SFA | Oral History | New Orleans Eats

“A dump—I don’t like that word ‘cause I didn’t consider it a dump. I considered it—I mean it was clean. It was an old-time place. It was family-oriented for one thing…You didn’t have to put on anything and I like a place that’s down to earth and it was down to earth.”

– Gail Uglesich

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On May 7, 2005, restaurateurs Anthony and Gail Uglesich retired, and with them their Central City restaurant, Uglesich’s. The corner of Baronne and Erato streets hadn’t been so quiet since at least 1928, when Anthony’s father, an immigrant from Yugoslavia, opened a modest sandwich and fried seafood shop there. The single-room, worn-in building gave the impression that nothing had changed over the restaurant’s seven-plus decades, but Uglesich’s fans knew better. In the 1970’s, Anthony and Gail began adding to the menu, first dirty rice and gumbo, and then Voodoo Shrimp, Muddy Water, Paul’s Fantasy – dishes built upon locally sourced seafood and with unrestricted imagination. Lemon grass, fermented black beans, chili paste, ginger, rice vinegar didn’t keep the restaurant from feeling, and even somehow tasting, like New Orleans distilled. Anthony and Gail still pore over cooking magazines and watch the Food Network with notebook and pencil at the ready. They experiment constantly in their home kitchen and don’t entirely discount the possibility of working again someday. Hurricane Katrina and an extended evacuation period in Tennessee threw a wrench into the couple’s plans to slow down, though slowing down has never been their strong suit. When they had the restaurant, Gail started working every morning at 4:30. At least now she takes naps.

Listen to this 4-minute audio clip of Anthony and Gail Uglesich talking about some of their signature dishes and how they came up with them. [Windows Media Player required. Go here to download the player for free.]

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What follows is a portion of the original interview that has been edited for length. To download the entire transcript in PDF form, please click here.

EDITED TRANSCRIPT

Subject: Anthony & Gail Uglesich
Location: their home, Sixth Street, New Orleans, LA
Date: July 13, 2006
Interviewer: Sara Roahen, writer and SFA member

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Sara Roahen: This is Sara Roahen; it’s July 13th, 2006. I’m on Sixth Street in New Orleans with Anthony and Gail Uglesich. Okay; and if I could have the two of you individually state your name and your birth date and what you did for a living.

Gail Uglesich: I’m Gail Uglesich; I was born April 3rd, 1941. And I worked in a restaurant called Uglesich’s.

Anthony Uglesich: I’m Anthony Uglesich; I was born December 4th, 1938 and I’ve been a restaurateur all my life.

Thank you. All right; well so could you start by telling me when the restaurant opened and when it closed?

AU: My father was—started the restaurant business on South Rampart Street the year 1924. By 1928 he moved to Baronne Street where the restaurant has been for—well all those years. And it remained there all those years with very little changes other than the prices.

And what was the last date you were opened?

GU: May 7th.

AU: Yeah; May 7th. Yeah; May 7th, 2005.

And what—what is your earliest memory of the restaurant?

AU: Well [Sighs] it was entirely different at that time; it was a neighborhood business. And I remember working as a young person there and that’s when a soft drink was five cents and you could get an egg sandwich for a nickel in the morning with a cup of coffee. [Laughs] And that was about ten—fifteen cents for both and at that time it was opened up for lunch as well as a night business. And at that time it was predominantly seafood, but it was all fried seafood at that time; that was you know a typical New Orleans neighborhood restaurant with seafood.

And so I imagine that you grew up running around in that.

AU: Oh yeah—not that I really wanted to because when I first started I used to say to myself I’ll never do this for a living—never. [Laughs] But my father put me in there at a young age and I can remember even going down there on Sundays and have to help out in the—in the evenings. And that’s why I said to myself never will I ever do this. [Laughs]

And your mother, did she work there also?

AU: No, my mama didn’t—no; it was—at that time it was my—my father, his brother they brought in from Yugoslavia—over the years he’d have nephews occasionally to come in and help out. He’d bring them to this country and some other staff that worked with him oh, I guess around 30 years.

And what—what’s your earliest memory of the restaurant—Uglesich’s?

GU: Well [Laughs] when Anthony and I were courting I would go down to the restaurant and—because I taught and it was after teaching I would go down to the restaurant and—and help him out as much as I could.

When you were dating?

GU: Yes, when we were dating; and then we got married and I would help him out in the kitchen area and then that stopped. And then I started to make things for the restaurant at the house and he would bring them to the restaurant. And then I gradually started to—to do what I had to do at home for the restaurant and then go down and help him out. In other words, it was—it was a continuous—you know for us—in other words, early in the morning do what I had to do for the restaurant and then go—he would bring it to the restaurant and then I would go down there around 11 o’clock and help him out ‘til around 2 or 3 o’clock, come back home, and do what I had to do here.

Okay. And how did you meet?

GU: On a blind date.

Oh really?

GU: [Laughs] He thought I had money and—and I thought he had money. [Laughs] He tells everybody that story, but that’s not true.

