Mary Staes
Mary Staes is Digital Content Lead for Very Local. She works with our freelancers and crafts content for our social media platforms and website. Before Very Local, she worked with CBS affiliate WWL-TV as a web producer and weekend assignment editor for about 4 years. She has also handled broadcast coverage for 160 Marine Reserve training facilities while she served as an active duty Marine. As a native New Orleanian, she takes being "very local" to heart. She loves being intertwined with the culture and figuring out how there are less than two degrees of separation between us all, whether we're natives or not.
Chef Scott’s Creole BBQ: meet the man behind one of the most popular street foods in NOLA
Twenty-five years ago, Scott’s first job in the kitchen wasn’t even behind a grill. It was being a dishwasher at a Shoney’s restaurant on St. Charles Avenue.
Weekend Picks: Friday the 13th kicks off spooky season early
Of course there’s a haunted house open on Friday the 13th, and the Mortuary is getting a head start on spooky season. Friday is their opening day, with three more dates in September for you to get your scares in early.
🤔 Got an inkling for something fresh?
When it comes to creativity, New Orleans is overly familiar with the right-brained out-of-the-box thinkers who bring that extra pizazz to the city.
Weekend Picks: Tattoo Arts Convention, Lizzo, Lil WeezyAnna Fest
New Orleans is having its annual tattoo convention, and big names like Lizzo, Ari Lennox, Travis Scott and Megan Thee Stallion are coming to town.
🕯️The changes we’ve seen after 14 years
August 29 is a day etched into the memory of every New Orleanian: today marks the 14th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.
Weekend Picks: Southern Decadence, LCM at City Park, Curve The Runway
It’s a weekend of celebrations: LGBTQ pride, curves in fashion and the Little League World Series champs!
We tried the Popeyes Chicken Sandwich: yes, location matters
We’ve been talking about it for months, and now the rest of the nation is catching up: the Popeyes Chicken Sandwich IS delicious.
#CatchbasinCar: Crews pull vehicle from Lafitte Canal
Move along, nothing to see here: Thursday Sewerage & Water Board crews pulled a Mazda 626 from the depths of the Lafitte Canal.
🐂Run to save your buns in Nueva Orleans
Around here we don’t eat to live, we live to eat, and this time it’s no different.
Weekend Picks: No Limit yoga, Running of the Bulls, Midsummer Mardi Gras
Running from roller derby girls in the heat with a beer in hand? Yes, please.