No exits
I had lunch with a friend on Friday at Canal Street Bistro, a lovely cafe that has recently opened and serves very yummy food. The guy, Miguel, had opened a taqueria in Kenner and it was a little hole in the wall that soon became a victim of its own success and so right before the Federal Flood Miguel saw an opportunity to move uptown and open the motherlode of all taquerias – downstairs served casual fare and up fine dining – the restaurant was enormous, almost cavernous, but the food was beyond the pale delicious and then came Katrina and well that was all she wrote.
Now Miguel has resurfaced close to me, how lucky for the neighborhood. And if you are looking at what to make of success or failure, use him as a cautionary tale – his success came from his hole in the wall, his downfall was going from being a mouse to being an elephant overnight along with one helluva of a hurricane. I do think despite the storm, the restaurant was too big too succeed.
No matter, I sat with my friend at lunch having fried tofu and black beans with tasty peppers and lettuce and whatnot and we caught up. She is my friend, her daughter is my friend, and maybe when the daughter’s daughter grows up she’ll be my friend as well. My friend is over 70, sort of hard to believe, and she told me that she had learned in life that sometimes you just have to find something and stick with it because its the bouncing around that will drive you mad.
Coincidentally, she had told me on my divorce from my third husband, “the next time, just resolve yourself to stay” and so I have. It’s easy to go, but it does in the end, drive you mad. That is a fact.