As a young woman, Vaughan’s Lounge co-owner Cindy Wood embarked upon a world tour, eventually settling in Nairobi, Kenya. When she returned to America in the early 1970s, she was severely afflicted with culture shock—at least until she discovered New Orleans: “When I came to New Orleans, it was like I’d come back home. New Orleans is the closest thing in the United States to Nairobi.

“I came to New Orleans in 1974. I lived in the French Quarter for seven years and I bought...