Beyond Bourbon Street Feature

[Podcast Host] You're listening to Beyond Bourbon Street, an insider's guide to New Orleans. Beyond Bourbon Street is the podcast where we explore the food, music, culture, places, and people that make New Orleans unique. Whether you are planning a trip, living in New Orleans, or simply wanting a taste of the Crescent City from wherever you are, you've come to the right place.

[Podcast Host] And now, your host, Mark Balogna.

[Mark Bologna] Hey, y'all. This is Mark. Welcome to episode 246. Today's show is all about a local company that offers food tours of New Orleans. The last episode was all about St. Roch Market, a New Orleans food hall serving cuisine from all over the world. If you missed it, go back and give it a listen. I think you'll enjoy it. Before we jump in, let me talk about the people that make this show possible. We're really lucky here at Beyond Bourbon Street that we have 2 tour companies that sponsor the show. We're gonna talk about one of them today as the main body of the episode, but the other one I wanted to introduce to you if you haven't heard from them. Our friends at Two Chicks Walking Tours were recently awarded the Trip Advisors Travelers Choice Award, which is presented to the top 10% of tour operators in the world. This is a designation they've earned every year since they've been in business, which is a noteworthy accomplishment. Major publications such as Southern Living, Harper's Bazaar, and Marie Claire all recommend this small company's offerings be included in a well-planned New Orleans itinerary. What I really love about them is that they limit their tour size to no more than 12 people, and if only one or 2 sign up, they'll take the tour out with a small group. But big tour companies, most tour companies will go up to 28 or 30 people, so the small size really matters and makes for a great tour. Tour the Carrollton neighborhood, explore the Garden District, or visit the French Quarter with Two Chicks. Use code BEYOND and save 15%. All right. Today's show, as I mentioned, is focused on a local business that offers culinary tours of New Orleans. It's called Accidental Cajun Experiences. It's led by James Cullen, a chef, a photographer, and also a former guest on the podcast. In addition, Accidental Cajun Experiences is a sponsor of the podcast, and James is a person who did much of the photography in my travel guide book. James, welcome to the show. How are you?

[James Cullen] Hi, Mark. Thanks for having me. It's good to be back. I think this is my 3rd time.

[Mark Bologna] I think it is. So you did an interview with me about my travel guide book and we did one way back, I think in 2016 or 2017 at Dooky Chase.

[James Cullen] Yeah.

[Mark Bologna] So it's been a while.

[James Cullen] Yeah. We did that at Dooky Chase Restaurant. I think it was episode 14. I wanna say it was episode 14.

[Mark Bologna] That sounds right. And we're in 246, so it's been a while.

[James Cullen] It's been a while. I was much younger back then.

[Mark Bologna] So to start off, for people that haven't heard that episode, tell us a little bit about your background. Where'd you grow up?

[James Cullen] Okay. I grew up about 30 miles west of New York City in Northeastern New Jersey. I grew up very close to a big city, but kind of in a rural area. So I have a little bit of both. One of my 1st jobs was I worked on a farm. I worked for Fish and Wildlife, so I'm kinda comfortable in both environments. I definitely have always lived in cities. New York, Hoboken, New Jersey, Boston, all around. And obviously, for the past 15 years or so, New Orleans.

[Mark Bologna] Yeah. And so you went to culinary school. You were a chef in New York. How did you end up putting down roots in New Orleans?

[James Cullen] That's a good question. I always tell people: it was love. I was working at a restaurant called Pearl Oyster Bar. Was it Pearl? Actually, no, this was before I was at Pearl. I was working at a restaurant in Hoboken, New Jersey called Amanda's. It was a fine dining restaurant, and they had a sister restaurant called Elysian Cafe. It's still there. It's on 10th and Washington, Hoboken, 10th or 11th. And they were open late, so we would go from the kitchen at Amanda's, and we'd go across the street to Elysian, and I kept running into this woman. She was in there when I was in there. So finally I said to my friend Tom, the bartender, I said, "Who is that?" And he told me her name and told me she was from New Orleans, and we dated for a long time, and we moved down here roughly about 15 years ago or so.

[Mark Bologna] Is that where the Accidental Cajun moniker came from?

