On Sunday we went downtown on the recommendation of our friend, Spider Murphy, who plays banjo around town, including a regular gig at Red Gravy for their weekend brunches. He has been raving about the food so we decided to try it out and hear him play some more. Red Gravy provides home cooked Italian food in the center of downtown New Orleans. It is located at 125 Camp Street, just a half block off Canal on the CBD side. (504) 561-8844. I highly recommend it for brunch and we are now inspired to go back for dinner soon.
We had the Sicilian Egg Pie: Shirred eggs with cream & spices, baked in pasty. It came with some wonderful home fries that were moist and crispy at the same time and garlic bread with plenty of mozzarella. We also had the Umbria: Slow roasted pork, greens & provolone on crostini, with fruit. The pork was perfect and reminded me of some intense pork roast I used to get at a small Italian place in Boston’s North End. The well seasoned meat blended nicely with the cheese and greens and the toasty bread backed up these flavors. The fruit was a nice balance to the intensity of the main dish.
As I approached our table I encountered a pleasant surprise. Two of my paintings were hanging on the wall. They had sold at Riccobono’s (see below for details) but I did not know the buyer as I was out of town at the time. You can see Spider playing on the right side of the photo. One painting was of tomatoes (from Greece) and another of eggplants (from Capri). Both were painted on my first trip to the Greek island of Samos (see my prior post on Produce to Paintings for more of these paintings and the process, including a photo of the actual tomatoes featured in the painting now at Red Gravy). The eggplants were done from a photo taken on a prior trip to Italy and the tomatoes were painted from life as a neighbor in Samos had given me some from his garden.
The best way to easily see most of my paintings for sale is to go to my Facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/bill.ives2 - and look at Photos and albums within Photos. I have three photo albums covering my art. One is for discounted pairings under $100. The other is for most of the rest (over $100). The third is for paintings that I have either sold or ones that are not for sale. However, if anyone is interested in these I could paint another version for them on commission. I will ship anywhere and have shipped art works as far as Australia.
In New Orleans there are currently paintings hanging at another of my favorite New Orleans restaurants, Riccobono's Panola Street Cafe. Here is a post describing the showing at Riccobono's. It is located at 7801 Panola Street (504 314-1810) near my neighborhood and closer to where I grew up.