Weekend Restaurant Romp in the Crescent City…a New Orleans Trip Report
Dec 8th, 2009, 06:36 PM
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Weekend Restaurant Romp in the Crescent City…a New Orleans Trip Report
I traveled with my mom for a long weekend in New Orleans in mid-November, taking advantage of the Veteran’s Day holiday and a pretty reasonable airfare on Delta we made it a long weekend in the Crescent City. Here is our trip report….
Wednesday, November 11th
With tropical storm Ida bringing pounding rain to the SC lowcountry we wondered if we would even be able to fly out of Savannah. The answer was YES! We left Savannah on a Delta flight at 9am and made a smooth connection in Atlanta, arriving in New Orleans 20 minutes early at 1pm.
We took a taxi from the airport ($33) to The Dauphine Orleans Hotel at 415 Rue Dauphine in the French Quarter (www.DauphineOrleans.com). Thanks to Fodorite Starrs for the hotel recommendation, we were not disappointed. It was a great location. We could walk to everything in the French Quarter and just a few blocks from Canal Street and the Central Business District with plenty of street car options for getting around. I was able to book a double room for $119 per night. The room was comfortable and clean and had everything we needed. There was free wi-fi in the room and a continental breakfast buffet was included in the price.
At about 2:30 we decided to venture out to find something to eat since we were hungry. We found our way to the Napoleon House Bar and Café at 500 Chartres Street (www.napoleonhouse.com) and stopped in to have our first taste of a muffuletta sandwich and a Pimms cup. Boy did that Pimm’s go down smoothly! We ordered a whole sandwich to share and had it heated a very tasty first dish in New Orleans.
Now we were ready to walk. We went into St. Louis Cathedral and then to the French Market to poke around. We spent some time walking along the Mississippi River taking lots of pictures.
A brief stop back at the hotel and then at 6:30pm we walked over to the newly renovated Roosevelt Hotel (definitely worth a look!) to have a glass (or 2!) of wine at the Sazerac Bar in the hotel. The place was packed, but we found a spot at the bar and ordered a couple glasses of wine.
Just before 8pm we walked about 3 steps to Domenica, a new Chef John Besh restaurant, located inside the Roosevelt hotel. The address is 124 Baronne Street and the website is www.domenicarestaurant.com
This restaurant opened in early September. We had an absolutely fantastic meal here. It’s John Besh’s version of an Italian restaurant…I hesitate to call it a trattoria, maybe a modern-ish trattoria is a good description. The interior was sleek but comfortable, a big open room with wooden tables and a nice looking bar area.
Our server, Addison, was just adorable, very good at his job, and knew the menu very well. We had a bottle of Orvieto Classico and an antipasti dish of fried eggplant bocconcini with goat cheese and aged balsamic; these were individual bite size pieces. For the main course I had a winner with the goat (yes goat!) with mushrooms, served in a casserole dish, it was so tender I did not need a knife to cut the meat. Mom had the chicken involtini, stuffed with prosciutto and fontina cheese served with garlicky spinach and we had a side order of roasted rosemary potatoes. We ended the meal with espresso served with little biscotti.
As we were finishing the espresso I noticed another table getting limoncello, so we asked Addison about it. They make their own limoncello so we decided to start our weekend off right with a digestivo…let me say that I have had some good limoncello in the past, but this…this, was nectar of the gods…so smooth, so tasty, like nothing I have ever had. And, Addison mentioned that in the summer months they make fig limoncello… hmmm…a good reason to come back to New Orleans in the warmer months! We were full and very happy and walked back to the hotel and slept like logs.
Stay tuned for a morning of beignets!
Wednesday, November 11th
With tropical storm Ida bringing pounding rain to the SC lowcountry we wondered if we would even be able to fly out of Savannah. The answer was YES! We left Savannah on a Delta flight at 9am and made a smooth connection in Atlanta, arriving in New Orleans 20 minutes early at 1pm.
We took a taxi from the airport ($33) to The Dauphine Orleans Hotel at 415 Rue Dauphine in the French Quarter (www.DauphineOrleans.com). Thanks to Fodorite Starrs for the hotel recommendation, we were not disappointed. It was a great location. We could walk to everything in the French Quarter and just a few blocks from Canal Street and the Central Business District with plenty of street car options for getting around. I was able to book a double room for $119 per night. The room was comfortable and clean and had everything we needed. There was free wi-fi in the room and a continental breakfast buffet was included in the price.
