is not our property, so smokers will continue to enjoy this space. The patio though is going to move to a non-smoking area whenever practicable. Children and others run free in the patio and too often smoke clouds are trapped under the stairway making it less than ideal space. Instead we are going to make the balcony open to smoking, which actually means that our smoking customers will have MORE space to smoke and drink their coffee than they have now! “Whenever practicable” means that the community is self-policing, so when it is raining or inclement, then of course there’s going to be some smoking in the patio, but during the normal wonderful New Orleans weather, it’s balcony rules!

What about music? No music is planned for the balcony because we want to continue to be good neighbors while continuing to welcome musicians to give their time and offer enjoyment to our customers and, I’m not sure that would qualify.

We’re super excited about this huge improvement and its ability to open up more space for our more people who are joining the Fair Grinds community every day! Some pain, but lots of gain!

Thanks as always for your support!

FAIR GRINDS VOTED BEST

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I’ve got some news that is even hotter than the coming summer weather, and it has been very hard to keep it a secret until now, but (big drum roll…), thanks to your support and votes, and many others, Fair Grinds Coffeehouse for the first time has been named by the Times-Picayune as the Readers’ Choice 2012 Best Coffeehouse in New Orleans! When you pick up your Langiappe section in what used to be the daily paper, you will see us right there in the catbird seat at #1!

That’s not all either.

Friends and faithful coffee drinkers at Fair Grinds have also voted Fair Grinds Fair Trade Coffee as the #2 Readers’ Choice Best Cup of Coffee in New Orleans. We’re not getting the big head at Fair Grinds, but I can also assure you that we won’t rest until the people in the Greater New Orleans area find out that we actually have the best cup of coffee in town. We’re setting our sights, and you will enjoy the journey.

Speaking of great fairtrade coffee, we had a ball rolling out the coffee carts (ok, that wasn’t as fun as we had hoped, but thanks to our customers for helping us get across Esplanade Avenue!) over to Cabrini High School to give the young women exam takers a “jolt of justice,” serve up hot and iced “good luck” coffee, and give the girls some good information on the importance of fairtrade. We’re crossing our fingers that we can do this on a regular basis and that the girls cry for more.

We had fun the other day with a book signing in the Fair Grinds Common Space with Lawrence Powell signing his new book about New Orleans, Accidental City, for our good neighbors, Maple Street Bookstore, and we are definitely going to put Larry on our Fair Grinds Dialogue calendar later in the year as more of us make it through the book. The Fair Grinds Dialogue is up in the air for June because our friend and regular tea drinking customer, Jerome Smith, legendary civil rights organizer and long time director and founder of Tambourine & Fan, has been out of pocket so we haven’t been able to tighten him down. Keep an eye on the bulletin board because this still may happen in June or we may have to push it off if Jerome is tied up, but whenever he’s ready, I know this is going to be something the Fair Grinds community will deeply appreciate. This is on the calendar for Tuesday, June 19th at 7PM, but, as I say, stay tuned!

Rising temperatures simply mean that the music has to heat up to keep up and the patio is sometimes cooking so hopefully that will be what you hear in June:

Self Evidence – Friday June 1st 7PM

LNJ Music – Saturday June 2nd 730PM

Benjamin Booker and You’re So Cool – Saturday June 9th 8PM

Andrea Bush – Sunday June 10th 730 PM

Issac Bramblett, Singer & Songwriter – Tuesday June 12th 730 PM

Open Mic with Robert Eustis – Tuesday June 14th 7 PM

Lips & Trips – Friday, June 15th 7pm (Are you coming?!?)

Brian Nebel – Monday June 25th 730 PM

Keep up with the events calendar on our website for any other groups that may be late additions. There are also some nice surprises like the book event for parents and children by Tomas Moniz, the editor of Rad Dad, which I have to admit sounds fascinating to me.

