Need help identifying what style/type dresser this is...

Best guess is a revival piece built in the 19th century, i don't think it's american.

Spent a year living in french quarter in N.O., loved it. Lived on Decatur St, same street as farmers market. Interesting way to shop for groceries, you browse around farmer stalls and shop for a day or 2 worth of meals, very different than going to huge supermarket stores where you shop for whole week.

 

I forgot the best part, those little square doughnuts called Beignets with coffee at Cafe Beignet.

 

I had an apartment on Bienville for 6 months,5 of wich I have no memory of! Talk about party monster! Great memories,and I ate my share of those beignets,as wall as Po boys! I swore Po boys was the ultimate hangover cure.

 

I know it very well. NOLA is truly my home away from home. Before our son was born my wife and I went at least 3-4 times a year. We usually stay in an Airbnb off Dumaine, or in the Tremé. The farmers market can be a pain, yes. But that's just the FQ, there are no modern conveniences. I have a good friend there who plays clarinet for different local jazz bands and he hates playing in the FQ. According to him most musicians do, but it's where the money is. Most of those buildings were built one on top of the other over centuries and there are no back entrances to any of the bars/clubs. Bands have to unload on the street with all the drunks and tourists and carry their equipment in thru the front.

You'd experience the same thing in the older neighborhoods of Paris, by the way. Not sure if it's French federal law, or Paris city ordinance, but supermarkets are actually not allowed in those neighborhoods or even near them. The French wanted to protect all those small businesses that had been there for generations. I stayed in Paris w/my gf at the time for a few months in my 20's and we decided to cook for ourselves a few nights a week to save money. As someone who'd grown up with supermarkets, shopping was a NIGHTMARE. I had to go to a butcher for meat, then a fishmonger for shrimp. I needed ibuprofen, had to go to a chemist (pharmacy) for that, then the market for vegetables and eggs. I was planning to also pick up flowers for my girlfriend, but found out they're only sold at licensed florists and the nearest one was 5 blocks in the other direction so she didn't get flowers that night. All on foot, carrying my own bags. I love France, and I love the French and I get why they do it that way, but they can keep it and it's "charm," as far as I'm concerned. I could've knocked that list out in 20 minutes at a supermarket but instead it took me 2 hours.

 

Cafe Beignet does a good job. At least you didn't go to Cafe du Monde. It used to be the best but now it's just a tourist trap and really not all that good at all. Funny story though, best beneigts I've ever had in my life were at a spot called Lucille, in Fort Worh, TX lol

 

Ever eat the po-boys at Domilise's? Best in town, no contest. Damn now I want one. My hangover ritual in Nola is an Irish coffee and a bloody bull at Molly's on Decatur and then the breakfast buffet at Court of Two Sisters on Royal. If it's a defcon 1 hangover, and it often is, I'll get a long island iced tea hurricane from Stanley's in Jackson Square on top of all that.

Pro-tip: great way to lessen the blow the next day: after every 1-2 drinks, order a Ramos gin fizz BUT make sure they make an authentic one, with egg whites. A lot of places don't include that and it's the eggs that help with the hangover the next a.m.

 

I love the thing of proper shopping. Not grabbing a pre pack of stuff and buying and running, but the true appreciation of food and produce, The dialogue with someone who perhaps has sourced something and knows whence it came. The true butcher: none of your vacuum pack or mass produced, but asking the proprietor what is best and seasonal. People who actually know their specialism, rather than some poor soul on minimum wage who would not know the difference between a lambs liver and a pigs kidney if it whacked them in the face. That joy of the first May asparagus and Jersey Royal potatoes, not some import or forced nonsense.

We live in a world that is oftimes far too hasty and based on sheer convenience, not the savouring of seasonality and taste. Hence, fruit and vegetables that look like wax models and taste of nothing, with no nutritional value. And meat that is bright red, not hung properly, but artificially aged with antibiotics and water and nitrites. The abomination that is chlorine washed chicken , produced with huge cruelty.

