The Southern Food and Beverage Museum announces plans to launch the first comprehensive regional museum dedicated to the appreciation and history of Southern food and beverages

The new museum’s preview exhibit, ”A Toast of New Orleans,” will be unveiled on June 12th at the New Orleans City Centre, and will focus on beverages connected to New Orleans

May 26, 2004, NEW ORLEANS, LA – The president of The Southern Food and Beverage Museum announced plans today for the launch of a new museum in New Orleans which will focus on a comprehensive regional collection and rotating exhibits dedicated to the discovery, understanding and celebration of the food, drink and related culture of the South.

“The idea of a Southern Food and Beverage Museum was something we wanted to develop because the South has long been recognized as one of the most influential and vibrant culinary cultures in the world. New Orleans is a natural city to launch our first exhibit, as it was historically the culinary crossroads where, for example, Caribbean, African, French, Spanish, German, Irish and even Vietnamese settlers have met and mingled over generations to create a completely unique – and uniquely American – food culture,” stated Elizabeth Williams, President of the Southern Food and Beverage Museum. Williams went on to add that “The Southern Food and Beverage Museum will eventually feature artifacts and exhibits encompassing the food culture and history of 16 states, including Alabama, Arkansas, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia.”

The museum’s preview exhibit, ”A Toast of New Orleans,” will explore the many beverages created and connected to the Crescent City and its history. The Southern Food and Beverage Museum, a tax exempt 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization is based in New Orleans and will open to the public with a ribbon cutting ceremony on June 12, 2004 at 12:00 p.m. (Noon) at a temporary space in the New Orleans City Centre 1400 Poydras St., New Orleans, Louisiana. The Southern Food and Beverage Museum is making plans to move to a permanent space in New Orleans in 2005.

Highlights of the preview exhibit include old Sazerac bottles from the turn of the century, an Absinthe dispenser from the mid-1800’s, old photos of New Orleans from the 1930’s and 1940’s WPA projects, vintage advertisements, ingredients such as unrefined chicory used in New Orleans famous café au laits, and promotional artifacts such as a JAX Brewery aluminum ice chest. Local celebrities and historians will do on-going presentations and demonstrations of new beverages throughout the exhibit which runs through August, 2004. The exhibit curator for ”A Toast of New Orleans,” Elizabeth Pearce, stresses the importance of understanding the history of beverages in New Orleans -the city where the cocktail was invented, “Drinks can be taken for granted: they wash down a po’boy or keep us cool inside a sticky, sultry jazz club, and they are as important as the food, music and architecture in making New Orleans unique.”

Sponsors of the preview exhibit include Reily Foods Co., Pat O’Briens, Napoleon House, the New Orleans City Centre, the Kabacoff School of Hotel, Restaurant and Tourism Management, the Earl K. Long Library at the University of New Orleans, Beuerman Miller Fitzgerald, Jacqueline Brock, and Monique Coco McCall.

Other plans for the proposed Southern Food and Beverage Museum will include a cultural center where visitors and organizations can gather to research and experience:

• The food and drink of the South in all its aspects;
• The many ethnicities – African-American and Caribbean, French, Italian, Vietnamese and German, to name a few – that have combined to create unique Southern food and drink traditions;
• The farmers, fishermen, hunters and gatherers who have produced the food;
• The processors, inventors, chefs and business people who run the restaurants and stock our stores with Southern products;
• The home cooks and families who have passed down recipes and food traditions for generations.

The Cultural Center will host special exhibits, a test and demonstration kitchen, lectures and tastings showcasing the food and drink of the South. It will cooperate with the many fine local museums, restaurants, theaters, academic institutions and artists to present richly-textured experiences in multiple venues.

There will also be an archive of culinary business records, writings and chef’s notes, which will preserve the history of the food industry in the region. Collections of menus, food labels, advertising signs and displays and other important culinary ephemera will also have a place at the Museum.

Finally, the Museum will maintain a website that both informs and entices. You can view the site at www.southernfood.org.

The Southern Food and Beverage Museum was founded in 2004 and is a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization based in New Orleans and dedicated to the discovery, understanding and celebration of the food, drink and related culture of the South. Its goal is to be a regional resource focusing on the history of Southern food and beverages.

Contacts:
Kimberlee Lauer or Virginia Miller
Beuerman Miller Fitzgerald (504) 524-3342

Elizabeth Williams, President
Southern Food and Beverage Museum
(504) 430-5619

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