LIKE IT IS

For love of oysters, brews, beignets, football

NEW ORLEANS - They were cracking oysters in Felix’s, three of them.

One had been sentenced to living five years in Little Rock, but living anywhere but the Big Easy to natives of this city is like doing hard time.

Mention you like the Saints, as in New Orleans’ NFL franchise, and suddenly you are getting samples of raw oysters, so many that you pass on ordering a dozen and decide to try their char-grilled oysters.

Across the street the line is growing long with tourists at the Acme Oyster bar. In Felix’s none of the locals are complaining.

The rivalry between those two eateries is as intense as LSU and Alabama in football.

A little research shows that both establishments own their own oyster beds and that for the past few months, maybe longer, Felix’s oysters have been a little larger.

Taste, well, that depends on how much red sauce you put on them, but oysters are an experience that is usually acquired.

The first time yours truly came here for the NCAA Tournament was in 1982, and you couldn’t get me close to raw oysters. That year, North Carolina’s Dean Smith got the 800-pound gorilla off his back and finally won the national championship, beating Georgetown in one of the great Final Four games.

Fast forward a few years to 1987 and when Keith Smart, Bob Knight’s first junior-college player at Indiana, hit a baseline jumper to give the Hoosiers the championship, not only were oysters eaten, but I was making my own sauce at the table. Admittedly, it wasn’t very good.

This mecca on the Mississippi has long been a sports town. It’s a place where friendly wagers can be made on anything from horse racing to football to basketball and maybe hopscotch.

If you want to get people around here to attend an event, sell Abita beer. Incidentally, for those who like a taste of hops, the Abita tour, 30 minutes north of New Orleans, is a great deal. Free. There’s usually a little more than an hour to self serve samples of six or seven flavors of the local brews, most of which are on back order, a 10-minute tour and then 20 more minutes of sampling.

When LSU beat Oklahoma for the BCS Championship in 2003 and Ohio State in 2007, there were more people here than during Mardi Gras.

Football is second only to surviving when it comes to N’Awlins.

People here endure floods, hurricanes and a bad economy, which is hard on a tourist destination.

They scrap and claw and stay alive, usually living for the day and being Cajun proud.

And they embrace folks who come here looking for a good meal with a smile on their face and tip money in their pocket.

When the Arkansas Razorbacks were invited to the 2011 Sugar Bowl to play Ohio State locals were not sure what to think, with a lot of Arkansas fans close enough to have to stay only one night.

Except it was Hogs fans who had been waiting for years on their first BCS appearance, and they came in large numbers filling sports cafes and the streets with Hog calls and long green.

A waiter at Cafe Du Monde commented that Razorbackers easily outtippedthe Buckeyes Nation. And that was just for breakfast.

Over the course of my career I’ve covered everything in this city from Sugar Ray Leonard winning the welterweight championship over Roberto “No Mas” Duran to a heavyweight boxing championship, to football and basketball championships, to the Sugar Bowl and the Louisiana Derby.

I’ve never had a bad meal or really a bad time, but Bourbon Street is not my cup of tea.

It is an interesting city and Felix’s char-grilled oysters were good. Maybe not Drago’s good, but good enough.

Sports, Pages 25 on 05/26/2013

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