Bucktown Icon Sid-Mar's Still At War With State Over Katrina Compensation

Former owners of long lost Bucktown icon Sid Mar's, which washed away in Katrina, are still fighting for compensation ten years after having their property seized by the Army Corps of Engineers. The property was commandeered in the wake of the storm (along with eight neighboring properties for a giant pumping system to be installed), and according to Diana Samuels, the state basically told the Burgess family they weren't entitled to any compensation due to some rather shady-sounding "peculiar circumstances":

During the 1800s, the area that was to become the Bucktown peninsula had been underwater. It was later reclaimed, and state officials argued that the Louisiana Constitution says the state owns waterbottoms, even those now above-ground and home to a seafood restaurant.

The Burgess family filed a lawsuit against the state in 2006. Today a  $2.7 million lawsuit is still "hanging in the balance," but will likely be decided upon this year. According to the article, the Burgess family purchased the property from a previous owner in 1991 and had been paying property taxes on it, but the beloved restaurant itself was founded in 1967 by Sidney and Marion Burgess.

Another Sid-Mar's location opened in 2010 in Metairie, but shuttered in 2012 due to financial troubles and a location that wasn't waterfront. Kent Burgess also helped open the West End eatery Blue Crab. His mother, Marion Burgess, passed away in 2013, and wasn't able to see any closure concerning her family's seafood restaurant. [NOLA.com]