At about 2:30 we decided to venture out to find something to eat since we were hungry. We found our way to the Napoleon House Bar and Café at 500 Chartres Street (www.napoleonhouse.com) and stopped in to have our first taste of a muffuletta sandwich and a Pimms cup. Boy did that Pimm’s go down smoothly! We ordered a whole sandwich to share and had it heated a very tasty first dish in New Orleans.
Now we were ready to walk. We went into St. Louis Cathedral and then to the French Market to poke around. We spent some time walking along the Mississippi River taking lots of pictures.
A brief stop back at the hotel and then at 6:30pm we walked over to the newly renovated Roosevelt Hotel (definitely worth a look!) to have a glass (or 2!) of wine at the Sazerac Bar in the hotel. The place was packed, but we found a spot at the bar and ordered a couple glasses of wine.
Just before 8pm we walked about 3 steps to Domenica, a new Chef John Besh restaurant, located inside the Roosevelt hotel. The address is 124 Baronne Street and the website is www.domenicarestaurant.com
This restaurant opened in early September. We had an absolutely fantastic meal here. It’s John Besh’s version of an Italian restaurant…I hesitate to call it a trattoria, maybe a modern-ish trattoria is a good description. The interior was sleek but comfortable, a big open room with wooden tables and a nice looking bar area.
Our server, Addison, was just adorable, very good at his job, and knew the menu very well. We had a bottle of Orvieto Classico and an antipasti dish of fried eggplant bocconcini with goat cheese and aged balsamic; these were individual bite size pieces. For the main course I had a winner with the goat (yes goat!) with mushrooms, served in a casserole dish, it was so tender I did not need a knife to cut the meat. Mom had the chicken involtini, stuffed with prosciutto and fontina cheese served with garlicky spinach and we had a side order of roasted rosemary potatoes. We ended the meal with espresso served with little biscotti.
As we were finishing the espresso I noticed another table getting limoncello, so we asked Addison about it. They make their own limoncello so we decided to start our weekend off right with a digestivo…let me say that I have had some good limoncello in the past, but this…this, was nectar of the gods…so smooth, so tasty, like nothing I have ever had. And, Addison mentioned that in the summer months they make fig limoncello… hmmm…a good reason to come back to New Orleans in the warmer months! We were full and very happy and walked back to the hotel and slept like logs.
Stay tuned for a morning of beignets!
Dec 9th, 2009, 04:04 AM
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MomDD...
Yes, I figured that since I've been back for almost a month if I didn't start writing this now I probably never would. We had a great time...including a Fodors GTG...stay tuned, I should have more posted tonight!
Yes, I figured that since I've been back for almost a month if I didn't start writing this now I probably never would. We had a great time...including a Fodors GTG...stay tuned, I should have more posted tonight!
Dec 9th, 2009, 05:28 PM
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Thursday, November 12th
We had a leisurely morning and wandered over to Café du Monde (http://www.cafedumonde.com/main.html) poking into shops along the way. We each had an order of beignets and café au lait. I, of course, loved the fluffy puffs of fried dough covered in heaps of confectioner’s sugar. On a side note…there isn’t a carbohydrate I don’t love and along with having an enormous sweet tooth…I was in doughy heaven!
After our sugar and caffeine intake we walked over to the Cabildo and Presbytere. We purchased a combination ticket for both museums and went into the Cabildo first. This was a really interesting museum of the history of Louisiana and it had a death mask of Napoleon. We spent almost 2 hours here checking out all the exhibits. We then walked next door to the Presbytere where there was an exhibit on the history of Mardi Gras which included many costumes worn throughout the years in the Mardi Gras parades.
At 2pm we went to Antoine’s Restaurant, the meeting place for the French Quarter Culinary History and Tasting Tour, operated by New Orleans Culinary History Tours (http://www.noculinarytours.com/index.html). The guide, Renee, was ok, but there was some downtime during this 3 hour tour. We started at Antoine’s with a sample of gumbo, and then a sample of shrimp Regua. The shrimp dish was my favorite. The guide talked about the history of this restaurant and some of the menu items. What I found a bit awkward was walking through a busy restaurant kitchen, my sister is a chef and I’ve been around professional kitchens before, and I just felt like we were 5 intruders and honestly, this walk through the kitchen did nothing to enhance the tour.
