New Orleans: Down In The Treme

It’s two o’clock on a Tuesday. The block of Orleans Avenue between North Prieur Street and North Claiborne Avenue in the Treme is deserted except for the occasional passerby dragging at a New Orleanian pace. On the corner sits a tired, once white, but now fading eggnog two-story home. Jagged remnants of bashed glass protrude from rusting window frames on the second floor. The first floor is the rundown “A & Y Food Store” and, according to the sign their specialty is “fresh meat” and “refreshments”… the only things needed to get the grill (and the party) going on a scorching Louisiana day.

The rest of the block is lined with several dilapidated, single-story homes with thin coats of white barely masking the old wooden clapboards layered, traditionally, like the shutters on a window. The sky is broken into a suburban grid of long, obtrusive wires strung between telephone poles. The whole scene is right out of a 1960s sitcom and the neighborhood hang is where it all comes together: Ooh Poo Pah Doo Bar.

You’d never know it opened last month. A two-story building with a brick exterior, a heavy black iron door and an old mailbox. It’s so unremarkable, it’s remarkable; blending in seamlessly with the rest of the street. There’s not even the slightest attempt at 21^st century branding or newness. It’s just a place to grab a drink and sway to some classic Stevie Wonder or Ray Charles from the jukebox. A timeless escape.

It’s also the revolving living room for the legendary New Orleans clan: The Andrews. The family, which members estimate is more than 200-people strong, has a long line of musicians who have been making their mark on the local jazz scene for over half a century. The sign says it all. It’s not just a bar, it’s the “home” of renowned musicians and Andrews brothers James, Trombone Shorty and Trumpet Black. Their cousin, Glen David Andrews, is also a well known trombone player in town. Glen’s brother Derrick Tabb is in the world famous Rebirth Brass Band. More cousins play with the Dirty Dozen and Hot 8 brass bands. A complicated, but impressive family tree.

Trombone Shorty, James and Glen David (pictured in the back, left to right) pose with neighbors in Treme
photo courtesy of: Offbeat Magazine

The Andrews family and close friends second line to Ooh Poo Pah Doo

The legacy began with the Andrews brothers’ grandfather Jessie Hill. He wrote hits for big times stars such as Ike and Tina Turner, Sonny and Cher, and Willie Nelson. He also wrote the classic Mardi Gras song and bar’s namesake: Ooh Poo Pah Doo. Hill died in the mid-90s, but his wife and the matriarch of the clan, Dorothy Hill is still going strong in her 80s. She’s a lady of few words with a maternal affection, eyes of wisdom and the vitality of a woman in her prime. She’s often posted up at Ooh Poo Pah Doo. She sits in the corner for hours milking her cigarette and sipping on a Miller High Life as the women of the family filter in and out of the bar. They sit with her, gossip, check their cell phones, head out to run errands and eventually, come back. Same old, same old.  Honorary family member, the sassy Ms. Val, is a mainstay of the female clan too. They met seven years ago and apparently it was a match made in heaven. Ms.Val talks, Dorothy nods. Today, she’s wearing tight black leggings and her hair is popping out from one side of her head in a perky ponytail. She swears it makes her look younger. Meanwhile, the men, family and close family friends, sit at the bar on rotating stools. Brian, James’ uncle, is at the helm.

Need a drink? Brian's got you covered

He’s serving drinks and complimentary hog’s head cheese (patties made from pig head parts) on crackers. At the end of the bar is a working pay phone. Behind it, a standard line up of handles, a restaurant-size plastic jar of pickles, a basket of Cheetos, Doritos, and Lays, and a big jug of their specialty Ooh Poo Pah Doo cocktail, a bright red concoction that tastes like Hawaiian fruit punch and is guaranteed to do the trick. At any given day and time, the bar always has customers drinking beer, smoking, chatting and mostly just passing the time. Lenox, a regular, grew up in New Orleans. He knows all the best local gems in the area. Next to him is a mailman who's been delivering packages around town for over thirty years and boy, does he have stories.

Lenox chatting it up at his usual seat at the bar

Ooh Poo Pah Doo is also one of the easiest places to run into some of the most influential jazz cats around. Among them is Lightnin’ Lee, or just Lightnin’ for short, a blues guitarist who’s shredded with greats such as Fats Domino, Earl King, Ernie K-Doe and Little Freddie King. Guitar Slim, another New Orleans legend, is close friends with the Andrews and sometimes brings the house down on the bar’s modest corner stage. His blues style is said to have laid the foundation for electric guitar breakthroughs ultimately made famous by Jimi Hendrix.
              
       

 

You’ll learn more about the wild city of New Orleans at Ooh Poo Pah Doo than at every tourist hot spot in the French Quarter. The Treme, one of the oldest neighborhoods and a hub for African-American culture, is imbued with history. This bar, filled with local musicians and natives who have been around to see it all, is where you can get a real sense of the complex dynamics that make this unique city tick. Bourbon Street? Forget it. A tour bus? Don’t even think about it. If you really wanna get to know The Big Easy, just take a seat, at Ooh Poo Pah Doo.