Cabrini Schnyder heads up NOLA’s "A Taste of New Orleans," a new supper club that offers down-home jazz music, Creole cooking, and Sunday brunch with live bands. It’s the latest eatery at Ha’s Corner in the Los Angeles Downtown Arts District.

Well-known as an entrepreneur, downtown resident and tireless promoter, Cabrini dug deep into her New Orleans family roots to create NOLA’s "A Taste of New Orleans." The authentic Creole cuisine is accompanied by some of the best local jazz musicians.

The spacious, organic, historic site is cool and airy with open high ceilings and a covered back patio. It has a stage (built with support from SCI-Arc down the street) and a baby grand piano.

Nawlins-style buffet brunches with free-flowing champagne on Sunday -- a great way to start the week. Traditional “Red Beans and Rice Mondays” and “Catfish Fridays” follow. Classic favorites include jambalaya, gumbo, fish, fried chicken, shrimp and crawfish etoufee, muffelettas, and po’boy sandwiches, and beignets.

A long-time chef, Cabrini gently infuses the best of local ingredients into the dishes at NOLA’s, just as Louisiana Creole cuisine gradually blended the best of French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Greek, Asian Indian, Native American and African influences. Edrick Ocampo heads up the kitchen under her direction.

Refined Creole cuisine bows to the Holy Trinity of onions, bell peppers, and celery while the more rustic Cajun was brought from the Acadian countryside. Both use rice and beans influenced by Spanish, Portuguese, and Canarian cuisines with peppers and citrus marinades.

Cabrini grew up in the best that New Orleans had to offer in nightclubs, developed by her father, Milton, unusually located in the Seventh Ward. Her mother was born in New Iberia, home of Tabasco.

It feels right that New Orleans boasts of having the first nightclub in the United States – The Cave. Cabrini’s childhood backyard “A Touch of Class” in fact, was a restaurant and nightclub complex created by her self-made millionaire father, Milton. The four-story venue grew to include a bar, lounge, cigar room and whisky tasting area. Outside was a spa sheltered by netting and with a pool flanked by an oyster bar, saunas, and workout area. The Schnyder family dreams and big achieves great things.

NOLA’s Taste of New Orleans is a culmination of Cabrini’s childhood memories and the expertise she developed in Los Angeles. Westsiders know her from Cabrini’s Alley (formally located at La Brea & Third) where she packed a wallop with food and entertainment. Downtown residents know Cabrini, along with with co-owner Karen Martin, as a result of their previous venture, The Lofty Dog Academy, the original downtown Los Angeles, award- winning daycare and grooming service with Cabrini’s own spin of Friday afternoon “yappy hours” with live music and drinks for pet owners (the building in which it was housed was sold).

Always the community booster and “take-charge” happy lady, Cabrini is an advocate for dog park areas and created the Rebuild Historical New Orleans Fund to get victims of Hurricane Katrina back on their feet when she was the owner of Cabrini’s Jazz Alley mid-city.

Cabrini's latest venture, is a strategic collaboration with high-energy third generation restaurateur Jason Ha of Ha’s Corner in the Arts District, home of Zip Fusion Sushi and K-Town BBQ in addition to NOLA’s "A Taste of New Orleans."

Growing up in the famous historic southern seaside town of Chungmoo, South Korea, Jason’s parents introduced him and four sisters to a variety of seafood and fish. His mother taught him the importance of how healthy food tastes and how it is presented, especially the culinary riches from their Korean peninsula home. As an owner of nine family-owned restaurants, Jason’s father gave him first hand experience with international cuisine.

Arriving in the United States at the age of 18, knowing no English, Ha completed a college degree and his entrepreneurial spirit took him first to the import-export industry, then to the world of high fashion. Eventually his love of food brought him back into the restaurant business. In 2002, Jason opened the first Zip Fusion Restaurant in the downtown Arts District. Then by popular demand, he opened four more locations with partners in Southern California.

Ha’s vision and focus as an innovative menu designer has earned him critical acclaim. The downtown Los Angeles community honored Jason as a "Mover and Shaker" in 2004, acknowledging his capability to "take a dark spot in downtown and make it bright."

Cabrini and Jason are a dynamic duo who look forward to a successful enterprise.