Oysters

Here's another dead person. The kid, son-in-law, & I ate at his restaurant a few times. It was small, you had to walk through the kitchen to get to the bathrooms, but the food was good & the beer was cold. Standing at the bar, eating oysters with great hot sauce, & being talked into another beer & another will stay with me for a long time.

Joseph Casamento, 80
He was born at 4330 Magazine St., and one could make the argument that only Hurricane Katrina prevented Joseph Casamento from dying at the family restaurant at which he had been a fixture since he was a kid. Instead, Casamento died in a Mississippi motel room where he had evacuated for the storm. For years, Casamento knew only one job, one residence and one place to eat, so dedicated was he to the humble diner known for its tiled floors and oysters -- both of which he tended with care. Said one blogger online: "It killed Joe Casamento to leave the city. Tom Benson acts like it would kill him to stay."