A French Quarter Morning Call Was Never in the Works

Remember those fantastic rumors about a glittering glass coffee cube that Morning Call was going to open in the French Quarter? Well, it turns out that no such coffee beacon was ever really in the works.

The Times-Pic caught up with Morning call co-owner Mike Hennessy, who said that he was just as surprised as anyone to read that there would soon be a French Quarter manifestation of Morning Call. He told Richard Webster that the supposed plans for a two-story structure at the intersection of Conti, Decatur, and North Peters streets with a roof terrace and seating for 300 customers sounded "amazing." Even more amazing? The Vieux Carre Commission gave the project "conceptual approval" on April 16. The only problem is that it was just a sweet, sweet fantasy.

Or a particularly shady deal gone awry. Hennessy says that people linked Morning Call to the glass cube plans because, apparently, "Someone was under the impression that we had a deal with [Jim St. Raymond], which we didn't." St. Raymond, as some readers may know, is a political consultant and former state rep. who is most recently famous for a 2010 bankruptcy filing after his $350 million Jefferson Highway condominium plan fell to pieces (several tenants later sued St. Raymond for failure to return their security deposits). As Hennessy tells it, St. Raymond came calling about a Morning Call franchise, but, after some cursory research, Hennessy says that he and his brother Bob decided not to do business with him.

That apparently didn't stop St. Raymond from telling the Vieux Carre Commission that he had a deal ironed out with Morning Call, which, says Hennessy, he most certainly did not.

· French Quarter Morning Call plan dead [Times-Pic]
· Vieux Carre Panel Backs Morning Call Proposal [The Advocate]
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