{"product_id":"the-gorilla-man-and-the-randy-fertel-9781496804136","title":"The Gorilla Man and the Empress of Steak: A New Orleans Family Memoir","description":"\u003ci\u003eThe Gorilla Man and the Empress of Steak\u003c\/i\u003e is the story of two larger-than-life characters and the son whom their lives helped to shape. Ruth Fertel was a petite, smart, tough-as-nails blonde with a weakness for rogues, who founded the Ruth's Chris Steak House empire almost by accident. Rodney Fertel was a gold-plated, one-of-a-kind personality, a railbird-heir to wealth from a pawnshop of dubious repute just around the corner from where the teenage Louis Armstrong and his trumpet were discovered. When Fertel ran for mayor of New Orleans on a single campaign promise-buying a pair of gorillas for the zoo-he garnered a paltry 308 votes. Then he purchased the gorillas anyway! \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e These colorful figures yoked together two worlds not often connected-lazy rice farms in the bayous and swinging urban streets where ethnicities jazzily collided. A trip downriver to the hamlet of Happy Jack focuses on its French-Alsatian roots, bountiful tables, and self-reliant lifestyle that inspired a restaurant legend. The story also offers a close-up of life in the Old Jewish Quarter on Rampart Street-and how it intersected with the denizens of \"Back a' Town,\" just a few blocks away, who brought jazz from New Orleans to the world. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003ci\u003eThe Gorilla Man and the Empress of Steak\u003c\/i\u003e is a New Orleans story, featuring the distinctive characters, color, food, and history of that city-before Hurricane Katrina and after. But it also is the universal story of family and the full magnitude of outsize follies leavened with equal measures of humor, rage, and rue.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Randy Fertel\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 1496804139\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781496804136\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e University Press of Mississippi\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 02\/25\/2015\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 306\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.90lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.60h x 5.50w x 0.90d","brand":"Randy Fertel","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":43936381010175,"sku":"9781496804136","price":25.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/products\/img_11d6023f-9a59-4691-91d9-8040c4dec3bb.jpg?v=1681425221","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/the-gorilla-man-and-the-randy-fertel-9781496804136","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}