ROUSES_Summer2023_Magazine Pages-Web

when Pableaux and I were having coffee at a local donut shop, a woman delivered a baby in the bathroom. It was straight out of TLC’s I Didn’t Know I Was Pregnant. We’ve also featured excerpts from renowned writers such as Rick Bragg and Ken Wells, who hails from Bayou Blue and began his career at The Houma Courier. Wells went on to become a longtime writer for The Wall Street Journal and has authored five novels centered around the Cajun bayous. Upcoming issues include our Fall Saints edition, with stories by Mary Beth Romig. The Romig family has a strong connection to the New Orleans Saints, for whom we are the official supermarket. Mary Beth’s brother, Mark Romig, serves as the Saints’ PA announcer; their late father, Jerry, was the original PA announcer for the team. Our holiday theme is Cocktails, and hopefully Wayne Curtis and Robert Simonson will once again be lending their libation expertise. Curtis has contributed to publications such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Garden & Gun, and is the author of And a Bottle of Rum: A History of the New World in Ten Cocktails, while Simonson writes extensively on cocktails, spirits, bars and bartenders for The New York Times. Writers, if I left your name out, you were probably late turning in your story…. OUR TEAM I have been surrounded by very talented people from the very first issue. But if you’ve been a regular reader of this magazine, you’ve surely noticed changes over the years. When our art director, Eliza Schulze, joined our team four-plus years ago, her talents and creativity really took our design to a whole new level. She gives each magazine a distinct feel to match the distinct theme. Kacie Galtier caught my eye as a chalk artist who created signs for our stores. I was so excited when we brought the Chalk department into our Marketing department! You’ve seen Kacie’s original illustrations throughout this magazine in the past five years, and on our reusable bags. Kacie also designed our 100 Years of City Produce logo.

One writer who lived on the edge and, let’s just say, had a relationship of conve nience with the truth, claimed cracked ribs, twice — different ribs, by the way — and two bouts of food poisoning, all within the same year. There have been a lot of dead relatives and sick friends, excuses I chose to believe, even when the same person died twice. And while no one has ever claimed that their dog ate their story, one writer did miss a deadline because of a goat. One writer began channeling the poet ee cummings and turned in a story without punctuation. Our copy editor threatened to quit if I hired that writer again. But, overall, the quality of writing from our contributors has been exceptional. Sarah Baird is a prolific writer and our most frequent contributor. Baird’s work has appeared in prestigious publications such as The Washington Post, Saveur, and Food & Wine, and she has authored three books on cocktails. She has never missed a deadline. She has also never owned a goat (to the best of our knowledge). Baird also pens our original horoscopes, which we feature once or twice a year. David W. Brown is a longtime contributor to our magazine. His impressive command of language has earned him recognition in publications such as The New Yorker, The New York Times and The Atlantic, but his mother in Gonzales only reads our Rouses

Magazine. Brown has a new book that documents his two Antarctic expeditions, and he asked us to feature an excerpt in our magazine to ensure his mom doesn’t miss it. I assign any stories on potted meat, pickled pig’s feet, pineapple on pizza or anything unappetizing to him. Our team of contributors includes “Louisiana Eats!” host Poppy Tooker, cookbook author and Cajun food expert Marcelle Bienvenu, and Southern Food & Beverage Museum founder Liz Williams. Additional food contributors include Toni Tipton Martin, Michael Twitty, Justin Nystrom, Sara Roahen, food editor Judy Walker, and cookbook authors Lolis Eric Elie and Kit Wohl. Our cheese writer, Liz Thorpe, authored her definitive The Book of Cheese. Don Dubuc, aka the Outdoors Guy, covers outdoor topics for us. Food writer and photographer Pableaux Johnson has been our authority on red beans. I’ve been fortunate enough to get a seat at his Monday night red bean dinner. Once

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ROUSES SUMMER 2023