Once we finished at Antoine’s we made our way through the French Quarter stopping at various restaurants along the way. Another favorite stop was a La Divina Café for a sample of their take on a muffuletta, it was on ciabatta bread and pressed with a Panini machine. We also stopped at Tujuane’s for their brisket with horseradish sauce, it was tender and delicious. We ended the tour with a sample of less than stellar rum cake. The tour was ok, but I would not give it remarkable reviews, and to tell the truth after 2 of the 3 hours I was ready for it to be over. If it was a larger group we probably would have bailed out, but there were only 4 of us on the tour and I felt funny about leaving early, and for $45 I kept hoping it would get better. Oh well, live and learn!
The tour ended at about 5pm and we went back to the hotel to freshen up and then went to the Hotel Monteleone Carousel Bar for drinks…what a fun place. We found 2 seats at the slow revolving bar, we were lucky to find those bar stools because just after we sat down, all the seats were taken and half the fun is sitting at the revolving bar.
2 wines later and shortly after 7pm we walked across Canal Street and hoped on the St. Charles Street streetcar and took it up the street to St. Joseph Street and walked (about 10 minutes) to Cochon (www.cochonrestaurant.com) at 930 Tchoupitoulas Street for our 8:15pm dinner reservation.
We arrived about 15 minutes early and the place was packed…and this was a Thursday night! We sat at the bar and had my favorite appertivo…prosecco! Exactly 15 minutes later the host came up to us and said our table was ready.
We LOVED this restaurant! The interior was all light colored wood with chunky wooden tables and chairs and there was the wonderful aroma of pork. We started with a bottle of vino verde (ok, we had a bit to drink this evening!) and 2 appetizers. We had the alligator bites which had a crunchy coating with a nice scallion taste. The second appetizer was fried pigs ears…these were GREAT…crispy crunchy with a fantastic mustard dipping sauce. During my pre-trip restaurant research I had read about the pigs ears and the stellar reviews…they were spot on!
I had the hamhock entrée with mashed sweet potatoes and black-eyed peas. The ham was fall off the bone tender…I did not need a knife to cut it! Mom had the Louisiana cochon which was crunchy and delicious and was served with turnips and cabbage. As if all this wasn’t enough I had the Mississippi mud pie for dessert and it tasted just like chocolate ice cream…smooth and creamy.
When we finished dinner we planned to take the streetcar back towards our hotel, but it was not running as frequently at this time of night, so we just started walking. It took about 25 minutes to walk back to our French Quarter hotel. It was another food-centric day and we were two happy and full gals.
We had a leisurely morning and wandered over to Café du Monde (http://www.cafedumonde.com/main.html) poking into shops along the way. We each had an order of beignets and café au lait. I, of course, loved the fluffy puffs of fried dough covered in heaps of confectioner’s sugar. On a side note…there isn’t a carbohydrate I don’t love and along with having an enormous sweet tooth…I was in doughy heaven!
After our sugar and caffeine intake we walked over to the Cabildo and Presbytere. We purchased a combination ticket for both museums and went into the Cabildo first. This was a really interesting museum of the history of Louisiana and it had a death mask of Napoleon. We spent almost 2 hours here checking out all the exhibits. We then walked next door to the Presbytere where there was an exhibit on the history of Mardi Gras which included many costumes worn throughout the years in the Mardi Gras parades.
At 2pm we went to Antoine’s Restaurant, the meeting place for the French Quarter Culinary History and Tasting Tour, operated by New Orleans Culinary History Tours (http://www.noculinarytours.com/index.html). The guide, Renee, was ok, but there was some downtime during this 3 hour tour. We started at Antoine’s with a sample of gumbo, and then a sample of shrimp Regua. The shrimp dish was my favorite. The guide talked about the history of this restaurant and some of the menu items. What I found a bit awkward was walking through a busy restaurant kitchen, my sister is a chef and I’ve been around professional kitchens before, and I just felt like we were 5 intruders and honestly, this walk through the kitchen did nothing to enhance the tour.