Oh that’s funny. Well what—I know that—so when your father opened the restaurant and while you were growing up it was more of a—sort of bare bones fried seafood, neighborhood place. At what point did you all start experimenting?

AU: I had to change with the times.

GU: You know people would come in—I think out of town(ers) in fact would come in and say—

AU: And they didn’t want fried—fried foods.

GU: —you know they didn’t want fried foods; the wanted things like either sautéed or—they were more health-conscious. So they would want things like sautéed or grilled or not—not deep fried and I think that’s when we started to work on different things.

And around what era would that have been in?

GU: I think that was in the ‘70s—the early ‘70s.

Can you sort of describe what some of the newer dishes were that you—what was the—what were the first couple of the newer dishes that you introduced?

AU: We started grilling right off the bat. I said—we put up our own mixture of grilled product and I remember looking at K-Paul’s recipe and we—we tried to make a sample of it and we toned ours down because we thought it had a little bit too much salt in it and we added this and we did something different here—there, and from there it took off. We started doing different things.

GU: I don’t think—the first thing I think that I made if I’m not mistaken was Dirty Rice; that was the first thing I made. And it was something besides having fries. I know—so we wanted to offer something else and I think the second thing I made was gumbo. They had—they had no soups, so I know—I’m positive the second thing I made was gumbo—and that was just from experimenting.

AU: And we had the influence of my mother. My mother had a—really a great background. She’s from St. James Parish and really could cook. And unfortunately everything was up here, you know. [Gestures] You didn’t go by measurements.

GU: Right; it was never on paper. In fact, she taught me actually how to make a roux. I did not know how to make a roux. So in other words, my gumbo is made with a roux, so I started experimenting from there, you know by making a—making a roux. And that was not—that’s not in the first cookbook. My son is writing another cookbook.

So for a dish, for example, like one I miss which is Shrimp Uggie, what—what was your inspiration for that? Do you remember?

AU: Gail is responsible for that.

GU: I experimented with that. I wanted to make a marinade so I started experimenting and—it—it just—I just put something together. I’d make him taste it and he liked it and so that’s what made us put—put it on the menu. In other words, it’s just something that just came up. In other words, I—it’s basically—was trial and error because the first time I tried something it didn’t work out. And I think it took me about three tries to get it right. And when I—I would make Anthony be my taster and he—he would say this is and everybody loved it, so that’s how we got Shrimp Uggie. And I—we named it after my son because everybody would call him Uggie; they couldn’t pronounce Uglesich. So we—Anthony not only is the—the taster but he would come up with the names for the different things.

Like Muddy Waters?

GU: Now that’s his; that’s—that’s Anthony’s, right. I don’t know how he got the name Muddy Waters.

AU: I don’t know. I came up with the dish because I was trying to do something else and I came up with something else. [Laughs] By accident, but sometimes some things come to you pretty quick and some things, I know I fooled with for like after a year or two and I give up—not that I do it every day but every few weeks I tried to do something and—I mean even to this day I’m retired; I’ve probably spent so far this week looking at recipes—what would you think—maybe 10 hours already this week?

GU: We still try to think of different things, you know. For ourselves. [Laughs]

AU: Yeah; we buy a lot of magazines, a lot of books. I look at the Food Channel and try to get ideas; you know and then try to come up with something you know on our own, you know just to—just to—

GU: Right; just like Angry Shrimp—that wasn’t in the first book and everybody said why didn’t you put that in the first book? I said well it will be in the second. Okay. But how that came—a customer gave us that name because I had made this dish with shrimp and a customer told Anthony—Anthony you know what name this should be—Angry Shrimp because oh, they’re hot and they’re spicy. [Laughs]

Can you describe what Angry Shrimp—yeah, what Angry Shrimp is like?

GU: Well it had Chinese chili paste in it; that is what made it angry. [Laughs]

AU: I love Asian ingredients.

I was going to ask you about that.

GU: Right; it’s anything that pertains—you know he wants me to come up with something that had an Asian ingredient in it. Well that would be Chinese chili paste, and of course it’s got garlic in it which he likes and to make it colorful we—we put the different colored bell peppers in it, and of course put—well we—I never use butter. We use—always margarine.
And I’ve always been interested in the Asian ingredients in some of your food. Like you had a dish with fermented black beans. What dish was that?

GU: Voodoo Shrimp.

AU: Yeah; it’s really good.

GU: It’s just that little bit of that—you know that gives it that—it’s the black bean taste with garlic. You’ve got to get the one with the garlic.

And how do you—was there an inspiration for that or did you just—?

AU: Again I—I was fooling with some dishes and I think I ran across this by accident again you know. But that—that came out to be a very, very popular dish; they liked that.
I liked that one. Well before I move on away from the food, we mentioned Muddy Waters and for the—for the record, could you tell me what that dish is like?

GU: You were making a sauce and you wanted to do something with chicken broth because Muddy Waters is made with chicken broth and anchovies, but you don’t see—you know everybody says oh, anchovies? You don’t taste the anchovies.

