It's New Orleans: Midnight Menu +1

Welcome to the amazing crazy world of Tony Tocco, circling the Earth at 5x the speed of life. Ray accurately describes Tony as having an influence on more hip New Orleans places than almost anybody in town. Tony was on the floor the night Bayona opened, spent a decade at Gautreau s, was the co founder of Snake and Jake s Xmas Club Lounge, The Circle Bar, and his current super success, Atchafalya. Tony s plus one, David "Feel No" Payne, has an equally storied NOLA dining pedigree spanning Bayona, NOLA, Galataoire s, among a laundry list of other notable eateries. Tony and Feel No are equally matched sides of the same coin, their most stark difference being Feel No still has a flip phone and Tony is the creator of a groundbreaking app, Specialus. Specialus allows chefs and restaurateurs to get around the filter of dining review apps, like Yelp, and talk directly to customers. Chefs or servers make a short video showcasing the restaurant s nightly special and showing a hand held phone sweep around the restaurant so diners get to see the food and the space for themselves, without having to wade through a hundred amateur reviewers opinions. Margo is out of town on the beach in Bali. Her tan will fade but she ll never get over missing this classic edition of Midnight Menu 1.

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If you re looking at the title of this show, Two Girls One Shuck and think the name of this oyster shucking duo is a play on the f word, you re in a better place than knowing the truth. Don t, for the love of God, Google "Two Girls One Cup." Your life will never be the same. Becky Wasden and Stefani Sel met one unlikely evening in a straight bar in Salt Lake City after every lesbian in the state of Idaho had spilled out of a Melissa Etheridge concert. They ve been together ever since and when another magical night found them shucking oysters in a New Orleans back yard because they were hungry and everyone else was too drunk to shuck, well, shucks, yes, and more shucks, and now they re professional shuckers. If Becky and Stefani ever have kids they ll be mothershuckers, and that s probably about all the lady oyster shucker references we can fit in this space but you ll never spend a more entertaining hour than hanging out with these two shuck sharing gals at The Nola Brewing Tap Room.

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Phil Minissale visited New Orleans for the first time when he was 17. An impressionable age, Phil got the bug and as the years unfolded found himself visiting the city as often as he could get here. As a traveling songwriter, Phil made his way through New Orleans on extensive tours, either playing the Blue Nile or Neutral Ground Coffeehouse each year. In 2012, with nothing but a fierce impulsive desire, Phil stuffed his 97 Civic Hatchback may she RIP with all his clothes, guitars, and potato chips. He found a place right off Napoleon and St. Charles, and not long after met an amazing community of artists, eventually befriending James Michalopoulos, owner of Celebration Distillation. Reminiscent of Old Time Traveling Medicine Shows, Phil sells New Orleans "elixirs," better known as Old New Orleans Rum and Gingeroo. Phil still plays out, sharing his acoustic folk and blues music. In a first for Midnight Menu 1 Phil plays live for Ray and Margo and the delighted assortment of folks at The NOLA Brewing Tap Room.

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Nick Bazan started out washing dishes at Shoney s in New Orleans East. Two years later he was the longest serving and hardest working sucka in the history of Shoney s, still making a little over minimum wage as a line cook, working "It s illegal by the way" 12 hour shifts without a break. The he wised up, got the heck outa there and started on a career working the gamut of famous New Orleans restaurants till he ended up as an owner of Rio Mar and now the historic Little Gem Saloon. If the walls of the Little Gem Saloon could talk they d have quite a story to tell. The Little Gem is inextricably entwined with the birth of jazz and the rise of Louis Armstrong from childhood to star. Nick tells the fascinating story on this edition of Midnight Menu 1 plus the story of the fateful day he, Nick not Louis Armstrong, met Michael Shelton. Michael is Nick s 1 on this show and the chef at Little Gem, but he might also be the mayor of New Orleans, the mayor s speech writer, a motivational speaker or a preacher.