[James Cullen] Yeah, because her family, her dad's side of the family was from Berwick, Louisiana, and out by Morgan City. They were real Cajun country people. So I was in their family for a long time. There was the movie, The Accidental Tourist, so I just kinda combined it. I thought it was funny it's been that way ever since.

[Mark Bologna] And it stuck.

[James Cullen] It's my handle on all my socials, and has been for a long time. People call me that sometimes when they run into me in the street. They're like, "Oh, are you Accidental Cajun?" I'm like, "I'm James." They're like, "Oh, yeah, I follow you." "Oh, okay."

[Mark Bologna] So you trained at the French Culinary Institute.

[James Cullen] I did.

[Mark Bologna] You worked in New York City, and then you immersed yourself in New Orleans'm kitchens. Anything that surprised you about Creole cooking when you got here?

[James Cullen] Surprised me... I'm not sure surprised. I think there's a lot of differences. Kitchens are kitchens no matter where you work, but I think the main difference is I was always surprised when I worked in kitchens down here how much more space you had to work in. New York City real estate's so expensive. So if they can put 10 extra tables in the dining room or give you room for an extra refrigerator in the kitchen, I can tell you what it's gonna be. All the efforts are focused on the dining room. Unless you're at a really high level of fine dining, most kitchens in New York City are very, very small. What I think has surprised me about the cuisine, though, is when you are in a city like New York, you have a lot of various ethnic neighborhoods. You have very distinct Italian neighborhoods, Latin neighborhoods of different kinds. Mexican, Honduran, El Salvadorian. You have a lot of Indian food, Asian food, Chinese food, but the neighborhoods are very distinct and they don't really blend together. I think what impressed me or was surprising about Creole food is how every group of people that came here kind of added to the cuisine, but you don't walk through New Orleans and be like, "Oh, I'm in Little Italy now." You can see examples in the French Quarter, especially when you go by the old Angelo Brocato's, which is now Croissant D'or and you see the ladies' entrance, which tickles me every time, because in 1905 if you were an unescorted lady, you had to go in through the ladies' entrance. But, you know, we have a much more blended culture here, which I think is kind of indicative of the city as a whole.

[Mark Bologna] Yeah. Let's jump into Accidental Cajun Experiences. Maybe tell our listeners what it is and how you came up with the idea.

[James Cullen] Sure. So I think I came up with the idea similarly to how you came up with the idea for the podcast, in that I feel New Orleans is a city that is a lot of times kind of misunderstood or misrepresented, and especially when it comes to food. I follow a lot of the food blogs and influencers and food Facebook groups, and I'm always astounded by how bad the information is. They tell people places I wouldn't send my enemy, and they kind of always limit it to the same type of place. I like to note there's a lot of nuance in our food. I feel like at this point a banh mi is as New Orleans as a muffaletta. And there's all sorts of new groups of people coming here all the time. But I also wanted to make it so, right now the basic offering is a food tour, but I've also put together custom experiences for people that want to go beyond food, people that are more interested in culture, people that are interested in music. We've done a music tour from time to time. But it's primarily, to me, the food is representative of the culture of the city. The culture produces the food. We have West African influences, we have French influences, we have Spanish influences, we have Italian influences, we have French influences, we have German influences, and there's so many more. I mean, Honduran. And so I wanted to make sure those other cultures get their due as well, and that people understand that we have this really rich and complex cuisine here that is informed by the various waves of people, both indigenous to the area and that came here in subsequent waves of immigration.

[Mark Bologna] Mm-hmm. One of the things I really like, and I had the opportunity to go on a tour with you a couple weeks ago, is that food is very much the foundation of the tour, but there's a background of history, too. So on the day that I went with you, we had a couple of visitors and another local person, and as they asked questions, you got into the history of the neighborhood that we were in, a little bit of history of maybe the building we were near, whatever it might be. But then the backbone of the tour was the food, so we jumped from place to place, and I think that day we went to 6 or 7 different places. I understand that every tour is customized, so how do you go about building a tour for a group?

