New Orleans

Hi all -

For once, I get to go to a conference in a really cool place - I'll be heading to for New Orleans this Sunday. Thanks to Hoke's writeups on the town from last summer, I have several bars on my "must drink" list (Arnaud's will be first) but I'm looking for interesting and not-too-pricey places for food. I'll be staying near the French Quarter on the east end of Canal Street, so walking distance would be good although I can always utilize Uber if there's something really interesting that's out of the immediate area. I'll be there until the following Friday.

Any thoughts would be appreciated!

I'd suggest contacting Chef Joseph Carey, who is active on FB.

[Robin Garr]

Mike, I haven't been to New Orleans for ages, not since Katrina, so can't offer much current expertise. But this might help: NOLA restaurants are all over the James Beard Federation finalists list this year, and that's just out. (I got an early copy as a judge, but I think it's been released to the public now ... if not, ssshhh! )

Best New Restaurant
Shaya
New Orleans

Outstanding Bar Program
Cure
New Orleans

Outstanding Chef
Commander’s Palace
New Orleans

Best Chef: South (3 of 5 nominees are from New Orleans!)
Justin Devillier
La Petite Grocery
New Orleans

Slade Rushing
Brennan’s
New Orleans

Isaac Toups
Toups’ Meatery
New Orleans

[Jenise]

Isaac Toups was just a contestant on the Top Chef series that wrapped last week. He didn't win, but he has a great personality and is obviously authentically 'Cajun' (accent!) local and talented--it would sure be a place I'd try. I'd also look up John Besh for some fancy authentic local food.

On a recent extended assignment, my work location and apartment were in Metairie and Lakeview suburbs, but most of the places I list below are near the French Quarter or the area called Uptown (which you should not miss).

Latest and Greatest

(Also, see list I posted in the Hoke thread you reference.)
Mondo: this is a Susan Spicer place in Lakeview, which I always enjoyed. Closer to where you will be staying is her Bayona, which gets raves.
SoBou: that's short for "south of Bourbon", see Brennan. Meh, not my fave
G. W. Fins: upscale seafood, we liked it
Coquette: Uptown area, most excellent brunch, must return for dinner

Classics

Mr. B's: a Brennan place, excellent, just across street from the Monteleone – see below
Acme Oyster Bar: there are at least two of them
Felix’s Oyster Bar
Court of Two Sisters: brunch (natch)
Central Grocery: for a muffaletta (natch)
Galatoire's: dress code requires a jacket, they’ll provide one if you don’t have. Despite the required jackets, it's not stuffy or formal.
Drago's: seafood, I always went to the one in Metairie, but there is one in the Hilton on Poydras, must try the chargrilled oysters
There are many others (Antoine's, Arnaud's, Commanders Palace), but these are the ones I visited.

Drinks

Tableau (see Brennan): This is a restaurant but they have a nice bar – lots of marble, very good
Sazerac Bar at the Roosevelt Hotel: classic cocktails, beautiful hotel
Carousel Bar at the Monteleone Hotel: classic II, don’t count on getting a seat at the carousel bar, the seated patrons rotate around the bartenders.
Razoos: if you want a little more rowdy, it was 4-for-1 beers when we went a few years ago, more recently with the focus on moderation, it was cut back to 3-for-1

Attractions

La Boulangerie: Uptown. A very authentic French Bakery, really great
WWII Museum: very well done and huge
Mardi Gras World: a museum and working facility, sounds kind of hokey, I guess, but I found it fascinating. It’s the place where they craft many of the very intricate parade floats
Landry's: this is a restaurant on Lake Pontchartrain, which will be a 20 minute or so drive from the French Quarter, the attraction is the setting, the water and the sunsets. Food (seafood) is OK
Saenger Theatre: beautiful restored theater. See what's playing during your stay. http://www.saengernola.com/mobile. The Sazerac Bar at the Roosevelt is within walking distance.

Thanks, everyone!

Howie - Good idea - I'll drop Chef Carey a line.

I'll check the other suggestions out. I had seen some of these on the Zagat site, including Drago's. I have Arnaud's, the Carousel, and Sazerac on my bar list, but if I can get to Cure then I will try them out as well. I'll look up Besh and Toups and see if they're within range.

I plan on spending Monday at the WWII Museum. Looks like a great place.

Thanks again (and I'll be grateful for any further suggestions)

I'm with Robin on this one. NOLA is a great restaurant. It is almost a crime to go to New Orleans without going to Commander's Palace. Neither of these places are inexpensive but this is the city to do a mild splurge if you're ever going to do it.

Other favorites are K-Paul's Lousiana Kitchen and Antoine's for a real old school experience.

[Robin Garr]

Antoine's for a real old school experience.

