New Orleans restaurant podcast

Midnight Menu +1

Hosted ByRay Cannata & Margo Moss

Ray Cannata has eaten at over 750 New Orleans restaurants, so he knows a thing or two about hanging out. Margo Moss has turned Ted's Frostop from a greasy spoon into a considerably less greasy but not quite silver spoon. When the sun goes down on The NOLA Brewing Tap Room in the Irish Channel, Ray and Margo entertain members of New Orleans restaurant community. Their guests bring along a friend, a +1. Anything can happen.

Not Dissin Dem or Dissin Dat or Dis n Dat but Dis n Dem – Midnight Menu +1 – It’s New Orleans

March 17, 2015 Midnight Menu +1 Comments Off on Not Dissin Dem or Dissin Dat or Dis n Dat but Dis n Dem – Midnight Menu +1 – It’s New Orleans

Like many New Orleans kids, Colin Provensal was hanging out in bars way too young. In Colin’s case, 7. And he was playing piano.

colin provensal

By 13 he had a regular Saturday night piano gig in a restaurant on the Orleans-Jefferson parish line at the beginning of Veterans Boulevard. At 14 he was working in his first restaurant, dropped out of high school, and he’s been in the food biz ever since.

Colin’s current gig is a breakfast pop up in a restaurant that, depending on when you read this, is either still called Dis’n Dat or its new name Dis ‘n Dem. The difference between Dat ‘n Dem is more significant than it may appear but it all began, as Colin remembers, “when we were a bunch of stoned college kids slinging weiners.” Colin’s breakfast pop up is everything you could ever want – traditional New Orleans food with a gourmet twist, cheap (under $10) and complete with signature bloody marys.

Somewhere along the line Colin moved to Austin for a girl which didn’t work out romantically but it did work out culinarily in as much as Colin got a kitchen gig in a high end diner where he learned he cold crack 524 eggs in 20 minutes. And that was just lesson number one.

jeff thompson, colin provensal

While all this was happening to Colin, Jeff Thompson had escaped his New Orleans upbringing and become an established singer-songwriter and band leader in Asheville North Carolina. Now sneaking back into New Orleans, Jeff has formed a band and recruited Colin to play keyboards.

ray cannata

While things may have come full circle for Jeff and Colin, the fun is just beginning for you. Go to Dis n Dem (or Dat, date dependent) for breakfast, tell ’em you heard Colin and Midnight Menu +1 and get free coffee for all eternity. Or until Colin cuts you off.