[James Cullen] So I have a basic structure to the tour, but I ask a lot of questions early on. When we 1st grab our 1st bite, I usually talk to them and be like, "Well, is it your 1st time in the city?" If it's their 1st time in the city, I have a lot of latitude of what I can do, because they're gonna wanna hit the high points. So we can skew more closely to the traditional kind of New Orleans food ways. If it's people that have been here multiple times, I nuance it a little bit. And some people will tell me in advance, "Hey, we wanna book a tour with you, but we want to go and eat food at a second line," because they want to see a second line, but they're not necessarily feeling comfortable going to the second line. So I will take them out there and we'll go to the different food vendors that I know are good out there, because there's lots of people selling food, and alcohol and everything else. I just try to keep them out of trouble mostly. I tell them, "Don't take anything in an unsealed container, please, please." And then there's people that will email me way in advance like, "Oh, I'm coming in October and these are my interests, and can you "d"o that?" But each tour has a structure, and also you gotta work with the city. One of the things I tell people at the beginning is the city is not always the most consistent or easy place to navigate. We've dealt with a lot of construction around the French Quarter areas, which have made it difficult. There's just a lot of... And we don't spend a lot of time in the French Quarter, but we do usually... One of the tours starts there, and that construction's made it difficult. Also, we're not necessarily a 7-day-a-week city. There's days where restaurants are closed. There's days where we have to pivot. There's days where their line is so long or there's a product shortage or this or that. So I always have different kind of options. I always try and make sure I have a 1A, 1B, and 1C. And there's seasonality, too. Like, in crawfish season, I try to get some crawfish into the tour. When oysters are good, I try to get some oysters into the tour. So there's definitely kind of a palate, if you will, that I work with.

[Mark Bologna] Yeah. One of the things I like is that you, at least the day that I went with you, we started in the French Quarter, but we went to other areas as well. So could you talk a little bit about maybe some of the unappreciated neighborhoods that you take people to?

[James Cullen] So I do 2 main ones. One is The Accidental Cajun does creole, which focuses on the creole history of the city. It starts in the French market, and it starts in the French market so I can tell the story basically of how the Treme was built, which is by free people of color. And the way that enslaved people during French and Spanish times became free was largely through selling food items in the French market and around. So one of the foundational items was the calas. And it's not an item that is seen a lot anymore. Beignets have become more popular, but it is an item you can find. And on certain days of the week, we have a vendor that does do calas, and we go there. But like I said, that's part of the improvisational kind of you have to know what days, what's going on and all that. But I love taking people into the Treme because a lot of people that come here are like, "Oh, have you seen the show Treme?" And I'm like, "Yeah." I said, "But..." And overall I thought the show was pretty good for a certain vein of New Orleans cultural life. It didn't feature any plumbers or electricians, but if you were interested in a musician, a chef, a bar owner, those kind of characters, that certainly was accurate in those regards. But most people don't really understand how the Treme is not just food, it's not just music. It's the legal history of not just the city, but our country. I mean, 2 very, very famous people were parishioners at St. Augustine's Church. You had Homer Plessy, and you had A.P. Tureaud. So there's a lot of depth to the neighborhood. There's a lot of cultural significance, and it kind of tells the story of the city in a different way. And my Bywater tour, I love taking people around my neighborhood. Now, I live in the 9th Ward. I don't live in the Bywater side. I live closer to Musicians Village. But I like taking people downtown because a lot of people come here and they never get out of the French Quarter. Or they might go and do a little Garden District tour, but a lot of people don't ever come downtown. Or even if they do, they probably just get as far as Bacchanal. Bacchanal is usually where they go, or maybe they'll go to The Joint or Pizza Delicious. But we got some really cool stuff in the neighborhood. We have a Venezuelan restaurant now, Origin. We have Jamaican food. We have classic places like Frates and Jack Dempsey's where you can get more onion rings than anyone ever needs to eat in there. When I get it, I always get the half order of onion rings for people. And they're like, "That's a half order?" I'm like, "Yeah, that's a New Orleans half order." But the chargrilled oysters and stuff like that, because it's also indicative of a certain type of menu. Y'all call it the West End menu or the lakeside menu. But it is kind of like that mix between seafood and chophouse with a lot of fried seafood platters, po' boys, onion rings and all that. And when I was a chef at the Southern Yacht Club we served that menu. So I think it's, it s kind of... Because a lot of people don't... they're like, "Well, where are all your barbecue restaurants?" I'm like, "Well, why would we have barbecue, we don't raise hogs here or cattle. We fish." And that's why our menus are the way they are. So... And, you know, and then you get to tell the story of oystermen who were largely Croatian for the longest time. I always say the food is the chip, but the city and the culture is really the dip. That's what I'm trying to get you to understand is, we're gonna eat and we're gonna have a good time. It gives me the opportunity to support businesses that I really like. We always go to Parlo Beer Lab because you can't keep, just keep eating and eating, so I mix in a drink stop. Maybe we'll go to Vaughn's. Parlo's always good because if I have minors, they can go in there. It's not a problem.

