Bright Spot in the Big Easy

IT was a humid evening in New Orleans and the shops along Magazine Street were open late, pouring free wine for the Art for Art’s Sake street fair. Bands played on every other street corner, kids and dogs were underfoot amid the crowds, and it was tempting to pretend that no disaster ever befell this city.

Or at least Magazine Street, which was spared the brunt of the destruction. Once lined with boardinghouses and rowdy saloons, this bustling street in the Uptown neighborhood is perched atop a strip of high ground beside the Mississippi River, and was one of the only functional thoroughfares in the months after the levee failures.

In the three and a half years since Hurricane Katrina, Magazine Street has emerged as a boutique row and a testing ground for new retail concepts, many of which pay homage to New Orleans’s heritage.

Among them is Dirty Coast, a T-shirt company that was started by a graphic designer, Blake Haney, and an entrepreneur, Patrick Brower, shortly after the storm. Their design statement — T-shirts screen-printed with clever and occasionally provocative jokes like “New Orleans: So far behind, we’re ahead” and “It’s not beautiful being easy” — became a local sensation.

A year later, Dirty Coast opened a tiny storefront (5704 Magazine Street, 504-324-3745; www.dirtycoast.com) with T-shirts stacked floor-to-ceiling and new designs announced on a sidewalk chalkboard. “We’re all about New Orleans pride,” Mr. Brower said.

Uniquely New Orleans clothing is also available at Trashy Diva (No. 2048; 504-299-8777; www.trashydiva.com), a retro boutique with a following among the city’s more glamorous night owls. Candice Gwinn, the designer, is known for hourglass-shaped dresses inspired by the 1940s and 1950s that range from $95 to $350.

Grand old homes still line Magazine Street, among them the Terrell House Bed & Breakfast (No. 1441; 504-237-2076; www.terrellhouse.com), one of the few inns in the area, with rooms ranging from $140 to $200. The inn and adjacent carriage house date back to 1857, and the property is decorated with period antiques.

Notable restaurants have also opened up along the tree-lined street, often in renovated Victorian-style clapboard houses. A standout newcomer is Baru (No. 3700; 504-895-2225), a Latin American restaurant that opened in 2007 at what was once Jennie’s Grocery, a beer-and-cigarettes corner store. On the sidewalk, where out-of-work men once sat on overturned buckets drinking tallboys, diners now share plates of empanadas and tuna tartare, their faces lit by tiki torches. The chef and owner, Edgar Caro, serves staples like plantains and yucca alongside dressed-up versions of carne asada, ceviche and Cuban-style roast pork ($18 to $26).

Farther down the street, La Divina Gelateria (No. 3005; 504-342-2634; www.ladivinagelateria.com) sells sorbets and gelatos made on-site with almost exclusively South Louisiana ingredients. The owners, Katrina and Carmelo Turillo, opened the shop in 2007, and their commitment to local foods is their cornerstone.

“We are proud to say that we get nothing from Sysco,” Ms. Turillo said, referring to the national food wholesaler.

By : Kathryn Jezer-Morton (Published On : February 15, 2009)

A version of this article appeared in print on February 20, 2009, on page A1 of the New York edition.

Re-Published By : The Author