Once we finished at Antoine’s we made our way through the French Quarter stopping at various restaurants along the way. Another favorite stop was a La Divina Café for a sample of their take on a muffuletta, it was on ciabatta bread and pressed with a Panini machine. We also stopped at Tujuane’s for their brisket with horseradish sauce, it was tender and delicious. We ended the tour with a sample of less than stellar rum cake. The tour was ok, but I would not give it remarkable reviews, and to tell the truth after 2 of the 3 hours I was ready for it to be over. If it was a larger group we probably would have bailed out, but there were only 4 of us on the tour and I felt funny about leaving early, and for $45 I kept hoping it would get better. Oh well, live and learn!
The tour ended at about 5pm and we went back to the hotel to freshen up and then went to the Hotel Monteleone Carousel Bar for drinks…what a fun place. We found 2 seats at the slow revolving bar, we were lucky to find those bar stools because just after we sat down, all the seats were taken and half the fun is sitting at the revolving bar.
2 wines later and shortly after 7pm we walked across Canal Street and hoped on the St. Charles Street streetcar and took it up the street to St. Joseph Street and walked (about 10 minutes) to Cochon (www.cochonrestaurant.com) at 930 Tchoupitoulas Street for our 8:15pm dinner reservation.
We arrived about 15 minutes early and the place was packed…and this was a Thursday night! We sat at the bar and had my favorite appertivo…prosecco! Exactly 15 minutes later the host came up to us and said our table was ready.
We LOVED this restaurant! The interior was all light colored wood with chunky wooden tables and chairs and there was the wonderful aroma of pork. We started with a bottle of vino verde (ok, we had a bit to drink this evening!) and 2 appetizers. We had the alligator bites which had a crunchy coating with a nice scallion taste. The second appetizer was fried pigs ears…these were GREAT…crispy crunchy with a fantastic mustard dipping sauce. During my pre-trip restaurant research I had read about the pigs ears and the stellar reviews…they were spot on!
I had the hamhock entrée with mashed sweet potatoes and black-eyed peas. The ham was fall off the bone tender…I did not need a knife to cut it! Mom had the Louisiana cochon which was crunchy and delicious and was served with turnips and cabbage. As if all this wasn’t enough I had the Mississippi mud pie for dessert and it tasted just like chocolate ice cream…smooth and creamy.
When we finished dinner we planned to take the streetcar back towards our hotel, but it was not running as frequently at this time of night, so we just started walking. It took about 25 minutes to walk back to our French Quarter hotel. It was another food-centric day and we were two happy and full gals.
Dec 9th, 2009, 06:06 PM
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Friday, November 13th
It was an early morning and we were out of the hotel by about 8:30am. We decided to walk to the World War II Museum (www.nationalww2museum.org) at 945 Magazine Street. It was a leisurely walk and we got to the museum around 9:30am. We picked up our museum and theater tickets and went over to the new building to wait for the 10am showing of the Beyond Boundaries movie.
This movie was produced by Tom Hanks and it was GREAT. This is a 4-D movie that had moments when I felt like I was in the action. But more important, it was incredibly moving. After the movie we spent about 2 hours going through the museum. It was really well done, the exhibits were really interesting, and I especially liked seeing real uniforms the military wore.
At about noon we left the museum and walked to Restaurant August (another Chef John Besh restaurant) at 301 Tchoupitoulas Street (www.restaurantaugust.com). After reading about this restaurant and the $20.09 pre-fix lunch on Friday’s I thought it would be a great way to experience this restaurant.
We had a 1pm lunch reservation and arrived a few minutes early, and were seated promptly in the lovely dinning room. We were in the front room with large window giving the room a very airy feel.
We were served an amuse bouche that was a frothy egg (with caviar) that was absolutely delicious. I had the wild salmon and spiny lobster roll for my appetizer and mom had the pate dish…both luscious.
For my main dish I had the dumplings with duck and mushroom broth, it was fantastic. Mom had the acorn squash mezzeluna pasta, which was another winner.
For dessert mom had the fried parmesan reggiano cheese with honey and I had the chocolate pastry fritters, everything was perfect. We had coffee and were given a little sweet plate with macaroons, peanut brittle and chocolate pieces, a perfect ending, and portions were just the right size that we were not stuffed at the end of the meal.
After lunch we stopped back at the hotel for a mini break and then decided to take a ride on the St. Charles Street streetcar to the end of the line, turn around and come back. It was a fun way to see parts of the Garden District and for $1.25 each way we couldn’t have gotten a better bang for our buck!
