a visit to NYC’s Bar None
Non classé - 20 mai 2011a visit to NYC’s Bar None
King in an upcoming film, Variety reports:
HBOAntoine Batiste (Wendell Pierce on trombone) of the Treme Brass Band in the funeral march as it continues on to the cemetery.
King Size Film Prods. King and I,” which is set to star “Treme” thesp Wendell Pierce as the legendary bluesman, and Patrick Fugit as one of his closest friends.
Michael Zanetis, upon whom Fugit’s character is based, is producing the indie, which he co wrote with Melora Donoghue. Frank Capra III will serve as a co producer. King and I” follows Zanetis as the drummer who travels from the heartland of America to Hollywood in pursuit of his musical destiny. After attending a King concert in 1980, Zanetis struck up a friendship with the blues legend that endured for 30 years, culminating with him gifting King with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Instead, it focuses on a wide swath of locals and their stubborn insistence on returning to normal life, which is to say, to the distinctive, sassy good life of New Orleans that has always outlived one disaster after another.
Chuck’s Sports Bar, 510 Gravier, stood in for a New York City bar during episode four, as Delmond, Woodrow and Janette watched the New Orleans Saints defeat the New York Giants, 30 7, on December 24, 2006.
The New York City bar Chuck’s is meant to portray is Bar None, 98 Third Avenue, which has become a haven for Who Dats in exile. Both were invited to play extras in the scene. There are a few unexplained references and names in these answers, but I’m betting that kind of informality characterizes a Sunday afternoon at Bar None.
Who are you, where are you, and what’s your connection to New Orleans?
Dykes: My name is Brett Michael Dykes and I’m currently sitting in an airport waiting to board a flight. My connection to Nola is that I grew up in the area, down in Terrebonne Parish specifically, and now split my time between there and NYC.
Denis: My name is Zach Denis, co founder of Royal Family Records currently, once again, a resident of New Orleans, Louisiana. I grew up in Slidell New Orleans, working in music as a DJ at 106.1 The Zephyr and doing websites for local bands.
Courtesy of Brett Michael DykesZach Denis and Brett Michael Dykes (right) hug after the Saints’ NFC Championship victory over the Minnesota Vikings.
Tell me about Bar None. When did you first go? What’s it like on game days? Who else goes?
Dykes: As I recall, I first stumbled across Bar None toward the end of that awful 2005 season. I’d moved to NYC in 2002 and up to that point had been watching Saints games at a bar on the Upper East Side where I knew one of the bartenders, so she’d put our games on a single TV for me, though with no sound, and I usually watched them by myself while surrounded by Jets, Giants and Patriots fans. I was actually living a couple of blocks from Bar None at the time and had no idea that a handful of Saints fans had begun gathering there. I had slept late one particular Sunday and was trying to get uptown to make it to the bar prior to kickoff, and was wandering up Third Avenue trying to hail a cab to take me up there. As I was walking I came across Bar None and there were a few guys outside smoking who were wearing Saints jerseys. I struck up a conversation, they invited me to join them and the rest, as they say, is history.
In the years that followed it just grew and grew and grew. Word got out, by mouth and through social media. With so many displaced locals up there after Katrina, news spread pretty rapidly. At some point Bobby Hebert got word of it and was apparently telling people on air stuff like, “If you know of any Saints fans in New York, tell ‘em to go to Bar None.” And for most Louisiana transplants living in NYC who attend a game at Bar None, once you go it’s hard not to go back. It’s like a little taste of home every week. People cook and bring food for everybody to share. Our unofficial leader, Ted Castator, ships up stuff like Zapps and Hubig’s pies. Everyone knows all the words to all the tributes songs and all the chants. And then we have full blown Louisiana dance parties after the games. During our run to the Super Bowl they’d go well into the night. Like, our early games would end at 4pm eastern time but I often wouldn’t get home till midnight or so, and then I’d be sore from head to toe the next day from dancing for hours. By this point, the place has become semi famous to the point that staffers there have told me that people visiting New York from Louisiana will go by there for a drink just so they can see it and pay homage to it. And last season, for the season opener against the Vikings, there were two couples who have season tickets who sold their tickets to the game and flew up to watch it at Bar One instead. “We wanted to see what all the fuss was about,” I remember one of them telling me.
Many of the regulars there have become some of my closest friends. I mean, I experienced some of the happiest moments of my life in that bar, so it’s almost impossible not to bond with the people I shared those moments with. We’re like a big family. And when we’re not at the bar, a bunch of us are on an email chain that stretches back years where we share links to stories about Nola and the Saints and whatnot, so even when we’re not at the bar we’re chattering with each other on an almost daily basis. It’s really kind of a beautiful thing. We all have so much love and affection for each other and that place. Honestly, if I can’t be in the Dome, there’s no place on earth I’d rather watch a Saints game.
