Juban’s has been around for quite a while now, but for a long time, even though I knew the food was good, it was kind of shoved into that “white tablecloth” compartment in my mind and mostly forgotten about until I signed up for the Flicks and Food course sponsored by the Oschner Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI for short) at LSU and hosted by Juban’s. Each course is a series of three films shown on Monday nights and includes a three course meal with a salad, dessert, and your advance choice of one of three entrees, You show up, get a drink at the bar, wander into the big room and grab your place card that has your name and entree written on it and pick a seat. The instructor, Donald Beale, does a little run down of the film while salads are brought out and then the movie starts, projected on a large screen at the front of the room. The servers bring around the entrees, there’s a break for coffee mid-film, and discussion afterwards. This semester the theme is Dames Will Be Dames, featuring films starring Helen Mirren, Judy Dench, and Maggie Smith, all awarded Dames of the British Empire along with a lot of other accolades. This is what brought me back to Juban’s, and the catered meals are very good, but Ubering over early brought me back to Juban’s atrium styled bar, and maybe it was just being older, having more experience and more money, but I really fell in love with the space.
As you can see–tree, fireplace, decor. As you cannot hear–good tunes played at conversational levels, friendly barkeeps and servers, no screaming children. This is a great happy hour spot. They’ve got five dollar specials on house wines and cocktails and draft beers and a well priced bar menu with nice appetizers for sharing.
It’s a great place to gather and relax with other pros after a long, trying day–and aren’t there a lot of those? Granted, the place is more expensive at lunch and dinner so that still kind of shoves it into the special events compartment except for happy hour with the food and drink specials, great space and atmosphere. And they have so many different catering spaces. Can you imagine renting out this six top in the wine room?
Again, not an everyday type of event, but–happy hour. I had an old friend who came back to town for his father’s last days, arranging hospice and talking with the sibs about what would come next and we slipped away for drinks and a long talk by the fireplace in the bar and had a plate of smoked salmon and a plate of tuna carpaccio and it was the perfect place to have that talk. Discreet servers, music nice but conversational level, a real fire, and an old friend going through a tough time. I probably still won’t rush over there to dinner, and that shrimp poboy was way too expensive for a non-expensed lunch, but I love the Flicks and Food class, and it is a really good place to unwind after work with happy hour pricing.