Food ought not to be about what you can grab in a supermarket sweep, but about knowing what is real and fresh and proper. If all that is done is gobbling for the sake of satiation, it explains why the West is so damnably obese.

 

I might have but there was something i didn't like about po-boys in general, olives i think or something like that. Loved the seafood there, really good! I was there many years ago, just a kid really and worked off shore in the oil industry, 2 weeks on 1 week off i think. So i had time to do the farmers market thing most of the time living a couple blocks away, different, less waste i would say too. Still, nice to run to the supermarket when i didn't have time, couple miles up toward garden district and see those houses along the way, nice drive, those houses are gorgeous!

 

Agree that the dresser is circa 1950 and likely English in origin. Wood is mahogany. The styling is French but not an exact reproduction. Looks like a well made piece but, unfortunately, out of fashion right now. Would fly out the door if painted but would be a shame to paint such a nice piece.

 

Sadly I can't go to the shops anymore, everything has to be home delivered, but I always used to shop in 'proper' shops. Here they are all in one street or neighbourhood, and many are organic. Or I'd go to the (farmer's) market, everything in one spot as well. And you don't have to trek all over town to get flowers either, there are usually one or two flower shops in a Dutch shopping street.

 

I enjoyed the farmers market experience, did it take longer? yes, mostly because of stopping to chat with a vendor at one the stalls about this, that, the other thing. The quality of the food was better and fresher & much less waste because of shopping for a single meal or just a days worth of meals.

 

Hi,
I loved living in Brooklyn. Every day I would come home get off the subway and shop for dinner. Went to the bread store, then the butcher and then the pasta shop and then the pastry. Never bought anything at the grocery stores they were three or four more stops on the subway. Everything was freshly made. Funny the pork store was a few stores from the beef and chicken sellers. Within two blocks were everything you needed. I miss that so much. The six years I was there I NEVER went into a big supermarket. The funniest thing was the local bakery was closed from 3PM to 4PM, on Fridays. There was three big black cars with the USA decals on the doors. The President had the Secret Service pick up pastries for the weekend.
greg

 

I didn't realize it at the time but the farmers market in the french quarter is the oldest continuously operating open air market in the nation, 1791.
Across the street are the little shops in traditional brick/mortar stores that have a butcher, baker, fish, bla bla bla
Absolutely different way to food shop if you are american, no doubt

 

I was thinking the same as @johnnycb09 until i saw the second group of pics, this doesn't look like machine made dovetails so i switched to 19th century.

 

MUCH nicer than when I saw it last ! That'd have been 1992 or so. Of course I remember in the late 1970s early 80s when the French Quarter was wide open sex and partying.And very run down and seedy. I loved it!

 

Yes, is pretty sure that market has seen plenty of ups & downs in it's day, since 1791, that is a long long time to still be operating.
There is an old restaurant there (can't remember the name) in the quarter that is 18th century as well & my first time there, i sat down with my mother who was visiting and the waiter asked what we wanted to drink. As he was about to leave to get our drinks, mother asked for a menu, we don't have any the waiter replied!
Basically you are having what THEY are having and that's THAT! I think it was corned beef & cabbage that night. My mom talked about that experience until the day she died.

 

Hi James,
That story about your Mom brought back a lot of memories. I remember when I was living in South Jersey in the 1960s. There was a restaurant called Mario's. He only had one seating and that was at 7PM. He had room for 20 diners. They got what ever he felt like cooking that day. If you were 15 mins late you missed dinner. He was booked 8 months in advance. What ever Italian food Mario cooked was what you got. There was always 10-15 people outside hoping someone was late or a no show. I ate there twice and it was delicious.
greg

 

One thing I have learned from our UK members (and I hope I don't have this wrong) is that hand made dovetails persisted well in to the 20th century there.

 

Yes, that's a good point i had forgot, I have heard from other blogs/forums that they built furniture by hand there until the 1930s, a full 80 years or more after it mostly died out here.

 

Here in the Netherlands as well, and some craftspeople still use dovetailing for quality furniture.