Chef Gary Netter Bringing Wholistic Culinary Market to Central City

A “food desert” refers to a place where residents have little or no access to nutritious food.

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Chef Gary Netter wants to bring fresh produce, and affordable healthy dishes to an area in New Orleans’ Central City neighborhood which is considered a food desert.

Netter wants to change that, and he wants to do more.

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“This is my neighborhood and people here need affordable fresh food and produce,” says Netter, who owns Next to Eat and is a Culinary Ambassador for New Orleans. But it also can be a gathering spot where we can come together to share food, talk and hear music. This is really about the community, and it’s happening in a place that’s gone too long without.”

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A visionary entrepreneur, Netter will be unveiling his latest creation, Next To Eat Wholistic Culinary Market, this coming Thursday, July 18. The market’s hours for the first week will be 11am to 4 pm and closed that Sunday, July 20. The following week begins their regular hours: 10 am - 6pm, Monday-Saturday. 

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The market is housed at 2132 Simon Bolivar Ave (corner of Simon Bolivar and Jackson Ave) and has been vacant for many years. Prior to Hurricane Katrina and the levee failures, it was the New Orleans Masjid Food Co-op with the famous Jumbo Peanut Company next door.

“The fact that this building was home to a food co-op before Katrina should give you an idea how long this neighborhood has been a food desert,” Netter says. 

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The new market features three areas: 

• Fresh produce and other groceries
• A coffee, smoothies and juice bar, and
• A food service section. 

The common thread that runs through all three is a dedication to fresh whole foods that provide numerous benefits to the body, fight chronic disease and, as described on a sign inside the market, are considered “Food and Nutrition Therapy.” Unlike so many little convenient shops in the neighborhood, nothing will be fried or highly processed.

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There will be, however, plenty of delicious hot offerings. Diners will encounter a food service line that includes a seafood bar with boiled and steamed cuisine, a Latino food bar, poke bowls, sushi, and soups from Soup Garden, which is now under the Next to Eat umbrella. 

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It can be said that sharing a meal brings a community together and music helps keep it there, especially in New Orleans. Netter, who is also an accomplished musician and a New Orleans Center for Creative Arts graduate, recognizes this food/community/music connection and that’s why in addition to the food sections, there is a stage for live entertainment. 

“We’ll have a house band, The Caesar Brothers’ Funk Box, and I plan on inviting some of my NOCCA alumni to play,” Netter says. And more music from deejays and various other types of live music. The community should have high expectations for this market, because it’s really about them. We will have gatherings like “Stop the Violence” and other opportunities for our voices to be heard and for us to listen. Plus, we know many people can’t evacuate when there’s a storm, so we’ll also be a disaster relief station, providing food and water to those in need.”

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This is a pretty ambitious vision, and Netter is aware of that. But as he points out, this isn’t necessarily something new; it’s that he’s putting a healthier spin on an old reliable concept. 

“Look when you build something like this, which is really in the heart of the neighborhood, there has to be food and music, or people aren’t going to come,” Netter says. “So in a way, it’s like an old corner grocery, music hall and restaurant combined into one. And we know how much joy came from those places. This community needs that and I’m going to deliver it to them.”