The
carriageway entry to the Gumbo Shop leads you to either an inviting
tropical courtyard under a canopy of banana trees or a quaint
interior lined with murals in warm gold-brown tones depicting
scenes from New Orleans’ past. Painted on the burlap wrappings
of cotton bales in 1925 by local artist Marc Antony, the scenes
are of the restaurant’s neighbors, the Presbytere and the
Cabildo – the earliest seats of government and the site of
the Louisiana Purchase.
Above the ground floor of the Gumbo Shop building you could easily
expect to find Stanley Kowalksi and his spouse, Stella. Not too
far fetched when you learn that Tennessee Williams, who considered
New Orleans his spiritual home, completed his Pulitzer Prize winning
play, “A Streetcar Named Desire” while living in an
apartment on the top floor of the building next door at 632 Saint
Peter. From the window of his apartment he could see “that
rattletrap old streetcar” named Desire whose route included
nearby Royal Street and Bourbon Street.
Just a half block away towards the Mississippi River is Jackson
Square, named for Andrew Jackson, the hero of the Battle of New
Orleans who later became President of the United States. With
the St. Louis Cathedral right in the center of the Square, “those
Cathedral bells” that the tragic Blanche duBois referred
to in “Streetcar” can be heard in the restaurant’s
courtyard, further contributing to the fact that the Gumbo Shop
is at ground zero when it comes to a quintessential New Orleans
experience. This is a place that could easily slip by on ambiance
alone.
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