Germaine Cazenave (1902-1983)

Germaine Cazenave was born February 8, 1902, in New Orleans, LA, to Arnaud Leon Cazenave and Irma Lamothe.

Germaine married Barkley Wells and they had a daughter, Arnaud Cazenave ().

From the Arnaud's website:
Only New Orleans could produce a Germaine Cazenave Wells. She was lusty, dramatic, loud and headstrong. Her taste and capacity for alcohol, celebration and men were extreme, even by the standards of today. She worshiped her father; the pair were certainly kindred spirits. Everywhere she went, newspaper stories followed, always including accolades for Arnaud's. In New Orleans, a city full of characters, she achieved one-name status. During the Fifties and Sixties (and still, among people of a certain age), if you referred to "Germaine," everyone knew who you were talking about. She took to the mock-royal rituals of Mardi Gras like a fish to water. She ruled over 22 Carnival balls, an over achievement unlikely to be equaled. She instituted a parade of her own on Easter Sunday to show off her latest hats, with her friends following in horse-drawn buggies. That pageant continued after Germaine's death and persists to this day.

Germaine passed away in New Orleans on December 14, 1983, at the age of 81.

Arnaud's Restaurant

The talk you overhear in New Orleans restaurants is usually about restaurants. It tends to center on the hot new place of the moment, and whether one will be able to try it while it's still hot - or at least before it closes. Less often, you hear New Orleanians conversing about a restaurant that's been around a few years. If the talk is good, pay close attention. Because not many older restaurants manage to hold the interest of the dining public. It has to be not merely delicious and hospitable, but somehow timeless. In 1918, a colorful French wine salesman named Arnaud Cazenave opened the grand restaurant that bears his name. Count Arnaud (as he came to be called, without any bona fide claim to the title) practiced a brilliant new approach to the serving of food and drink. He became so influential in his business that it can be said that the entire New Orleans restaurant community reflects, to one degree or another, his ideas. And the style he set inspires everything we do to this day at Arnaud's.

Arnaud believed, quite simply, that the pursuit of the pleasures of the table is as worthy as anything else one does in life.For him, a meal that was only a meal was a shamefully wasted opportunity for enhancing one's life. This concept played very well to celebration - minded New Orleans, which took Count Arnaud to its heart instantly.

Located at 813 Bienville St, Arnaud's was the undisputed leading restaurant of New Orleans in the Thirties and Forties. Arnaud's was where one went for any occasion that demanded celebration. It was the prime rendezvous for businessmen from Canal Street, who occupied their regular tables with conversations of great pith and moment over Arnaud's special lunches. The menu created by the Count was vast. Listing (for example) nine oyster appetizers, 51 seafood entrees, and 40 vegetables (among them potatoes prepared 16 ways), it defined French-Creole cuisine for decades. This menu was not just for showing off; the Count chose it to appeal to the entire range of eaters, from the gourmet to the casual diner.

Arnaud's was a very profitable restaurant, and the Count channeled much of its fortune into expansion. He bought up one adjoining property after another until Arnaud's 13 buildings (some of which had previously housed reputed opium dens and houses of prostitution) covered most of the block. He constructed an enormous, well-equipped kitchen - still the largest of any free-standing New Orleans restaurant. He built subsidiary dining rooms throughout the complex, ranging in size from the grand second-floor ballroom with its parquet dance floor to small chambers suitable for sub-rosa assignations. The buzzers used to summon a waiter to the locked rooms are kept in working order. Guests took full advantage of the serpentine network of passageways through the various buildings as a means of maintaining absolute discretion.

Arnaud's was still in its prime after World War II, when New Orleans became one of the great travel destinations of the Western world. With Europe destroyed and most American cities starkly boring, the excitement and unique culture of the French Quarter drew the most interesting and sophisticated possible travelers. Dinner at Arnaud's was de rigeur.

Just before Count Arnaud died, he let it be known that his successor was not to be the sheltered Lady Irma, but his anything-but-sheltered daughter Germaine. But the Count - and all other observers - doubted her ability to run a restaurant as large and complicated as Arnaud's. But, fueled by a passionate imperative to maintain the reputation of her father's masterpiece, she learned the business inside and out. And, even though her management style was somewhat Byzantine, she ran the restaurant with a strong hand for many years. Germaine had a way of attracting attention, and she adored the spotlight. She defined the restaurant business as theater. "It's a play in two acts," she said, "lunch and dinner."

The choice of Archie Casbarian as the man to keep Arnaud's alive turned on a set of odd coincidences that appealed to Germaine's sense of drama. Archie Casbarian had the same initials as her father.Both men loved good cigars, handsome clothes, fine wines, Cognac and telling an amusing story. Both were born overseas, and both spoke French fluently. They were about the same height. In fact, Germaine thought that Archie looked a lot like her father. As immaterial as those rationales were, they resulted in a decision that could hardly have been better for the future of Arnaud's. In December 1978, Germaine agreed to lease the property and name of Arnaud's Restaurant to Casbarian. On February 28, 1979, the renovated dining room reopened and a long renaissance of Arnaud's began.

Arnaud Leon Cazenave (1876-1948)

"Americans are prone to forget, in the ultra-rapidity and super-activity of modern life, trying to crowd eighty seconds of toil into a minute's time, that eating should be a pleasure, not a task to get over with in a hurry. A dinner chosen according to one's needs, tastes, and moods, well prepared and well served, is a joy to all senses and an impelling incentive to sound sleep, good health, and long life. Therefore, at least once a day, preferably in the quiet cool of the evening, one should throw all care to the winds, relax completely, and dine leisurely and well."

Born in Bosdarros, France on June 27, 1876, Arnaud Leon Cazenave was the first son born to Daniel C. Cazenave and Leontine Marie Lamothe. He grew up in France and immigrated to the United States in 1892 at the age of 16, settling in New Orleans, LA. According to his WWI draft registration card, Arnaud was tall with a medium build, black hair and brown eyes.

Arnaud married Irma Lamothe on April 25, 1901, in New Orleans. They had a daughter, Germaine (1902).

Arnaud worked as a waiter in various restaurants around New Orleans before opening his own restaurant, Arnauds, in ? with his brother Julian. It was Arnaud's misfortune to have opened a restaurant the year before the Volstead Act went through. Arnaud, like most Orleanians, believed that wine and spirits are natural companions of good food and good living. The fact that they were illegal seemed a detail. Nevertheless, the law finally caught up with the Count. He was imprisoned and the restaurant padlocked for a time. Ultimately, he won the jury over with a convincing explanation of his philosophy. He was acquitted in time for the end of Prohibition.

Arnaud died on May 29, 1948, just two months shy of his seventy-second birthday. He continues to look down on his main dining room in Arnaud's from a large oil painting mounted there. It is flanked by portraits of his wife Irma and her sister, Marie Lamothe. Rumor has it that the Count never could make up his mind between the two sisters.

Daniel C. Cazenave (-) and Leontine Marie Lamothe (-)

Daniel C. Cazenave was born in France.
Leontine Marie Lamothe was born in France.
Daniel and Marie were married and had three sons: Adolph, Arnaud Leon (1876), and Julian Leon (1884).