Bass band aficionado and co-owner of Donna’s Bar & Grill, Charlie Sims, dies

13th February 2017   ·   0 Comments

By Geraldine Wyckoff
Contributing Writer

“From his demeanor you’d swear he was straight-up from New Orleans not Chicago,” says trumpeter Leroy Jones of Charlie Sims, the beloved chef and co-owner with his wife Donna of the now defunct landmark Donna’s Bar & Grill. Sims, who the young brass band members who played at the North Rampart Street club respectfully addressed as “Mr. Charlie,” died at his home in Casselberry, Florida on Sunday, February 5, 2017. He was 81.

“When I met him he was just as warm as anyone that I know who is a native of New Orleans,” offers Jones, who, in 1994, began leading his quintet at the club on Saturday nights. “That’s how we are – we’re open arms to everyone. Charlie was always that way – white, Black, homosexual, crazy. If there was a problem, he’d straight let you know you had to go.:

Sims’ genial attitude, love of jazz and its musicians and love and talent for cooking made him the perfect man to take over the kitchen when Donna opened up her corner spot in1993. He arrived by rail as the head chef of Amtrak’s “City of New Orleans,” the company he retired from in 2000 after 23 years. Its route from Chicago to the Crescent City became a fateful one for New Orleans, its music and its culture of food and fun.

Charlie’s realm was in Donna’s small kitchen where he’d hold court with the musicians, friends, or anyone who came by while he tended to a pot of red beans or flipped some of his famous cheeseburgers. It was a place of hilarity, aromas and sometimes serious conversations.

“I was lucky enough to hang out in that kitchen with Charlie on many Mondays before I started playing a show and during the break time,” remembers trumpeter Kermit Ruffins. He, along with Charlie’s delicious free red beans and rice and chicken, helped re-institute New Orleans’ first day of the work week tradition. “You know what we’d be doin’ in the kitchen. We’d be cooking a couple of things,” Ruffins adds with a laugh.

“In his exact words, he’d say, he loved to talk plenty shit,” offers Jones. “And that’s exactly what he did. I’d hang out in the kitchen occasionally trying to steal his recipes for his barbeque that he would never give away.”

Donna’s became a stop for many musicians including Jones and fellow trumpeter Gregg Stafford, after their regular gigs. “I’d get off from Preservation Hall and go to Donna’s and end up closing the joint,” remembers Jones. Laughingly, the trumpeter recalls Sims’ words as the night grew late. “Charlie would always say, ‘You ain’t gotta go home but you got to get the hell up outta here.’”

That was typical Sims – dead serious about his meaning with a delivery that provoked a grin.

Sims, who was born in Rome, Georgia and raised in Chicago, enjoyed a diverse life. He served 13 years in the United States Navy including as a crew member of the nuclear submarine the USS Skate. Sims also attended the Culinary Institute of America where he learned the skills that enhanced the flavors onboard many an Amtrak train that led him to the stove at Donna’s Bar & Grill.

“It was love at first sight,” Donna recently proclaimed of her first meeting with Sims. The two married about a year later on October 15, 1994 at a simple ceremony in Armstrong Park. Naturally, the reception party was held just across the street at their place filled with the things they both loved best – music, food and friends.

“He was one of the nicest human beings that I’ve ever come across in life and he was always passing along a lot of knowledge,” says Troy “Trombone Shorty” Andrews. When he was about 10, the trombonist and his band of youngsters including Travis “Trumpet Black” Hill and cousin, trombonist Glen David Andrews would head to Donna’s after playing in Jackson Square.

“Charlie was the first person to give us a residency – we used to play every Sunday,” says Andrews. “It was like our first real responsibility as professional musicians to show up every week. Even though we were kids, he wasn’t really treating us like kids. He was excited that he saw something special in us. He treated us like professional musicians. We’d go to the back in the kitchen to get paid and split up the money. He was a strong, strong New Orleans music lover and he and Donna played their part in giving us a home to call “Brass Band Headquarters.”

“He was always super, super, super encouraging,” remembers Kermit Ruffins. “His famous line that he would tell the band was, ‘You mother f****ers sure sound good!’ It was the first thing he would tell us before the show, in the middle of the show at break time. He would tell us that and he would have the whole band cryin’ laughin’.

Sims and Ruffins, who shared a love for barbequing, along with Oswald “Bo Monkey” Jones started up the now infamous Tuesday evenings food and music shindigs on “the lot” in Treme at St. Philip and North Robertson streets. “Every Tuesday we’d cook for the whole neighborhood. Me and Charlie would put up all our money to get lots of food and hire a band and a deejay.”

“Donna’s was a turning point for musicians,” Ruffins exclaims. “It’s amazing what happened in that place. I would go there and have the time of my life. Those were my Charlie days that’s for sure.”

A memorial for Charlie Sims will be held on Saturday, March 4, 2017, at the Carver Theater, 2101 Orleans Avenue. Music and remembrances will begin at 11 a.m. followed by a jazz funeral procession. A repast will be held at the Mississippi River Bottom bar (MRB) at 515 St. Philip St.

This article originally published in the February 13, 2017 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.