New Orleans has been around for over 300 years. From almost the very beginning, bar rooms have been an integral part of our social life. There are French works of art depicting bar scenes as early as the mid 1800’s.
Starting in the 1970’s, photographers like Mike Smith and Lee Crum started celebrating the exteriors of barrooms, along with other street scenes, finding an almost romantic beauty in depicting decadence and decay in black & white.
The next iteration of uniquely New Orleans artistic reverence for our bar rooms comes from a company called We Might Be On Fire, acreation of textile manufacturer Shaun Watson.
Shaun Watson came up with the name of his company, We Might Be On Fire, when he decided to go with the typo while intending to write “We Might Be Alright.” He came up with the idea of blankets with illustrations of NOLA barrooms on a bike ride – now it’s a booming business
Among Shaun’s collection of rugs, knitwear and pillows with bold prints that include alligators, birds, and flowers, there’s a collection of blankets that feature the exteriors of bar rooms. These aren’t artistic impressions or airbrushed glow-ups, they’re true-to-life, blanket-sized depictions of the outsides of bars, like Snake ‘n Jakes, F&M’s, Pal’s Lounge, The Saturn Bar, Buffa’s, Big Daddy’s, and many more.
Talking of barrooms, whomever keeps records of these things maintains we’re drinking less alcohol these days. Maybe they don’t include New Orleans in the collection of this data: Wwe’re without a doubt one of the most alcohol-centric cities in the US, if not the world.
You might think that in 300 years of drinking we’ve created every variety of alcohol known to man. Well, Paul Kelly has added one more chapter to the story of local booze brands by creating vodka using Louisiana sweet potatoes and cane sugar. Paul distills his distinct sweet potato vodka at his distillery in Bogalusa. With the label Paul Kelly Vodka, it’s available at over 60 stores across the state, including Total Wine, Rouse’s, and a wide range of bars and restaurants.
Paul Kelly created his namesake Paul Kelly Vodka when he discovered his love of sweet potatoes after he retired, drawing initially on his experience making home-made booze while working in Saudi Arabia
Every evening, as the sun goes down in New Orleans, we’re faced with a decision. Do we stay home tonight? Or do we go out? If you decide to go out, there are a lot of places you can try Paul Kelly Sweet Potato Vodka. If you stay in, you can make a Paul Kelly Sweet Potato Vodka drink at home and curl up with a good book under your We Might Be On Fire blanket that features your favorite local bar. Is that the most New Orleans sign-off sentence in the history of radio? It might be.
Shaun Watson from We Might Be On Fire, his partner Nancy, Paul Kelly from Paul Kelly Vodka, Lindsey from Columns, and Peter Ricchiuti, Out to Lunch at Columns on St Charles Avenue in Uptown New Orleans
Out to Lunch was recorded live over lunch at Columns in Uptown New Orleans.
It’s Fist-Bump Day at Out to Lunch with Shaun Watson from We Might Be On Fire, his partner Nancy, Paul Kelly from Paul Kelly Vodka, and Peter Ricchiuti
Peter Ricchiuti gets in on the first-bump action with Paul Kelly as Shaun Watson referees
Photos by Jill Lafleur.
