What to do, where to eat in New Orleans

In My Humble Opinion
21

Took a bunch of DoctorJ’s advice yesterday: got to our hotel (Hotel St. Marie on Toulouse between Bourbon and Dauphine) about 1pm yesterday, checked in, went to Johnny’s for po’boys. My wife had the shrimp po’boy, I had the seafood muffaletta po’boy with some Cajun Chef hot sauce, and they were both delicious. Big, too, but I managed to finish mine and eat the last 1/4 of my wife’s.

We’d thought about just getting one and splitting it, but by the time we ordered, it was past 1:30 local time, which is 2:30 Eastern, and we’d been up since 4:30am and had had nothing but the packet of peanuts and the packet of crackers that Southwest gives you on the plane. So we were pretty ravenous.

Then we went back to the hotel room for a nap, and slept for three hours as if we’d been drugged. Eventually got moving in time to catch the tail end of the Krewe du Vieux’ parade down Royal Street, then had dinner at the Gumbo Shop. I can’t speak for everything on their menu, but their crawfish etouffee was a religious experience. The bread pudding with whiskey sauce I had for dessert was pretty damned good, too.

Now we’re getting ready to go out for coffee and beignets at Cafe du Monde. :slight_smile:

22

Splitting plates and sandwiches and such is a good strategy in New Orleans, because you want to be hungry as often as possible. :slight_smile:

Oh, and there’s a cool bar in the lobby of the Hotel Monteleone called the Carousel. Check it out.

23

Here’s the rest of it, skipping over the less interesting meals and repeats.

Sunday morning, as previously mentioned, we went to Cafe du Monde for coffee and beignets. I’d forgotten just how good those suckers can be, and my wife was just as taken with them as I was. We both agree with Poysysn - if we lived there, we’d soon weigh 600 lbs. each. Either that, or I’d have to take up long-distance running to keep any sort of control on my weight.

We ate lunch at Port of Call, since it had recommendations from both DoctorJ and our family doctor (2 out of 2 doctors recommend…) who lived in NOLA for a few years, a ways back. The burger was quite good, though I still haven’t found a restaurant burger I prefer to my own.

OTOH, the drinks - or rather, the drink. I avoided the ($9) Monsoon, figuring that might be a bit intense. Good thing, because the Windjammer, at about half the price, knocked me on my ass before I was a quarter of the way into that drink. Seriously, I’ve seen mules that had less kick. My wife was terribly amused with me, and so was I, not to mention fully enjoying being blasted before the burgers arrived. Eventually I sobered up enough to walk back to our hotel on Toulouse.

For lunch on Monday, we had crawfish etouffee pizza at Louisiana Pizza Kitchen, which was superb - almost Truby’s-quality, which is saying a great deal.

Today, we finally got to the Central Grocery for the muffaletta sandwich. My wife and I could only make it through 3/4 of one. We were sitting outside in a nearby mini-park, and wondering what to do with the last 1/4, since we didn’t have access to a refrigerator. There were some people wandering around, so I raised my voice and said, “anyone want a quarter of a muffaletta sandwich?” We had no trouble getting a taker. My wife wasn’t crazy about the muffaletta, but I liked it.

24

Aw nuts. Some friends and I visited the Funky Butt on my first N’awlins adventure, back in 1998. Jason Marsalis just happened to be playing in the basement lounge with a little jazz combo, and we met Dave Pirner, lead singer of '90s rock band Soul Asylum, just hanging out and drinking with a small entourage. It was a really cool night there, our first night in the city.