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If you're the type of person who love's sushi with a passion, then you're probably like Cheryl Lemoine. If you're the type of person who creates an entire festival around sushi, and then comes onto Midnight Menu 1 to talk about it, then you most likely are Cheryl Lemoine. Cheryl sits down with Ray and Margo this week to discuss the second annual New Orleans Sushi Fest and Competition. But Cheryl isn't just the brains behind Sushi Fest; she also works for Renaissance publishing and enjoys rabbit brains when traveling in Spain. If sushi isn't your thing, have no worries there will still be plenty of other types of food at Sushi Fest, prepared by some of the New Orleans' finest restaurateurs, such as Scot Craig, owner of Katie's Restaurant and Bar. Scot is also Cheryl's plus one so he joins in to talk about first purchasing Katie's, employing his mother, and why skipping law school was the best decision he's ever made.

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Ironically it s the worlds crappiest coffee that started the international "second wave" of coffee drinking that continues to crank up the world on caffeine. Having gotten us all hooked, the green St Joan of coffee watches implacably from her ubiquitous seal as those with more discerning taste enter the era known as The 3rd Wave of Coffee, pursuing an ever growing flight to quality.

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Calling Luke Deadnettlez a barista is a little like calling Richard Branson a businessman, or Mick Jagger a vocalist. While it s essentially true, the job description doesn t begin to do justice to the scope of their influence. Luke holds court daily at Zotz coffee shop on Oak Street. He doesn t own the place that distinction belongs to a couple Luke describes as "Old school New Orleans Goths" but Luke s been there for a decade and his brand of intensity, humor, politics, and ambiguous relationship with normalcy permeates the place to such a degree that Zotz has a brand as a New Orleans coffee shop every bit as defined as Starbucks brand. If Starbucks was a cave peopled by every type of Crescent City coffee drinker from a marginally functional crack addict to a Presbyterian pastor with a pompadour. Luke Deadnettlez two thirds of his real name given to him at birth in Prattville Alabama is a gay man in a loving relationship with a woman, the father of two children, a communist, permaculturist, universalist, ex acid swallowing ex Tulane architecture student who, if he doesn t and he probably does, should give thanks every day for the existence of New Orleans where he is able to live the life he wants and not just survive but thrive, shine and be a star in a caffeinated galaxy.

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If you catch and smoke a raccoon, an event that involves neither a farm or table, is that strictly "farm to table" That is just one of the many vexing questions posed by the annual Eat Local Challenge in which you re challenged to eat only locally sourced foods for 30 days. Eric Bucich is a board member of the Eat Local Challenge. He s a raccoon smoker. And he eats bugs.

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Of all the TV shows, radio shows and podcasts about food of all the years of restaurant reviews in newspapers probably nothing has revolutionized dining out more than the smart phone app, Yelp. Yelp puts the power of approval or disapproval of a restaurant in the hands of regular people. But it also means in New Orleans that tourists have discovered every great little neighborhood restaurant that we used to consider local. That s just one of the daily issues that local Yelp Community Manager Morgan Ford has to deal with. Morgan is one of only 120 Yelp Community Managers worldwide. The local community she manages is one of delighted business owners when things go right online, mightily disgruntled restaurant owners when diners post pissed off reviews, and a wide assortment of local businesses and non profits who partner with Yelp in all kinds of interesting ways. If you re wondering how you get a cool job like Morgan s, meet Johnny Culpepper. Johnny was Morgan s colleague at Old New Orleans Rum, now he s Director of Sales at DPD Distillery, makers of Rougaroux Rum and other local sugarcane field specialties. Johnny s story of how he got to do what he s doing takes an even more only in New Orleans twist than Morgan s, involving Chris Owens and Bourbon Street on Mardi Gras Day. This Midnight Menu 1 is a lively look at the intersection of app not appetizer dining, booze, Mardi Gras, 610 Stomping, and an examination of the bizarre claim that the best food in New Orleans comes in a plastic box at Langenstein s supermarket.

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Ray and Margo sit down at an especially lively night at the Nola Tap Room to welcome our first official returning guest, Gia Di Leo of Green to Go. Gia has to shout to be heard over the noise, but she s so excited that she d probably be shouting anyway, because Gia is just days away from opening Green to Go s first brick and mortar store

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