You can’t judge a book by its cover. There’s no way you could look at a bunch of random people sitting around a table at Wayfare in New Orleans and guess what you’re about to find out about them.

A lot of people know Constantine Georges in New Orleans. He was a U.S. Attorney, which in itself  is a pretty big deal. When he quit that he made what you’d have to describe as a sideways step into the hospitality industry, founding the gourmet hot dog empire, Dat Dog. What you may not know about Constantine is that he has an olive tree that is 500 years old among an olive grove in Kalamata Greece, from which he makes some of the most delicious olive oil you’ve ever tasted.

Oh, and another thing. You wouldn’t know to look at Constantine that he has a phobia about being eaten by a shark.

You probably wouldn’t guess that New Orleans singer Leslie Blackshear Smith is the mother of one of America’s greatest Jewish rugby players. Leslie’s son plays on an all Jewish US representative rugby team that may or not be called the All Stars of David. Another thing you probably wouldn’t guess about Leslie is that she knows the secret for keeping a relationship together. And she has the numerically referenced ex-husbands to prove it.

Lea Woolf’s secret inner life has got to do with the ability to exercise enormous patience in the face of behavior that would have most of us reaching for a baseball bat to rearrange the face of the person and his 29 friends who are trying to ruin our evening. Lea is the events manager and sales director at New Orleans adult arcade bar, Barcadia. 

That’s actually the tip of the iceberg of secrets you’re about to learn from this conversation. One of these people, for example, is banned for life from the campus of Tulane University. Another doesn’t believe in love. This Happy Hour is a wild ride.

Photos by Alison Moon.