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Meet You at the Station
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Bartender Hillary Michiels draws a cold draft beer for a thirsty customer at Carrollton Station.
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Carrollton Station (8140 Willow St., 865-9190) has become the kind of place where friends gather regularly to have a beer, shoot pool, throw darts, listen to music on weekends or just lounge with a cold one on the back patio. It now can also satisfy its customers’ hunger with a newly opened kitchen that serves the usual bar fare as well as lunch specials, a full menu of salads and more. Best of all, it’s open whenever the bar is.
“The grill stays open until the front door is locked,” says owner Eric Orlando, who says the kitchen is open for lunch and food is served into the very late-night hours seven days a week. It’s a good addition to a bar accustomed to hosting regulars and others who flock to happy hours to get about $1 off all drinks from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m. every day. Still others time their visits to the live music shows that feature local talent Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights.
“A lot of people have been coming here for years, and we’re adding new [regulars] every day,” Orlando says. “We have a strong afternoon happy-hour crowd, and we’re one of only two places in town that serves draft out of the 19.8-ounce Imperial pints.” Mostly customers choose from among the 55 beers available, but Carrollton Station also has multiple brands of single-malt scotches, 25 brands of vodka and is well stocked with other liquor. There are nightly drink specials from 8 p.m. to midnight and a double well-brand special after midnight.
In addition to two or three nights a week of live music, mostly local bands that perform acoustic roots and rock, the bar has eight televisions and direct TV for college and professional ball games, darts, pool, video games and more.
“We’re not a live music club with a bar,” says Orlando, who took over Carrollton Station two years ago. “We’re a bar that happens to have live music. We are definitely a neighborhood bar. We have people who come here that have been coming here since 1980.
“One of the things that makes this place great is we have a really great staff. They make it go; I just steer the ship. They really like the place and people like coming here because they’re good at what they do.”
A Place of Beauty
Helping people to look and feel more attractive is a talent customers of beauty salons seek and one that three partners offer in a laidback, comfortable setting at the new Salon Callidora (4033 Veterans Memorial Blvd., Suite C, Metairie, 456-1099).
Partners Rebecca Callaghan, Kristy Fruits and Maria Mendoza had worked together at another local hair salon for more than a dozen years before they decided to establish their own business. They opened Salon Callidora, which is Greek for “the gift of beauty,” about four months ago and offer hair coloring, cutting and styling services as well as makeup applications and some choice beauty products.
“We want to provide a one-on-one customer experience, where it’s more relaxed,” says Callaghan. “We want to let people come and feel at home.” Because of the salon staff’s expertise and pleasant attitude, many of their previous customers followed staff members to Salon Callidora and have recommended the salon to friends.
“We’ve gotten a lot of new customers by word of mouth,” Callaghan says. “But since we all worked together for so long, we all had our clientele, and when we made the move they came along with us.” To make sure customers receive the treatment they deserve, the salon operates on an appointment-only basis but accommodates requests for service quickly.
Currently, the salon has eight styling chairs and seven staff members to provide services to customers. In the back of the shop is a room where Mendoza and stylist Sharae Armand apply makeup and style hair for weddings, proms and other special occasions. They use the Sebastian Trucco line of makeup in the applications, and some of the line is available for sale.
In addition to hair and makeup, the salon also offers facial waxing and plans soon to add manicures and pedicures to the menu. It also stocks select lines of hair-care products including Redken; Shinbi, a Japanese line that comes along with thermal hair straightening; Linq, an organic and simple-to-use line that includes shampoo, conditioner and styling products; and Purology, an organic product formulated specifically to protect hair after it’s been colored.
“We choose to use the best products to maintain the integrity of the hair once you’ve colored it and lightened it,” Callaghan says. “It’s really important to maintain the integrity so it won’t get dry and fly away.”\
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