[Natasha Sanchez is a local musician, Monica Byrne a longtime music lover about town. The two old friends shared some memories and mused about Frenchmen over the years over the din of a lovely Lynn Drury porch concert in 2019.]
MB: I’m a Sagittarius, and what they say about Sagittarians is they like to travel.
Well, I’m not really big on travel. But in the early 90s—the mid 80s to early 90s, I guess—everybody hung out at Cafe Brasil. I met people from all over the world. I didn’t need to travel.
***
Monica relating a time she brought a visiting friend down to see Frenchmen Street—
MB: And I told [my friend], “Look at this, it’s a Dat Dog. This is ridiculous.”
She’s from out of town, and she’s like, “Well, what was there before? Maybe it’s an improvement!”
I said, “It was an empty lot–”
NS:–and it’s NOT an improvement!
MB: We liked it.
[More strong feelings about the empty lot here.]
***
MB: One time my sister Paula and my friend Marion and I went down [to Cafe Brasil] on a Sunday, just to have a cup of coffee. They used to do espresso. We’re sitting outside at a table and all of a sudden we hear gunshots. Adé, the owner, comes running out screaming, “RUN! Take cover!”
We ran inside the bathroom at Cafe Brazil, behind a door. … Nothing happened, of course. It wasn’t anybody just randomly shooting on the street. Adé was just… He was freaked out. [laughs] “TAKE COVER!!!”
