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Thomas Mann is one of the city's great jewelers. Part of his genius is that his designs always seem to be aiming in two directions at once: playful yet elegant, antique-looking yet futuristic, industrially severe yet funky.
He defines the dichotomy as "techno romantic," and his home has many of the same Janus-like charms.
You can't miss the place. It's the site of the former Rose Tattoo bar at the corner of Napoleon Avenue and Tchoupitoulas Street, now painted sour-apple green, with pumpkin doors and white trim around the medicine-capsule-shaped windows.
A Pennsylvania native, Mann moved here in 1987, and in 1988 opened Gallery I/O, his signature jewelry and design store on Magazine Street.
He bought the old bar on Tchoupitoulas in the mid-1990s, when business was booming, with hopes of opening a coffee shop.
But it's in just the past two years that he's made the building his home, selling a high-mortgage house on Dominican Street as the economy started to decline.
"What I've lost in elevated lifestyle, I've gained in artistic inspiration," he said.
As in any home, the kitchen is the heart of Mann's living space -- miles and miles of heart. Appliances, equipment and work surfaces run the entire length of the old back bar, then the linear kitchen turns the corner and continues into the next room.
Mann, whose first business venture was a health food store and restaurant he ran with his brother decades ago, describes himself as a dedicated foodie.
For simple meals, he said, guests gather at the small round table. For more elaborate feasts -- what Mann calls "food events" -- he serves diners seated at stools along the old bar.
Mann did his research to find affordable alternatives to high-end cooking equipment. He's especially proud of his duel-fuel stove from Ikea. An electric oven, he explained, provides the proper dry heat needed for perfect baking, while the gas burners are best for range-top cooking.
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