"Sunshine" and "Can't Stop the Beet" are two new offerings at Fairgrinds
Besides the expanding red and orange and gold paint starting to brighten up Fair Grinds another little housekeeping matter in June will be a bit of a shift around the counter. Katie Murphy, who brightens the day for many in the mornings, was a key ingredient in making the new Fair Grinds work when we turned the key on the lock for the first time on October 15th, and she will still be doing so with a smile, but her art has called her so she’s stepping aside as manager to listen to her muse as well in June, and Kami Ownbey, who has been the night manager, is stepping up her game for the whole coffeehouse. Theirs have been the shoulders I’ve gotten to lean on in learning from the cup up, so this transition has been as smooth as silk. Give them some thanks as we head for the summer!

There’s a lot more, but come by Fair Grinds, and we’ll keep trying to surprise you.

Best!

Wade Rathke

Ps. Ok, yes, that means that granitas and more cold drinks are going to be debuting in June, so let us know what you think, and we’re very close to starting to bring the juicer up to the front and make it while you watch. How about that?

Intel and Dell at Fair Grinds

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At Fair Grinds we love the opportunity to meet new friends from all around the world and see how our community adapts good-naturedly to all of the crowds and chaos. What is with the shorts and Hawaiian shirts? Is that a uniform of some kind? Aloha from Fair Grinds!

We debuted our Fair Grinds Coffee Carts to make sure we could handle the crowd and keep everyone supplied in hot fair trade coffee and iced cold coffee. The first day we sold out of iced coffee by 11 AM. Ok, we’re learning lessons by the minute during the first weekend, so look out on the second weekend.

Speaking of the second weekend, we have some wild surprises for both visitors and our own Fair Grinds community for Saturday, May 5th and Sunday, May 6th. We have partnered with two companies, Dell Computers and Intel and our friends at Participation Agency, to have live streaming of the Jazz Fest shown on huge screens at the end of our patio and in the large common space rooms on the 2nd floor from 12 noon until 9 PM on those dates. Visitors will also be able to use the Dell computers upstairs to send emails back home and rest their “dogs” while enjoying the Fest from Fair Grinds.

On Saturday, May 5th, there will be a special surprise visit from one of the members of the band, My Morning Jacket, which is playing the main stage that same evening. Wow, huh?!?

[See invite above!]

Jazz Fest only happens once a year though, so I’m actually even more excited about a partnership we are forging in our own community of Faubourg St. John with Cabrini High School on Esplanade based on our shared belief in the value of fair trade coffee. As a special treat for the young women and a special educational opportunity for Fair Grinds Coffeehouse and Cabrini High School, Fair Grinds is going to serve our great coffee for a change both hot and iced before the seniors take their exams for three days in early May and again later in May for all of the students during exam week so that they get a jolt of justice on their way to great grades! If you see Katie and I pushing the Fair Grinds Coffee Carts across Esplanade at dawn, give a shout out during May, that’s what’s happening.

Once you make it past the first Jazz Fest weekend, you will notice the first Tuesday is May 1st or May Day so appropriately the Fair Grinds Dialogue will be on the topic of Solidarity. Helene O’Brien, the President of SEIU Local 21LA, dynamic local representing New Orleans city workers among others, will be speaking about what solidarity means and the efforts of her local union and others to build this kind of relationship uniting labor and community efforts. The Dialogue will be from 7 PM to 9 PM and for a change we are going to hold it in the main room downstairs so more people can take advantage of the event.

Even after Jazz Fest we have some great music that will be playing at Fair Grinds in May:
Kim and Sharon Apres-Fest – Sunday, April 29th 8PM
Open Mic with Robert Eustis – Tuesday May 10th 7pm
Jacob Green – Friday, May 11th 730 PM
Lips & Trips – Friday, May 18th 7pm
Jeanne Jaubert and Cello Solos – Saturday, May 26th 7pm

Keep up with the events calendar on our website at www.fairgrinds.com for any other groups that may be late additions.

