On Sunday, New Orleans will honor R Bar founder, Tom Epps, with a second line through the French Quarter. Sadly, Epps was not the only notable bar owner to pass this year. Over the summer, a bicycle accident claimed d.b.a.'s Ray Deter. Today, a longtime friend to both men, Roger Steinbrink, pays tribute to these two Marigny stalwarts.

July 21, when Jesse James and the James-Younger Gang pulled off the first successful train robbery in the American Old West (1873), when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first humans to walk on the moon (1969), when the world’s lowest recorded temperature dropped to -89.2 degrees Celsius (-128.6 degrees F) in Antarctica (1983), and when The final Harry Potter (and the Deathly Hallows) volume went on sale (2007); it’s Ernest Hemingway (1899), John Gardner (1933), Cat Stevens (1948), Robin Williams (1951), Jon Lovitz (1957), and Damian Marley’s (1978) birthdays, and Racial Harmony Day in Singapore.

Last week, New Yorkers held their own second line for the late d.b.a owner, Ray Deter.This week, it's our turn to send out the bike crash victim in style. On Thursday at 7 p.m., a memorial is planned at the Frenchmen St. bar, ending with a parade in celebration of Deter's life up to Mimi's, and back again. A d.b.a performance by Happy Talk Band, a Deter favorite, will close out the proceedings. Earlier this month, the 53-year-old succumbed to injuries from an accident in Lower Manhattan. Glasses raised high, d.b.a. has pressed on since then, and shows no signs of slowing despite the tragedy.

July 11, when Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities was published (1859), when The U.S. Marine Corps was created by an act of Congress (1798), when Big Ben chimed for the first time (1859), when Vice President Aaron Burr shot and killed Alexander Hamilton in a duel (1804), when Tijuana, Mexico was founded (1889), when Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird was first published (1960), when E.B. White (1899) and Lil’ Kim were born (1975), and when George Gershwin died (1937). So read some lit., eat a crumpet, drink a Horchata, and see some French films, which are among these offerings:

After suffering head trauma in a New York City bike accident last week, d.b.a. owner Ray Deter succumbed to his injuries Sunday. Remembrances of the 53-year-old are have been echoing throughout cyberspace. Eric Asimov of The New York Times credits Deter with pulling in a wide selection of craft brews at d.b.a.'s New York locations when the Big Apple was still a "beer desert." When he opened the New Orleans location in 2000, he did the same thing for Frenchmen St. As Bree O'Connor of Beer Sessions Radio remembers, d.b.a. Ray was also inclusive when it came to the way he treated people.

With news of d.b.a. owner Ray Deter's bike accident earlier this week jarring the Frenchmen Street bar, d.b.a. Ray's kin and colleagues have taken to Facebook to spread the news about his condition. Today, the family posted the sobering news that the 53-year-old, who was hit by a car Monday while biking in the Soho neighborhood of New York City, doesn't appear likely to survive the weekend. 

The owner of Frenchmen Street's d.b.a. is in critical, but stable, condition in a New York City hospital after a bike accident, the New York Daily News reports. Ray Deter, 53, was hit by a silver Jaguar Monday on Canal St. in Manhattan whilke biking to work. the 53-year-old New York resident suffered trauma to the head, and was rushed to the downtown Manhattan's Bellevue Hospital. He was not wearing a helmet.