[Mark Bologna] Mm-hmm. Yeah.

[James Cullen] I had one of my clients who I took on the Bywater tour, then we ended up at the 2nd Line because they wanted to go to the 2nd Line, send me a message a few days ago about how I introduced them to Ya-Ka-Mein, and they bought a cookbook by a local author, Toya Boudy. And now they're cooking their way through and they're like, "Oh, the Ya-ka-Mein reminded us of being at the 2nd Line." So it's not just about food, but it's about introducing people to our culture and explaining where these dishes came from, why they came about, and trying to give them a little bit more accurate picture of the city.

[Mark Bologna] Mm-hmm. I think on the tour that we went on that day with you, we started at Loretta's and had our praline-stuffed beignet, which is neat. And Loretta's has its own story and pretty cool. And then we had a muffuletta from Central Grocery. And so that's an opportunity to talk about the Sicilian impact on Louisiana and New Orleans in particular. We did get calas. I forget the guy's name.

[James Cullen] Brandon.

[Mark Bologna] Brandon has a little shop right in front of it. Is it the Cabildo or the Presbytere?

[James Cullen] Cabildo is the 1st one, right?

[Mark Bologna] Yes. Cabildo Presbytere, right. So you would have to either stumble upon him or know that he's there. And it's a really unique calas, it is rice-based. You could loosely compare it to beignet, but you really have to kind of stretch to do that.

[James Cullen] It's more similar to a hush puppy.

[Mark Bologna] Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I like that better.

[James Cullen] I would say structurally... but it's not even a hush puppy because the rice the binder. It's almost like rice pudding.

[Mark Bologna] It leans a little towards arancini, but not quite.

[James Cullen] Yeah. It's like a rice pudding fritter. But the dish itself is interesting because for a dish that had so much importance in the community at the time, well, what happens? Once you buy your freedom, you don't really need to sell the dish anymore, right? So the dish goes back into the homes. Brandon will tell you that it's a dish that people still serve on their 1st communion in the Creole community. Also a dish that sometimes the Mardi Gras or Black masking Indians will serve when in the mornings they come out in the Creole community. And that's one of the nuances that a lot of people don't understand. There are different cultural kind of cues. If you're a Black family from uptown versus a Creole family from the 7th Ward, you're gonna have different dishes. You're gonna have slightly different ways of preparation of food. And yeah, I've been fortunate to be invited into so many people's kitchens and get to try so many different things. But we have a very nuanced culture here, and there's a lot of dishes that... I mean, everyone thinks of po' boys, muffalettas, gumbo, and jambalaya. But think about all the other dishes, like in the better Creole restaurants, like your trout amandines, your turtle soups. I mean, there's so many foods that people don't ever really get to explore. And I obviously don't hit on all of them. I can't. But I at least like to talk about them and recommend. That's the other thing. If you come, I always just tell people, "Come and do the tour early in your time in the city, because I'm gonna give you all sorts of recommendations about where to go, what to do, who to see, what to eat." We always pull up the live music calendar on WWOZ.

[Mark Bologna] Right, a live one.

[James Cullen] And I hit the best 5 or 10 shows at different places, different times, different price points, some no cover. If you wanna hear trad jazz, you know, people always say Snug Harbor. Snug is good. I love Snug. But you're gonna pay. You can also go to Mahogany Jazz Hall and walk in and you'll see some, so a lot of the same musicians that play at Snug on different nights, and will be there early in the week. Monday, Tuesday you have Roderick Paulin, Gerald French, and Sunday nights sometimes. So, it's an opportunity for me to kind of be your personal concierge. I always tell people, "You have my number. When you're in the city, if you have any questions, you need recommendations, you want to know where to go, you are trying to decide between 2 restaurants, I'm happy to give you my opinion."

