The culture of New Orleans drew Harbold to the city from his home in Wilmington, Delaware, in 1997. He claims that it's "the only city that has ever loved him back," and the cuisine was an added pleasure. "The food was an eye-opener. I didn't know anybody here, so what do you do? You walk down Bourbon Street and you go into all the tourist places. The waitress brings you something, and you say, 'What is this!?! It was amazing'; it's the most incredible thing you've ever tasted," says Harbold excitedly.
Harbold began making friends through the music scene and noticed that they often led him into the food scene. "This is such a restaurant community that when you start playing music, you meet a lot of restaurateurs and cooks, and chefs that are also musicians and fans. You start going to where they work and it's an immediate culinary overload. You can't swing a broken guitar around this town without hitting a musician? Well, you can't swing a greasy spoon around without hitting a chef," offers Harbold.
One such chef that Harbold knows through food and music is Paul Artigues of Green Goddess, located in Exchange Alley. "I've known Artigues longer than I've known him to be a cook. A girl
I was playing music with, Kitty Lynn, was working there and kept telling me to come in. I've had a lot of meatloaf, but nothing like this. This was meatloaf that makes your mouth thank you forever. That's the funny thing with the Green Goddess, is that the owner, chef…THE guy is also a musician. He plays drums with Guitar Lightnin' Lee, and he is the drummer in Die Rotzz," says Harbold.
Paul Artigues is equally a restaurateur and musician, but he began learning one discipline before the other. "I started playing music before I ever started cooking. I started cooking in the kitchen when I was about eighteen, but I started playing drums when I was about thirteen," explains Artigues. Cooking, however, became his first profession. "I started cooking at Rivershack Tavern. My friends in the punk band The Penetrations were cooking over there and got me a job. Within a year, my friends were running the kitchen and in charge. Early on, it let me know that anyone can do this work. We were a bunch of stupid little kids that could run a kitchen. If I can own a restaurant, anybody can do it. It's easy," states Artigues.
Eventually, Artigues and his former partner and chef Chris DeBarr opened a small French Quarter eatery in Exchange Alley. "DeBarr and I were both looking for something to do on our own; we had like minds and put our heads together and did this. We're trying to appeal to people who enjoy food. If you've got a predicament that dictates your diet, we'll try to accommodate that. All sorts of people like to eat all sorts of different things, and we just try to be accepting for all that," says Artigues.
Paul Artigues' accepting attitude transpired into his musical career, as he plays in multiple punk bands, including The Sluts ( singer Dave Turgeon is also the seafood provider of Green Goddess), as well as playing with bluesman Guitar Lightnin' Lee. "I've been playing with him since I was about eighteen years old, about as long as I've been cooking, and I've played with him longer than anyone. He's just so much fun to hang out with. He's an older gentleman, and it's really weird having somebody twice your age as a best friend. That guy puts me to shame; he has more fun than I do. He has no problem trying to fit in anywhere; he thinks everybody loves him and everybody is there to see him," says Artigues. People do love Guitar Lightnin' Lee; he was recently visited by former Led Zeppelin singer Robert Plant for an impromptu jam at B.J.'s Lounge
