BRINGING ENTERTAINING TO LIFE WITH CHARM, FLAIR 

John Cariere juggled mail while unlocking the door on the threshold of his wide old porch at Fairfield Place Bed & Breakfast and said, “It smells like New Orleans in here to me, smell it? Like an old house?” And it does, but not an old, musty house that’s been closed up for years. It smells like a wonderful old house where someone lives and cooks and welcomes friends for dinners and intimate gettogethers.

“We’re stuffing artichokes,” he said, disappearing into a back room for a moment.

The public spaces in Fairfield Place are small and tall, cozy enough but filled to the brim with wonderful old paintings, statues and porcelains. The mantel in the front parlor sits below a large portrait painting of Cariere as Mardi Gras King, flanked by glazed teal Chinese Foo dogs and 1840s altar vases from the St. Alphonsus Rectory in New Orleans. An adjoining room features fabulous antique barn doors and blue tiles surrounding another small fireplace.

How much is too much? “I don’t know,” he wailed, laughing as he disappeared through another doorway. “More is never enough!” Photos of family and friends mix with contemporary eclectic art from New Orleans. Silver trays and cake stands are piled high with nibbles for guests to grab as they linger for coffee or head out the door.

Cariere is a veteran in the Shreveport local food scene. He was doing farm to table long before it was in vogue, turning the freshest ingredients into mouthwatering dishes that gathered repeat customers with every venue he touched, such as Monjuni’s and Bella Fresca.

“It all goes back to my Italian- Armenian background,” he said. “Growing up, when we had meals at the house or when we entertained, it was like catering then. There was always this huge volume of food to prepare. When it was pizza pie night on Saturday night or Sunday night, my mother would make 20 pizzas with homemade dough, homemade sauce and cheeses.”

That background in part led to Cariere morphing into the bed and breakfast/event catering industry. “The world comes to my door at Fairfield Place,” he said. “I’ve been in the bed and breakfast business for about eight years. I had a little bit of hotel background from when I was in Bellaire, Calif., as an assistant manager at a hotel in Los Angeles.”

“I also worked on a couple of projects here at St. John's with Fr. Peter, and with Fr. Leo, the Cooking Priest with Grace Before Meals,” he said. “It’s about bringing families together at the table. I’ve noticed in my catering business that nobody has time to cook their own meals. I’m getting more and more calls for simple dinners – not necessarily a fancy feast. People want comfort foods. With the B&B, they’re coming home, so we try to make them feel at home.”

Across the street at Fairfield Manor, Julie Martin, weddings and events coordinator manager, was busy setting up for a dinner with the cast of the film “Cut to the Chase.” As she worked on transforming the dining room into a greenery-filled garden with butterflies and birds, she talked about the event side of things.

“We can do anything, from dinner parties to luncheons and brunches. Our weddings are very special, though. What we’re trying to do here is really create a classic southern wedding environment, something stress-free for my brides where they can have this amazing experience and they don’t have to jump through hoops.”

The setting at Fairfield Manor delivers on that promise. “It’s a real Irish cottage built around 1909,” Cariere said. “The plans came from Ireland. It took us about a year to remodel.”

The property includes a “Secret Garden,” accessible through a tall, thick hedge that reveals a small outdoor room filled with hostas, ferns and ivy. A stone labyrinth path in the center is surrounded by seating and statues of saints that Cariere found in New Orleans. The house itself has an Old World vibe that may be Irish but could pass for French or Italian with its stone cherub panels added to the exterior and its formal landscaping.

Inside, the rooms are well-decorated but comfortable with every modern amenity. “Every bedroom has a bathroom,” Martin said. “And John’s been gathering antiques all over New Orleans and Dallas. He’s got an idea of what he wants, and he’s able to put things together that nobody else can.”

The menu for the “Cut to the Chase” dinner, which is typical of where Cariere is now with his culinary art, is as exciting as the gathering spaces. “I think that what we’re doing is a combination of new and old school,” Cariere said. “Home-cooked ethnic and Italian foods with other things kind of blended. We might have a Greek salad and an Italian pasta dish or some type of appetizer that is a miniature version of some really old staple. We’re doing some miniature Cuban paninis and a little tenderloin meat pie. One of the courses is a stuffed artichoke with parmigianoreggiano and olive oil, and we’re going to bake it. We’re also serving one of our specialties, jambalaya.”

“We’re all creative here, so we’re always brainstorming and collaborating with our clients,” he said. “They throw us this idea and say this is our party theme, and we run with it. We call it lagniappe when you give them a little more than they expect.”

Fairfield Bed & Breakfast is located at 2221 Fairfield, and Fairfield Manor is located at 2300 Fairfield in Shreveport. For more information, visit the Web site at www.thefairfieldplace.com or www. fairfieldmanorbedandbreakfast.com, or contact Martin at 848-7776.