[Mark Bologna] Yeah. We had the collard that day, which is hard to find on menus. Chef Frank Brigtsen does it sometimes up at Brigtsen's. But it is a hard thing to find on menus. As you said, it's in families. And then I'm not sure if we went directly from this place to this next place, but we went and had a banh mi. It was delicious, at a little grocery store.

[James Cullen] Frenchmen Street Grocery. So that guy, Ha Tran, his family brought him over as a baby in 1975 after the fall of Saigon. A lot of people have no idea about the influence of the Vietnamese in New Orleans. They have no idea how far-reaching it is, how important their cuisine and contributions have been, how good it is. It's one of the only kind of cuisines that is culturally unadulterated that you can get in the city in New Orleans. You can go to neighborhoods and that's really only because 50 years isn't a long time to assimilate. So 54, he came here and he's my age. And yeah, it's him. But what's great about it is if you look at the tile, 'cause I always tell people, "Look down a lot." It says, in front of the store, A. Gagliano, which means at one time it was probably an Italian bakery, Italian delicatessen, Italian little corner store. So, the baton has been passed, and the Vietnamese are now the kind of culturally significant contributors. We all know about the king cakes and the Hi Do and Dong Phuong and all that other stuff. But a lot of people, I love telling people, "Yeah, go to Tan Dinh." If you can get out there, if you can get to Gretna, go to Tan Dinh. And another place I love sometimes taking people, if we have the extra time, sometimes recommend Budsi's Thai.

[Mark Bologna] Mm, yeah, delicious.

[James Cullen] Delicious. And a lot of people don't think we have Thai food here. We certainly do. We have Pomelo up on Magazine Street. We have Budsi's. We have a few other ones. If you go to Chalmette, there's Secret Thai, which is the hottest Thai food I've ever had. It'll burn your face off. But a lot of it's trying to introduce people to... I certainly want you to come here and eat our iconic foods. I also want to point out the differences. Like, so when we go to Little Dizzy's,... I always am like, "Well, this is Creole gumbo." And they're like, "Well, what's the difference?" I'm like, "Well, look, 1st, it is brothier, right?" If you go to a Bourbon Street, if you go to a gumbo shop, it's almost more like a stew, very thick kind. But that's not indicative of how... That's restaurant gumbo. That's not indicative of how a lot of people in the city expect gumbo to look and taste like. Same with when I get a chance to bring them to Vaucresson's and we can try Chef Bunny's gumbo or some of Vance's Creole hot sauce. And another dish that a lot of people don't know about - we know about it obviously - hot sauce, po' boy. Locals live for that. But for visitors a lot of times, they don't really think... They think a po' boy has got to be seafood or roast beef.

[Mark Bologna] Right, right. And you just mentioned it, so the day that I was with you, we went to Little Dizzy's. We had gumbo. I forget what else we had.

[James Cullen] We had fried chicken for sure.

[Mark Bologna] Oh, fried chicken, maybe.

[James Cullen] For sure we did.

[Mark Bologna] But then we went to a place that I had never heard of, a hole-in-the-wall place in the Treme called Little People's Bar. So I would love to throw some attention their way. So tell us a little bit about where it is and what it is.

[James Cullen] Little People's Place is at 1226 Barracks Street in the Treme. Basically, if you're on North Rampart and you walk 2 blocks into the Treme, it's right there. It's an old, old juke joint. Mr. Rodney is the current owner. It's been in his family since 1942, and everybody's played there. Kermit Ruffins got his start there. Kermit Ruffins actually married his 1st wife, Buffy Ruffins was running the bar when they met. And it's called Little People's Place because none of the ladies, a beautiful family of Creole ladies, there's not one over 5 foot tall.

[James Cullen] They all are between about 4'7" and 4'10". And you still see them. Miss Pat, who was running the bar when I first got there, Mr. Rodney's her brother-in-law. She sold it to him about 10, 12 years ago. But all the local musicians, if you go in and look at the walls, there's pictures of Cory Henry as a teenager. There's pictures of Kermit Ruffins as a little boy. James Andrews, you know, in his early, early years. Glen David Andrews, Travis Hill, Trumpet Black. It's so many. It's a museum as much as it is a little bar room. But it's our community center. We watch the Saints games there. You never really know when it's gonna be open. But it's always open on Fridays, unless there's some extenuating circumstances. Fridays, Mr. Rodney sells one of the best, cheapest fish plates in the city. For $7, you get a piece of fried catfish or you can get fried shrimp. Or for $12, you get a combo with shrimp and catfish. It comes with potato salad, some bread, some usually green peas or green beans, but usually peas, and a cookie. I'm trying to get Mr. Rodney to make some pound cake, but he says it's too hard.