AU: You don’t.

So, Mrs. Uglesich, you started describing earlier what your day looked like. Can we go into that a little bit—when you were running the restaurant, take me through your day—what time it started—?

GU: Mine started 4:30 in the morning; mine started real early in the morning. Because I had to make all the sauces and—and it—either I had to make a étouffée or I had to make gumbo or the Uggie; in other words, I had—I started out real early in the morning and—

AU: Creole and all those things, yeah.

GU: Right; Shrimp Creole or Dirty Rice or Jambalaya—I would do that all right here and Anthony would take it to the place in the morning. So I’d get up early and then Anthony would—would follow—

AU: And I would finish what she could not finish when I’d get to the place ‘cause by the time I’d get to the place in the morning which is around eight, huh normally?

GU: What? You—you left the house around—about 10 after 8—well 8:30 to be exact.

AU: Yeah; and I would finish up what she didn’t and I did—we did do a lot of the sauces over there myself early in the—you know in the morning because by 10:30 you’ve got to open up the doors, so you’re kind of rushed, you know with everything. That’s why a lot of the stuff has got to be done here; in fact, you’d get a head start—sometimes we’d do it when I’d come home late in the afternoon.

GU: And then there was like the Crawfish Balls—in other words I would put it altogether and—he would take it to Baronne Street and in other words and—and roll them and then freeze them. And another one that had the—is for the Crawfish Balls, it had a lot of Thai ingredients in it for the sauce.

Oh—oh really? what kind of ingredients?

GU: The Crawfish Balls—remember you did the—it had the chili peppers in it; in other words, the—the small Thai chili peppers and of course—and the fish sauce—that’s all Asian ingredients.

AU: Fish sauce, oyster sauce, ginger—lemon grass we used; oh my God you can go on and on and on. Rice vinegar which is my—one of my favorites to make salads; I just love rice vinegar.

So then the restaurant would open at 10:30 and would there be people coming in for lunch at 10:30?

AU: Well I’ll tell you what; for the last year plus—I guess people realized that it was coming to an end—when I’d open up the doors, we’d probably—10:30 in the morning mind you, we’d have a line outside.

Well people would wait in line for—how long do you think the longest wait ever was?

AU: Two hours—two and a half hours they’d stay out there.

GU: Or more—three, Anthony. And we’d run out of everything, you know. We started to run out of things. I mean you only—we thought we would be prepared but we started running out but even when that last customer would come in [Laughs] I’d go kiss them.

Could you describe for me the ambience of the restaurant?

AU: Hmm; well I don’t know how to put it. It’s been called a shack [Laughs]—

GU: What word do I—I don’t like?

AU: A dump?

GU: A dump—I don’t like that word ‘cause I didn’t consider it a dump. I considered it—I mean it was clean. It was an old-time place. It was family-oriented for one thing; well you didn’t have—you could be yourself. You didn’t have to put on anything and I like a place that’s down to earth and it was down to earth.

Where did you get your catfish?

AU: I get that from the Des Allemandes, Louisiana.

And the oysters you got from where?

AU: I got that from P&J all those years.

Uh-hm; what about shrimp? Did you get it from the shrimpers or—?

AU: I would buy that—my main source was a guy named Bobby and he’d go to the—the docks—the different docks. He had all the connections with the boats and he had direct contact with them—when the boat was coming in and how much shrimp they had, what size, and I bought from him for oh—for a lot of years, but this guy was just incredible. I mean he had access to a lot of boats and I’d buy from him almost on a daily basis. I was one of his better customers, I know. He was the guy that picked it off the boat directly because I mean you just can't—you’ve got to have—you’ve got to know when it’s going to come in, what they’ve got; he had all that down to a science and then he’d call me and he’d call all the other people he’d sell to in the city and you know take it from there. He—I know I—I bought a lot of shrimp from him, and now we don’t know what happened to him. Ever since the storm, I think—I think he’s been lost, yeah—can't find—everybody I’ve checked has said the same thing. They think he died.

GU: He was from St. Bernard.

The whole shrimping industry took a big hit [after Hurricane Katrina].

AU: Boy it took a big hit. If I was to go back that would be the one problem I would have. I still have contacts with everybody else but the shrimp—the shrimpers I don’t. You know I—I don’t know if I could find a reliable source right now. I mean they have taken a beating. There’s a lot of people doing it on the side, you know part-time you know something like that but boy did they take a beating. That’s a problem.

So do you—you said that a couple times if you were to go back—is that something y’all think about?

AU: Like it’s not going to happen but you never know. I might be back in some form or another; I don’t say that it would be the restaurant business—maybe the packaged products, and then again I—I don’t know. I mean someone is always asking me about doing something with them and I keep telling them I would never want to go back and have to do what we once did. It’s just too hard and I’m 67 now; there’s just no way I could do it. It’s just too hard for someone my age. Will I—will I ever do something again? I don’t know; I really don’t know. If—if I had someone to do all the dirty work [Laughs]—yeah, maybe.

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To download the entire transcript in PDF form, please click here.

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