Oil slick gumbo
Post categories: Robyn in New Orleans
| 23:58 UK time, Thursday, 27 May 2010
Here in New Orleans, restaurateurs are worried.
Passing by the Alpine Cajun Restaurant in the touristy French Quarter, the owner Jarvis Davis stood outside and urged me to come in for lunch.
"We need all the help that we can," he said. "This oil spill is not good for business."
Jarvis' family has run the restaurant, specialising in seafood dishes for over 20 years. His daughter Verna is the chef and she told me that they were losing customers because of the spill.
"Some of the customers think the seafood is tainted, but it's not."
Jarvis compared this latest disaster to Hurricane Katrina, nearly five years ago.
"We struggling and we need help - from the government, from the President, we need help from everybody right now."
Outside his restaurant, just down the street, two tourists from California were examining another lunch menu. They told me they had nearly cancelled their holiday to New Orleans because of the oil spill. Local friends convinced them otherwise.
Later in the day, I met with another of the city's most famous chefs - John Besh - who owns six restaurants in New Orleans. The longer we talked about the oil spill, the angrier he grew.
"Obama's lip service is nothing. I've been outraged since day one we haven't had extraordinary leadership during a time of extraordinary circumstances."
But angry as both these restaurateurs were, neither wanted to see an end to offshore drilling in Louisiana.
"Oil brought New Orleans up and oil brought it to where it's at today. We just have to live with it," said Jarvis, with a big sigh.