[Mark Bologna] It's some of the best fresh catfish that I've ever had. And particularly, you would not expect that walking into a one-room juke joint, but delicious fried catfish.

[James Cullen] But real, real catfish too.

[James Cullen] You know, you can tell. The tail curls.

[James Cullen] It's real catfish. Well, it's a funny story too because so when Rodney first started, he had a little burner and he had a little Lodge cast iron Dutch oven and he would stand out in front of the bar and he'd fry it on the sidewalk. And it would take forever to get a piece of fish. So a few years ago I said, "Rodney," I said, "You know, I got this outdoor fryer." I said, "I'm not using it. Would you like it?" I said, "If you can..." I said, "Bring 2 guys. If you can pick it up and put it in the truck, you can have the fryer." So he brings 2 of the oldest men I have ever seen that he found outside the bar. So I picked it up and put it in the truck. But yeah, he has this big double wide, I think they're called Cajun fryers.

[Mark Bologna] Yeah, Cajun fryers, right.

[James Cullen] But it's a big, heavy cast iron fryer. And now he can put 20 fish filets down at a time and they cook in minutes, versus having to mess around with the cast iron skillet. He's been doing it now. And on Fridays, it's jumping in there. They start at noon and they go till about probably about 10 o'clock at night. Depends on the night, 'cause a lot of times it's like a little community center. There'll be a family party there. It might be one of his daughters or his son. They'll have a birthday party or anniversary or baby shower or this or that. Mardi Gras, it's always, always hopping. We get out there and he opens up for 5:00 AM on Mardi Gras. And the Skull and Bones Gang comes through the neighborhood. The Mystic 7 Sisters, which is Kalinda's group, comes out and starts there. They have Mardi Gras Indian practice there on Sunday nights before Mardi Gras. So it's really a place that combines both a lot of my personal interests and a lot of the themes of my tour all in one place. And that's why I always tell people, "If you can only take the tour one day, take it on a Friday." Friday is the best day because I have that to show you. People are always... they've never seen anything like it coming from anywhere else, because we have our bars and restaurants right in the neighborhoods here, where that's not the case in a lot of other places.

[Mark Bologna] That was certainly a great way to end the day. One thing I'll say is we had a lot of food. I mean, we stopped at 6 or 7 places. And you think ahead of time, "Oh, you're just gonna get little bites. It's not gonna be that much." But it, it really ends up being a lot of food.

[James Cullen] I think the word that I would use is, it accretes.

[James Cullen] It's like, okay, you can have one little beignet and then you have one little bite of this and one. And that's one of the hardest things, and I think I've done a good job with it, is the pacing of the tours and the experience to make sure that we have enough walking in between, 'cause we do walk a lot.

[Mark Bologna] It's a decent walk.

[James Cullen] You do walk about 4 miles. But it takes time. People are like, "Can you make the tour shorter?" I'm like, "I could." But I said, "You know, you only get full really fast because you need that kind of breathing room in between." And on days where Mr. Rodney's not open, we usually go and finish at Bar Tonik. And we'll get a classic, like a Sazerac or a Pimm's Cup or one of the really well-known cocktails of New Orleans. Because we do have a cocktail culture here. And I try... Look, the other day, I had a guy who told me he was really interested in rum, and we stopped by Manolito.

[Mark Bologna] Yeah, terrific place.

[James Cullen] And we had some little rum tasters. So, if you tell me what you like, there's a good chance I'm gonna be able to fit it in. It's just a matter of what day of the week it is.

[Mark Bologna] Yeah. I think that's what makes it so cool. Again, I'm local and I have, obviously, the podcast and the book, so I know a lot of places, I go a lot of places, but I still had surprises. I would never have walked in that little grocery store and gotten a banh mi. I would never have found Little People's on my own. Both, for me, the highlight of the, the... Well, I don't know. I would also say the co-op and hearing Brandon talk about the story and the passion that he has.

