No music left on North Rampart Street

Got the following email last weekend:

Hi everyone,
Just a note to let you know that Charlie and I have decided to close Donna's
permanently. We have had a good run on Rampart St but it is time to move on. We
will never forget all the good times and the people who passed through our doors
to listen to the best musicians in New Orleans and to eat Charlie's good food.

Charlie is doing great. He is busy writing a cook book and re-inventing himself
as an author! :) I, of course, am still "Miss Dr. P" to my science students and
I enjoy every minute of it.

Please feel free to contact us via this email address. I will most certainly
keep the website active for a while until we know that our customers "across the
pond" and elsewhere in the world know that Charlie will not be "holding court"
any longer in Donna's kitchen! :)

Respectfully,
Donna and Charlie
Donna's Bar & Grill ...where great food and live music come together under one
roof! Live Local Music & Dinner~ Thursday,Friday, Saturday, Sunday nights
800 N. Rampart Street, New Orleans, LA 70116 504-596-6914
www.donnasbarandgrill.com

Donna's closing finishes off what was once a great music scene on North Rampart Street. It was the first place I saw a waist-high Trombone Shorty, and the first place where I tasted Abita Purple Haze, which I had a brief, intense addiction to. I remember a moving night when Bob French brought up a young lady to sing. She was in the National Guard and was shipping out the next day for a tour in Iraq. There were several great nights listening to Tom McDermott etc. etc. Now Donna's has gone the way of the Funky Butt, where our house god Samantha came from as a palm-sized kitten in 1999. Got to write about the Funky Butt again in the recent cover story on Anders Osborne for OffBeat because his fruitful partnership with Monk Boudreaux began there. The city planners have been trying to drive music off of North Rampart for years. Now they've succeeded. They're not happy, though. Now they're going after live music in the streets too. They won't be satisfied until the only music left in New Orleans is at tourist festivals, convention parties and Bourbon Street. Except not on Bourbon Street itself. I call them the Blues Meanies. Stop asking for our votes if you're going to steal our music!