Around 6pm we walked to Irene’s Cuisine in the French Quarter at 539 St. Phillip Street for dinner (I believe they do not take reservations). We started with a bottle of pinot grigio, an amuse bouche of tomato and cheese bruschetta, and the pan sautéed oysters, shrimp and spinach with raspberry vinaigrette, it was light and fabulous.
Mom had the flounder with crab and shrimp special it was fantastic, the winning dish of the night. I had the cannelloni stuffed with pork, veal, and eggplant. The pasta was homemade and the marinara sauce was out of this world good.
We ended with a slice of crème brulee cheesecake served with honey and the tastiest strawberries. Of course, being an Italian restaurant we had to end the meal with espresso and limoncello. The espresso was good; the limoncello did not hold a candle to the limoncello at Domenica. It was an easy walk back to the hotel and we called it an early night.
It was an early morning and we were out of the hotel by about 8:30am. We decided to walk to the World War II Museum (www.nationalww2museum.org) at 945 Magazine Street. It was a leisurely walk and we got to the museum around 9:30am. We picked up our museum and theater tickets and went over to the new building to wait for the 10am showing of the Beyond Boundaries movie.
This movie was produced by Tom Hanks and it was GREAT. This is a 4-D movie that had moments when I felt like I was in the action. But more important, it was incredibly moving. After the movie we spent about 2 hours going through the museum. It was really well done, the exhibits were really interesting, and I especially liked seeing real uniforms the military wore.
At about noon we left the museum and walked to Restaurant August (another Chef John Besh restaurant) at 301 Tchoupitoulas Street (www.restaurantaugust.com). After reading about this restaurant and the $20.09 pre-fix lunch on Friday’s I thought it would be a great way to experience this restaurant.
We had a 1pm lunch reservation and arrived a few minutes early, and were seated promptly in the lovely dinning room. We were in the front room with large window giving the room a very airy feel.
We were served an amuse bouche that was a frothy egg (with caviar) that was absolutely delicious. I had the wild salmon and spiny lobster roll for my appetizer and mom had the pate dish…both luscious.
For my main dish I had the dumplings with duck and mushroom broth, it was fantastic. Mom had the acorn squash mezzeluna pasta, which was another winner.
For dessert mom had the fried parmesan reggiano cheese with honey and I had the chocolate pastry fritters, everything was perfect. We had coffee and were given a little sweet plate with macaroons, peanut brittle and chocolate pieces, a perfect ending, and portions were just the right size that we were not stuffed at the end of the meal.
After lunch we stopped back at the hotel for a mini break and then decided to take a ride on the St. Charles Street streetcar to the end of the line, turn around and come back. It was a fun way to see parts of the Garden District and for $1.25 each way we couldn’t have gotten a better bang for our buck!
Around 6pm we walked to Irene’s Cuisine in the French Quarter at 539 St. Phillip Street for dinner (I believe they do not take reservations). We started with a bottle of pinot grigio, an amuse bouche of tomato and cheese bruschetta, and the pan sautéed oysters, shrimp and spinach with raspberry vinaigrette, it was light and fabulous.
Mom had the flounder with crab and shrimp special it was fantastic, the winning dish of the night. I had the cannelloni stuffed with pork, veal, and eggplant. The pasta was homemade and the marinara sauce was out of this world good.
We ended with a slice of crème brulee cheesecake served with honey and the tastiest strawberries. Of course, being an Italian restaurant we had to end the meal with espresso and limoncello. The espresso was good; the limoncello did not hold a candle to the limoncello at Domenica. It was an easy walk back to the hotel and we called it an early night.
Dec 9th, 2009, 06:54 PM
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Saturday, November 14th
It was another early start today and we went to Luke (www.chefjohnbesh.com) at 333 St. Charles Avenue for breakfast, yes, another Chef John Besh restaurant. If I didn’t know who John Besh was before going to New Orleans, I certainly knew who he was when I left!
The coffee here was the best I have ever tasted, truly, I didn’t even need to add sugar and that is not the norm for me.
They did have a breakfast buffet (the restaurant is in a Hilton Hotel), but we decided to order off the menu and boy are we glad we did!
Mom had a crab and asparagus omelet that was unbelievably light. It was served with a mixed green salad with a light vinaigrette and a gigantic cone of pomme frites that were very crunchy!
