Hello to Fat’s Oyster House

It’s been a rough 2020 for Chase Boytim. Like other bar owners in Louisiana, he has had a grim time in this year of Covid. Some have hunkered down, some have decided to close up shop altogether, but Boytim has done neither. In fact, he decided to expand.

Community

Tuesday, Nov. 17, 2020

Are You Hungry?

By Liz Swaine

In the last several weeks, downtown Shreveport has announced the opening of four new restaurants and the re-opening of a favorite that had briefly closed. What gives? The restrictions of COVID-19 have been hard on eateries. First came mandates for curbside and delivery only, extensive PPE requirements and limited dine-in occupancy.

Community

Monday, June 1, 2020

Rejuvenate & Renovate

By Liz Swaine

C & C Electric and Lighting had been at 2430 Line Ave. for years. The mom-and-pop shop was a go-to for lighting fixtures and repairs. This was still not a place to which you would go and hang out. Lingering was not what customers tended to do after purchasing.

Columns/Opinions

Monday, Sept. 9, 2019

Behind The Facades

By Liz Swaine

Two handsome twin brothers from Canada and a Texas couple with lots of children and a bakery and an old silo and a furniture line take Plain Jane homesteads and turn them into trendy, remarkable spaces using designer magic and lots of greige. (It’s a thing, Google it).

Columns/Opinions

Tuesday, April 23, 2019

Developing History

By Liz Swaine

Each spring we return to Baton Rouge to defend or extend these credits that act as a little bit of risk abatement and that have made remarkable differences in cities from Monroe and Shreveport to New Orleans and Baton Rouge.

Business

Tuesday, Nov. 20, 2018

In Odd We Trust

By Liz Swaine

Gina Marie, Stephen and Josie Masson look and act like a typical family. They joke and laugh, play with their headstrong, lovable bull terrier, and spend a lot of time working on their new retail space in downtown Shreveport. That is where the “normal” part of their story ends.

Columns/Opinions

Monday, Nov. 5, 2018

A Red River District Reboot

By Liz Swaine

Recently, the city of Shreveport, Downtown Development Authority and tenants of the Red River District threw a party to welcome people back. It was time, thought tenant Christi Johnson Ranger, to remind people of how clean, pretty and safe the district is and to tell the story of the small and local businesses that now call the space home.

Business

Monday, July 16, 2018

Uneeda Biscuit

By Liz Swaine

Prior to becoming the Uneeda Biscuit building, 711 Milam was known as the Vordenbauman-Eastham Company building, and later as the Marcus building for the furniture store that did business there.

Business

Monday, July 16, 2018

High Style for On Time Fashion

By Liz Swaine

Sam Fashho has been in the clothing and fashion industry – the rag trade – for most of his life. Clothes have given him a life, helped him raise his family, enabled him to own multiple businesses. Prior to the oil collapse of the 1980s that turned everything around, he owned five clothing stores on Texas Street.

Community

Monday, March 26, 2018

Art in April

By Liz Swaine

For three-plus hours on Wednesday, April 4, a portion of downtown Shreveport will be filled with street performers and artists, food trucks and specials. Buildings will throw open their doors, businesses will be open late, rehabbed historic buildings will be open for tours, architecture will be discussed and sketched, history will take center stage.