Noteworthy in Nola

I never did do an update on Bultman’s, its conversion to a Borders completed in the fall.

I guess I haven’t revisted it because my feelings about it are complicated. First off, it’s amazing that it didn’t have to be torn down; I can’t even imagine how much money it took to convert and repair it, and there aren’t many places with pockets (or will) that deep. So a huge thank you to Borders.

But at the same time we have tons of phenominal little book stores around the city- Garden District Books, Octavia, & Maple Street Books are all particular favorites. The idea of going to Borders seems disloyal to all the little guys who’ve struggled along and built something really great.

All of that aside, Chris Rose’s writeup on the strangeness of it all was pretty interesting, tho:

“My mother was right there under the Seattle’s Best coffee sign,” Wiltz says, leading me into the cafe that lines the Louisiana Avenue side of the building. “My father and I had an argument over whether it should be an open or closed casket. He’s Catholic. Catholics like open, for the most part. But she had specifically said: Do not open the casket. So he and I are standing right here having an argument over my mother’s dead body.”

Right here, under the Seattle’s Best sign, where a woman who no doubt never knew Wiltz’s mother eats a cherry Danish and reads Elizabeth Gilbert’s “Eat, Pray, Love.”

“My daddy was over in this room,” Pecot says, moving us toward the cash register and muffin display counter. “There was a chapel, pews. They could do an altar right there by the sign that says, ‘It’s Summer, Get Happy.’ And he was laid out right under ‘Smooth Roasted Coffee.’”

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