[James Cullen] So Brandon's story is... So I'll tell you how I found Brandon. I found him on the street, literally. I was walking through my barber's in the Treme, and I got my hair cut and I decided to go for a walk. I was gonna go walk over in Armstrong Park. And I see this guy with a little red checkered tablecloth, like it looked like Lady and the Tramp outside with an umbrella. And you can still see his house on Treme Street. He got a little booth. It looked like Lucy's psychiatrist booth in the Peanuts. And you'd walk up and for like $3 he's... And so I found him out there and he told me what he was doing. I'm like, "Oh, cool." I said, "Well, you know..." So I started bringing people over there. Then he moved to the French Quarter. He was by the French Market for a little bit, and then he got the partnership with the Cabildo, and now he's over there. But yeah, I literally just found him walking around.

[Mark Bologna] He's great. I mean, he's enthusiastic about what he's doing. He can talk about the history of it. But again, even though it's right there in Jackson Square, thousands of people must walk by every day and not even realize he's offering a product. I wish he had a sign out in the square. He probably can't do that. But obviously he knew you. We walked right up. That's the other thing I think that's really nice about your tour, James. You know everyone that we run into. So every place we go, you have a relationship with, so they're super welcoming of you. You know them, you know the story, just like Little People's, being able to tell people that story, or the banh mi again. Every place we stopped, obviously, you had a personal connection. Little Dizzy's, you used to work there. Really cool. Just a neat way to put it together. And again, I like the fact that you customize it, that you take in. So if somebody wants to reach out to you ahead of time, you can work with them and come up with a [plan]. Like you said, you went to Manolito's, which is terrific. Terrific place, by the way. But really a neat way. You could come on the tour a couple times and get different lenses of the city with you.

[James Cullen] Look, I'm always looking for other things to do. I mean, I have a ton of ideas about kind of like a tour in Mid-City that I'd like to do. The biggest thing is you gotta make sure it's walkable. You gotta make sure it's reasonably safe, and you gotta make sure that it makes sense and tells a story.

[Mark Bologna] Sure.

[James Cullen] Everything's about telling a story. And I've always felt that my true wealth is my relationships. I know a lot of people. I get to do a lot of things. I get asked to do a lot of things that are probably not typical for someone of my background necessarily, not being from here originally. My connection with Little Dizzy's, reopening that restaurant for the Baquet family after COVID. Mr. Rodney and Mr. Rodney's family. I know people over at the Backstreet Cultural Museum. If people really show interest in that, I will take them over there so they can learn a little bit more and see it. When you're trying to explain, especially second line and Black mask and Indian culture, it's so much easier when you can show it.

[Mark Bologna] 100%.

[James Cullen] Because when you try to tell people about it, they're like, "What are you talking about?" 'Cause they're always like, "Are they real Native Americans?" I'm like, "No."

[James Cullen] I'm like, "Well, I mean, in some cases maybe." But, you know, this is the story and how it all links together. We have so many things here that I always try to frame it from the jump. Like, you can't look at New Orleans through the lens of a typical southern city. We're not Charleston, we're not Atlanta. I always tell people we're not the least functional city in America, we're the most functional city in the Caribbean. When I was in Havana, I'm like, "Man, these people's garbage never gets picked up. Mine gets picked up once every 2 weeks." I'm like, "We've lost power 5 times already today." I've only lost power twice this month. And we're joking, but anyone that lives here knows that we deal with a lot of stuff here that when you live in other cities, it happens very infrequently compared to the issues that we have here. But when you look at it and you see all the different cultural influences at play and all the different groups of people and what was happening in the world at that time with the British and the French fighting for supremacy in multiple theaters, it starts to make a lot more sense. And the food enables me to talk about all that. Even something like gumbo, where you can say, "Oh, yeah," even though it's very cliche, it's very true. Filé powder came from the Choctaws. It's ground sassafras leaf. The roux came from the French, and that was probably because they didn't like the idea of using okra as a thickener because it was unfamiliar to them. Gumbo is the West African word for okra. And okra is in some versions of the dish, not in other versions, not in every version of the dish, but it's foundational to the dish. And the Spanish introduced rice to the colony. The Germans introduced sausage to the colony, and so on and so on. And so it is cliche, but it's also very accurate. And if I can get that across through food, the cultural significance of the city and why it's really unique and unlike anywhere else, then I think I've done my job.