I had the croquet madam, an amazing grilled ham and cheese sandwich with a fried egg. The cheese was emmenthaler and the ham was pure goodness, it was served on a butcher block mini cutting board with a cone of pomme frites. I have never seen a sandwich so beautifully presented. We could not have been happier with this breakfast.
We finished breakfast just after 9:30am and walked to the corner to catch the streetcar into the Garden District.
We were about an hour early for the Garden District walking tour but browsed in the Garden District Bookshop before the tour started. I booked this tour with Historic New Orleans Tours and was not disappointed.
The tour began at 11am and there were about 17 people on the tour. The guide, Anna was great. She definitely knew her stuff, my guess is that she worked or works in the design or architecture field and also has a hand in preservation.
The tour started in the Lafayette Cemetery and it was interesting to hear how New Olreans handles the dead and the history of how it all works. We spent about 50 minutes in the cemetery and then walked through the Garden District seeing some of the incredible homes.
The guide went about 30 minutes over the 2 hour time quoted, but she was a fountain of information. When the tour ended we hopped back on the street car and went back to Canal Street. We then stopped for an iced coffee at a nearby Starbucks and did some window shopping (ok, I did a little buying too…a fantastic art piece…a roof shingle with a colorful fleur de lis) . I thought we would be able to catch the 3pm tour of the Herman Grima House, but they were not doing the 3pm tour this day, so we walked back to the hotel for a little break.
At about 4pm we decided to go over to the Westin Canal Place for wine and views of the Mississippi…what a great lounge/lobby area…sweeping views of the river.
We went back to our hotel at about 5:30pm to meet up with Johanna to go to NOLA for the Fodor’s get together. With the planning efforts of Johanna we had a great evening at NOLA located at 534 Rue St. Louis. All the Fodorites arrived just at 6pm…exactly on time and we had a big round table where we could see all the action in the open kitchen. There were 8 of us and we had such a fun time.
The food was great here too. Mom and I had a couple glasses of chardonnay and I started with the garlic and pesto soup, it was nice and smooth. Mom had the lamb meatball starter and it was delicious.
My main dish was the braised short ribs with andouile sausage and pot au feu and cole slaw. The meat was fall off the bone tender. Mom had the roasted chicken special with garlic mashed potatoes. We ended the meal with one of the best espressos I have ever had.
By now it was about 8:30pm and 6 of the 8 of us decided to go over to the Roosevelt Hotel for drinks at the bar.
It was a fun evening of great conversation and just before 11pm we called it a night and walked back to our hotel.
Sunday, November 15th
We decided to get up early enough to have breakfast at Stanley on Jackson Square and I’m glad we did. At about 8am we walked over to Stanley at 547 St. Ann Street. Mom had the omelet sandwich with bacon and cheese it was very good. I had the eggs benedict po’boy. Both were good, but the orange juice here was phenomenal, really good.
At about 9:30am we checked out of the hotel and took a taxi to the airport. We arrived there just after 10am and went to check in, only to find out our flight had been delayed, fortunately we were able to get on an earlier flight. We were the last ones to board, literally we walked onto the plane and they shut the door. We arrived in Atlanta and had a smooth connection to our flight to Savannah and we were home by 4pm.
We had a great time with great food and great people!
It was another early start today and we went to Luke (www.chefjohnbesh.com) at 333 St. Charles Avenue for breakfast, yes, another Chef John Besh restaurant. If I didn’t know who John Besh was before going to New Orleans, I certainly knew who he was when I left!
The coffee here was the best I have ever tasted, truly, I didn’t even need to add sugar and that is not the norm for me.
They did have a breakfast buffet (the restaurant is in a Hilton Hotel), but we decided to order off the menu and boy are we glad we did!
Mom had a crab and asparagus omelet that was unbelievably light. It was served with a mixed green salad with a light vinaigrette and a gigantic cone of pomme frites that were very crunchy!
I had the croquet madam, an amazing grilled ham and cheese sandwich with a fried egg. The cheese was emmenthaler and the ham was pure goodness, it was served on a butcher block mini cutting board with a cone of pomme frites. I have never seen a sandwich so beautifully presented. We could not have been happier with this breakfast.
We finished breakfast just after 9:30am and walked to the corner to catch the streetcar into the Garden District.