Before I let you go, let me share something else with you that I think will make you as proud as it does me. We are really adding to the number of groups that are using the smaller and larger rooms that compose the Fair Grinds Common Space upstairs. Just to give you some flavor of the diversity of users, let me list a few: the Archdiocese Fair Trade Committee, Melissa Harris-Perry and Maple Street Bookstore, a new Men and Feminism group, the New Orleans Fruit Tree Project, and Re-Bridge here in the neighborhood. As importantly, the groups have embraced the cooperative nature of the space and the need for all the users to pitch in and pass the hat to support maintenance, cleaning, and utilities so that more and more groups can use the space: that’s community! By the way, thanks to Dell and Intel for painting the common space as part of this cooperative spirit over the coming week!

Speaking of paint, I hope everyone notices that red and gold are going to be putting a new face on Fair Grinds. Peek upstairs to the second floor, and you’ll see a “brighter” future for Fair Grinds with new colors coming, slowly but surely.

Here’s to a great May!


Wade Rathke

PS: Thanks to all of you who went on-line or mailed in your ballots to the Times-Picayune, and voted for Fair Grinds Coffee and Fair Grinds Coffeehouse in the Best of New Orleans voting. Muchas gracias! And, in that spirit we’re running a special now on Fair Grinds Fair Trade coffee so that you can enjoy it at home, when you can’t get by and visit with us.

Beetlejuice?

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Fairgrinds
3133 Ponce de Leon
New Orleans, LA

"Sunshine" and "Can't Stop the Beet" are two new offerings at Fairgrinds

No, it isn’t beetlejuice but the drink on the right does have beets in it! Click on the lights to learn about Fairgrinds‘ other menu items.

Fairgrinds is at 3133 Ponce de Leon near the corner of the 3100 block of Esplanade. They have coffee, tea, pastries, and more. Click on the new offerings featured on the right to learn more.

Fairgrinds also hosts many community meetings in its upstairs meeting room. You can learn about everything from Occupy NOLA to Yoga.
Click on the link below for a schedule.
http://fg.chieforganizer.org/calendar

Klaus Weiland to Play at Fair Grinds Friday

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FAIR GRINDS COFFEEHOUSE
3133 Ponce de Leon
New Orleans, LA 70119
(just off the 3100 block of Esplanade in beautiful Faubourg St. John)

Hope some of y’all who remember Klaus can make it to Fair Grinds on Friday. And, if you weren’t around back in the day, come support live folk music and get an earful of some of the finest playing you’ll ever hear! An Evening with Guitar Wizard Klaus Weiland.

Friday Night December 30, 2001
8:00 pm

Fair Grinds Coffee House
http://fairgrinds.com/
3133 Ponce de Leon St. New Orleans
$10.00

Klaus Weiland is the best guitarist you’ve never heard of, and he’s returning to the New Orleans area to play for the first time in thirty years.

Habituees of the Quarter and New Orleans coffeehouses may remember the flamboyantly attired German musician with the English accent who killed us softly with his acoustic guitar in the late 70s and early 80s. Whether jamming with Charmaine or Little Queenie, with New Leviathan’s Eric Glaser or just hanging out with a mandolin, Klaus always brought fluency and craft to his playing.

His cds include: Pebbles, Acoustic Passion, Listen to the Sky, and Cathedral Forests. An EP, Lotte, is available on iTunes.

His web site: www.klausweiland.com

Performance Videos from the UK’s New Music Express:
http://www.nme.com/nme-video/youtube/id/M3XLaH3zZUY/search/klaus-weiland

See Klaus Weiland Is Back in Louisiana on Facebook
(we’re just dying for you to “LIKE” him)

“Your music regulates my breathing.” Art Neville

“The best guitarist in Europe.” Finbar Furey, Dublin

late 80’s Conceived, built (500 auto tires, 20,000 plastic soda bottles, 12miles of lobster trapline, all rescued from the environment) and sailed with my brother Chris “Bubbles” Weiland, together with a wonderful bunch of volunteer eco-adventurists in Key West.