[Mark Bologna] I think you do a great job. And again, full disclaimer, you helped me with the book. You did a lot of the photography. Accidental Cajun Experiences is a sponsor of the podcast. But there's a reason for that, and it's because I love what you do and I know the quality and the effort that you put into it. Again, as someone who's a local, I went on the tour and had a blast. Learned a lot, ate a lot of great food. Again, wound up in some places I wouldn't have wound up in on my own, which was terrific, 'cause going in I wondered, "Oh, am I really gonna end up in some place I don't know as a local?" And I did. And I've gotten to hear from other people who I've recommended your tour that have been on every tour a little bit different. Again, days of the week matter, time of the year matters, but people walk away both impressed with the food as well as the stories that you're able to tell and the people that you're able to introduce them to. And so, I just wanna say thank you. I really enjoy what you're doing. I'm a big fan of it. I love it. I'm hoping that through this podcast we can get it in the ears and hopefully many people listening will take you up on coming on a tour.

[James Cullen] Well, I appreciate that. You know, I always love having a platform, because I really do love talking about the city. And I think you hit upon one of the things is I have a knack for winding up in unusual places. One of my first, the first second line I think I ever went to in the city, I ended up uptown in the middle of the... I was actually just by the Tapps II Bar which is right off Washington Street. It is in the heart of uptown New Orleans. I'm outside this man's bar and he's like, "You better come inside the bar." I'm like, "Are you talking to me?" He's like, "You see anybody else out here?" I'm like, "No." And I ended up inside playing pool with these guys. They gave me a ride home. Halfway through the ride, they pulled behind St. Joseph's Cemetery and said, "Get out the car. We wanna show you something." I thought I was gonna be on the 1st 48. But no, they took me up to their house and they wanted to show me a plaque that their uncle was a band leader back in the 20s. And people came out the house with food and beer and we hung out for a little bit longer, and then they took me home. I have story after story where I just did what would be the wrong thing 90% of the time. I should have my kidneys harvested, you know. But it never happened that way. And I met people, I still am friends with a lot of these people to the day. And it's a go with the flow city, and I always tell people that. I try to use a lot of humor on the tour too, because some of the subject matter can get heavy at times, but it's important that we talk about it. And so that's what we do, and I really enjoy it.

[Mark Bologna] Yeah. I enjoyed it too. I hope people listen and sign up for the tour. Again, is it accidentalcajunexperiences.com?

[James Cullen] Yes.

[Mark Bologna] So you can check that out. James is also frequently contributing on Beyond Bourbon Street Krewe, K-R-E-W-E, on Facebook, and you can find him on all the socials. So James, thanks for taking the time to do this today.

[James Cullen] Thank you. I really appreciate it.

[Mark Bologna] I also wanna mention, we're recording at Seven Three Distillery. We're sitting in the warehouse right now drinking some whiskey and recording. Is it August 29th? I should know this. I think it's August 29th, which is Wednesday, a week from when this podcast comes out. James and I are doing an event here at Seven Three Distillery. I'm gonna do the first live podcast in 10 plus years of the podcast, so I'm gonna interview the master distiller here. James is kind of hosting this party, so we're gonna have some appetizers and you'll be able to get some discounted drinks, try the whiskey, go on a little tour. It should be a fun night. So you can RSVP for it, but I think you can also just show up. We'll have information in the show notes. But again, I think that is on Tuesday the 29th. I should have had that in front of me.

[James Cullen] Wednesday the 29th.

[Mark Bologna] Thank you. So that'll be a week. This episode that we're recording now will be released on the 22nd, so a week before. When you hear this, you'll still have time to sign up. So with that, we'll turn it over to my daughters to close us out. Thanks, y'all.

[Podcast Outro] New episodes are available every other Wednesday. If you're enjoying the podcast, please share it with someone else who loves New Orleans as much as you do. Until next time, Laissez les bon temps rouler.

[Podcast Host] Thanks for listening to the Beyond Bourbon Street podcast. Find us anytime at beyondbourbonst.com.