We were about an hour early for the Garden District walking tour but browsed in the Garden District Bookshop before the tour started. I booked this tour with Historic New Orleans Tours and was not disappointed.
The tour began at 11am and there were about 17 people on the tour. The guide, Anna was great. She definitely knew her stuff, my guess is that she worked or works in the design or architecture field and also has a hand in preservation.
The tour started in the Lafayette Cemetery and it was interesting to hear how New Olreans handles the dead and the history of how it all works. We spent about 50 minutes in the cemetery and then walked through the Garden District seeing some of the incredible homes.
The guide went about 30 minutes over the 2 hour time quoted, but she was a fountain of information. When the tour ended we hopped back on the street car and went back to Canal Street. We then stopped for an iced coffee at a nearby Starbucks and did some window shopping (ok, I did a little buying too…a fantastic art piece…a roof shingle with a colorful fleur de lis) . I thought we would be able to catch the 3pm tour of the Herman Grima House, but they were not doing the 3pm tour this day, so we walked back to the hotel for a little break.
At about 4pm we decided to go over to the Westin Canal Place for wine and views of the Mississippi…what a great lounge/lobby area…sweeping views of the river.
We went back to our hotel at about 5:30pm to meet up with Johanna to go to NOLA for the Fodor’s get together. With the planning efforts of Johanna we had a great evening at NOLA located at 534 Rue St. Louis. All the Fodorites arrived just at 6pm…exactly on time and we had a big round table where we could see all the action in the open kitchen. There were 8 of us and we had such a fun time.
The food was great here too. Mom and I had a couple glasses of chardonnay and I started with the garlic and pesto soup, it was nice and smooth. Mom had the lamb meatball starter and it was delicious.
My main dish was the braised short ribs with andouile sausage and pot au feu and cole slaw. The meat was fall off the bone tender. Mom had the roasted chicken special with garlic mashed potatoes. We ended the meal with one of the best espressos I have ever had.
By now it was about 8:30pm and 6 of the 8 of us decided to go over to the Roosevelt Hotel for drinks at the bar.
It was a fun evening of great conversation and just before 11pm we called it a night and walked back to our hotel.
Sunday, November 15th
We decided to get up early enough to have breakfast at Stanley on Jackson Square and I’m glad we did. At about 8am we walked over to Stanley at 547 St. Ann Street. Mom had the omelet sandwich with bacon and cheese it was very good. I had the eggs benedict po’boy. Both were good, but the orange juice here was phenomenal, really good.
At about 9:30am we checked out of the hotel and took a taxi to the airport. We arrived there just after 10am and went to check in, only to find out our flight had been delayed, fortunately we were able to get on an earlier flight. We were the last ones to board, literally we walked onto the plane and they shut the door. We arrived in Atlanta and had a smooth connection to our flight to Savannah and we were home by 4pm.
We had a great time with great food and great people!
Dec 10th, 2009, 02:30 AM
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Great report! Fig limoncello? Oh, that I would love to try. A tour inside a busy, working kitchen would have been uncomfortable. Years ago at the CIA in San Francisco I remember viewing kitchen activity through a glass window and that was enough. All the food and drink you describe sounds so good I wish you could provide samples! Glad you enjoyed a great visit.
Glad you enjoyed a great visit.
Dec 10th, 2009, 04:49 AM
#13
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Kodi and AnnMarie...thanks! I think a special trip to NOLA for the fig limoncello at Domenica should be in our future...apparently they only make that type during the summer months...it would be hot and steamy, but the limoncello would be wonderful! ;-)
Dec 10th, 2009, 05:20 PM
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Great report LCI! You make me want to go back to New Orleans, like NOW. I haven't been in over 15 years so I suppose it's time. All that wining and dining, I don't know how you keep up the pace... ;-)
Dec 11th, 2009, 07:39 AM
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Hi Marcy
Just now seeing this, I haven't been here or on Facebook a lot lately. My mom is in the hospital, and it's pretty serious.
Anyway, great trip report. I had a nice time at the GTG. My sister and I may go back next weekend, depending on how things go with mom. I really want to try Domenica.
Johanna
Just now seeing this, I haven't been here or on Facebook a lot lately. My mom is in the hospital, and it's pretty serious.
Anyway, great trip report. I had a nice time at the GTG. My sister and I may go back next weekend, depending on how things go with mom. I really want to try Domenica.
Johanna
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