Denis: I started going to Bar None quite a long time ago, before games were streaming illegally online and thankfully so or I would have never been afforded the amazing experiences to come. At that time I was living in Brooklyn and was a frequent visitor to the East Village and heard about a neighborhood bar that played most games each Sunday. I remember going in the first time vividly, searching 19″ TV to 19″ TV, hoping to get a glance of some Black Gold on the tube. Unfortunately, the Saints weren’t on any of the screens due to little to no interest in a northeastern environment. I swiftly moved towards the bar and made quick friends with the Sunday bartender who happened to respond to my begging and pleading to put it on “just this once”. I’ve never been one to drink but felt inclined to keep a tab open to keep the tube on. After many weeks and lots of “necessary” drinking and blabbing my mouth about it,wholesale jerseys from china other NOLA locals started showing up to Bar None and it was truly a blissful gathering each week, allowing 1 small TV to show the Saints. We definitely made our presence known with the help of Leclare, Edgar, Cassidy and Minor. During the early days we became close friends with the “more than rowdy” Vikings fans. Most of which who were from Brooklyn and had never even been to Minnesota, which we found hilarious. Both of our teams were having trying times in that era and a bond was formed. I even found an apartment a block away from the bar and took it based on it’s geographical location.
I’ve read Peter Finney’s piece about the Vikings playoff game. What was it like that day?
Dykes: That day was every bit the circus you’d imagine it to be and then some. Though we’d gotten along with the Vikings fans for years, this was, obviously, a huge game with a lot at stake, so the bar brought in extra security to keep us all separated from each other, and they even had us enter the bar through separate entrances. The street outside was lined with local news trucks. ESPN had a camera crew in there filming a spot. Like I said, it was a circus. And when it was over, it was the most joyful chaos I’ve ever been a part of. We just all danced and cried for hours.
There’s a great video one of the regulars took and posted to YouTube of the moment Garrett Hartley’s kick went through the uprights and the dance party that ensued afterwards. You can hear him yelling over and over, “the Saints are going to the Super Bowl!” I think that summed up what we and every other Saints fan on the planet was feeling in that moment in time. Just stunned euphoria. I probably viewed that video at least 100 times since then and I still tear when I watch it. Happiest day of my life, even more so than the day we actually won the Super Bowl.
Oh, and one more thing about that video at just past the 7 minute mark, you can hear a couple of the Vikings fans who came over to our room to congratulate us on the win. That was quite classy.
Denis: EPIC. I woke up that day and prepped for the experience just like any other even though I knew everything was on the line. The bar was separated accordingly, Saints in the back, Vikes in the front and included proper amounts of security. Although a majority of Saints fans couldn’t bear confronting the Vikings fans pre game, I felt the need to meet with my long time friends in the front to wish them good luck and we all agreed, “May the best team win” It was quite emotional and was even captured on ESPN. Obviously we all know how the majority of the game played out. It was a hard fought battle between two teams, one who had never been to the BIG game.
Just an overtime away from going to Super Bowl 44, the nerves set in. I left my usual viewing spot to pace back and forth with my longtime Saints accomplice, Ade Hebert. Even though our defense was pummeling Brett Favre, Ade and I knew it was gonna go down to the wire in overtime and thankfully to Tracy Porter’s amazing interception, that’s exactly what happened. If you’ve ever been to Bar None the fans go absolutely crazy, especially when it’s something so pivotal. Months leading up to this moment I realized that my days in NYC were numbered as I had been there for a decade and was ready for change. The final drive in overtime to set up Hartley’s chance to send a legion of fans into a state beyond merriment was very long and drawn out, giving ample time to stress and have a moment to look around the packed room to gauge the others expressions and vibe.
Finally we’re in field goal range and the kicking team marches onto the field. As a longtime Saints fan, there’s always that slight feeling of doubt whether or not we can close it out and advance on. Once that ball was snapped and Hartley booted it through the uprights, a variety of emotions fluttered through all of our hearts minds. It didn’t take long for us all to erupt in celebration and feel whole heartedly what it’s like to be champions. The traditional bounce music blared on the sound system from DJ “Mayor Ted”, people were picking one another up, hugging, screaming, crying tears of joy and second linin’. I cried so hard that I had to hide in the DJ booth to recover from that ugly face you get when you cry uncontrollably. I also realized at this very moment that I was moving home, put in my one month notice and flew home to be with the citizens of New Orleans for the big game and have been here ever since. In retrospect, it was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.
Tell the story, in as much detail as you care to deliver, about being contacted by “Treme” for Sunday’s scene.
Dykes: I believe it was last December that Ted, the aforementioned unofficial leader of the group, called me and said that the Treme people had gotten in touch with him to say that they were doing a scene in season 2 that would take place in a Bar None esque bar in New York in 2006. So he got in touch with me and some of the other early Bar None ers to let us know and see if we’d be interested in being extras in that scene. So he passed our contact information on to them and then a few weeks later someone from casting called each of us. Unfortunately, I wasn’t available the day they shot the scene, but a few of the other guys were able to.
Denis: Thankfully the lovely Savannah Strachan, casting director for Treme, provided me this flattering experience. She also was “one of us” at Bar None back in the day along with her brother Minor. Savannah called a few months back and excitedly announced that the “Bar None Recreation” was soon to take place and that “I had to be there”. Prior to this shoot, when I returned home, Savannah cast me as an extra in the scene on the ferry where Goodman commits suicide. Although I had no clue of the plot line that day, after the episode aired, I got a ton of calls and messages from people asking if I had “killed John Goodman”. It was an honor to be included in the first season and a pleasant surprise to also be included in season 2. I now have a strong desire to catch at least a small speaking part on the show as I’m sure most of us here in NOLA would. 
