Mike Mosko Urban Anthropology Field Study: Sidney’s Saloon Neighborhoods are changing -- fast -- often moving at a rate to quick to keep pace with. Everyday we walk down streets we’ve traversed thousands of times -- or will-- and everyday they get a little bit different, a collection of faces passing us by, old and new. I am one of those new faces, a recent New Orleans transplant. While I can 't speak to the impact of changes this city and its residents have gone through, being from heavily gentrified Oakland, CA, I can certainly relate to the twisted mess of pride, politics, and pain that comes with the feeling of being a newcomer in your own city. If there’s one thing I do know about this city though, it’s that New Orleans is a city for drinkers. Every Styrofoam to-go cup, every sunrise watched in the Quarter, every brass …show more content…
“I’m gonna grab a drink, I’ll be back,” I said, passing the spliff I had just been handed to a hipster-looking guy with a beard and glasses standing next to me. The bar now known as Sidney 's Saloon has changed a lot in the last few years, going through a complete renovation following Hurricane Katrina. First opened in the 1940’s by the one and only Sidney, the bar was at some point bought up, existing as Markey’s, a dive popular with older bachelors up until after Katrina, when the damaged property was bought and fixed up by the legendary New Orleans horn-blower, Kermit Ruffins, who had frequented the bar as a kid. In early 2014, by way of some sketchy business practices that I’m unclear of at the moment, Ruffins found himself forced to sell the bar. Soon, Sidney 's found itself without an owner yet again, when Ruffin’s successor died suddenly. That’s when the current owners, Robert Clark and Tara Weberg entered the picture. The two of them had been looking for their own place, Tara told me, but when they saw the opportunity to invest in Sidney’s they went for it. Careful to maintain the bars authenticity, they reopened the bar this last