Ken, I'm right with you for most of that, and as noted, we've been absentee from New Orleans since before Katrina, so my current knowledge isn't good. But in the '90s, at least, Antoine's was pretty much a fallen star in my experience, one of those places that had been around a little too long and circled the wagons around its regulars, with short shrift for unknowns and the tourist trade. Has that changed, or was I wrong in the first place?

I usually recommend Galatoire's for the best surviving old-school experience, and my New Orleans-born foodie friends say that's still the case.

I'm also glad to hear that K-Paul's still thrives. During its period of peak popularity a lot of food snobs started dissing it because it WAS popular. But I had a chance to visit and spend a whole day in 1986 interviewing Paul Prudhomme and hanging out "helping" in his kitchen, so there's a soft spot in my heart for him and for K-Paul's.

[Jenise]

I'm with Robin on this one. NOLA is a great restaurant. It is almost a crime to go to New Orleans without going to Commander's Palace. Neither of these places are inexpensive but this is the city to do a mild splurge if you're ever going to do it.

Other favorites are K-Paul's Lousiana Kitchen and Antoine's for a real old school experience.

Also, NOLA has a great bar with bar food. Even if you don't favor a table for one in the dining room, you can sample the place.

For (relatively) inexpensive food that doesn't suck in the Quarter:

Mr. B's Bistro---cool and classy, not too expensive, good for lunch.

Deenie's Seafood---the Quarter outpost of a locally popular place. Sort of CoonAss meets Johnnny Rocket's kinda 50s vibe, but decent enough with good local realpeople food---like super spicy 'corndodgers', great onion rings, jambalaya, etc.

Redfish Grill, right at the entrance to the Quarter from Canal. Good food for a volume operation, and the prices won't bankrupt you. The standard Shrimp and Grits and other cajun/creole favorites are actually good. Good po-boys. Especially the shrimp And right across the street is the Bourbon House; good shrimp and oyster po-boys and gumbo, and a decent cocktail program. Lots of Bourbon whiskey, of course.

When you'r drinking at Arnaud's, order an app of their Shrimp Remoulade. Mustardy sauce is awesome good.

Cafe Maspero's. I think you'd like it a lot.

Central Grocery and Deli---good place.

Erin Rose...great dive bar and surprisingly good food too (walk into the back).If Rhiannon is behind the stick, say hello. She's good people.

Cafe du Monde, of course. But another good place for beignets and sandwiches and red beans and rice is Cafe Beignet on Royal. Where else can you have your morning coffee with beignets and sit under the shade trees in the courtyard of the Police HQ and be serenaded by a really great gospel singer and watch the people stream in and out of the antique shops?

Hotel Monteleone does a pretty good breakfast.

And, hell, go ahead and go to Krystal. Once is all you'll need, but it is a very southern experience in fast food. Popular for drunks and hungovers.

Thanks again, everyone, for all of the suggestions! They're very much appreciated.

Thanks in particular for the lower cost options, Hoke. I'll be on my own on Sunday night and Monday but I will most likely be having meals with colleagues after that. I know this group pretty well and love hanging out with them, but they don't tend to want to spend money on food and drinks. They seem to feel that they should not spend any more on meals than they're given for their per diem. (My feeling, of course, is that I'd have to spend money on eating if I were at home so I'll kick those dollars in on top of the per diem and eat as well as I can.)

They seem to feel that they should not spend any more on meals than they're given for their per diem. (My feeling, of course, is that I'd have to spend money on eating if I were at home so I'll kick those dollars in on top of the per diem and eat as well as I can.)

Of course, your understanding is correct.

[Jenise]

What Jeff said, in a different way: per diem just means your vice is subsidized!

And there is nothing better than subsidized vice!

Thought I'd do a quick re-cap on the food and drinks from the last week. Places I tried to get into but were too busy included the Carousel Bar, Mr. B's Bistro, and Cafe Beignet. Places I ended up in because they had room for parties of twelve or so without reservations included Mr. Ed's and Huck Finn's Cafe. Both were decent for tourist joints but that's all. The Palace Cafe on Canal St. was more ambitious and the food would have been good if it had been hot when it came out (they seemed to be having a problem with service the day we were there). Also had a great sandwich for lunch that I picked up at Cochon Butcher and ate at Lafayette Square.

Excellent bars included Sylvain, Arnaud's (both the bar attached to the restaurant and the French 75 bar), and Erin Rose. One of the problems with the French Quarter is the number of intriguing bars in the area. You feel like you want to stop and get a drink in about six places on every block (and of course that's leaving out the obvious crap joints), Staying in that area for an extended period of time while keeping an intact liver would be a challenge.

Two restaurants warrant special mention. I had an excellent dish while sitting at the bar at Sylvain. They called it Pan Fried Pork Shoulder. It was dark in the bar, so I didn't get a really good look, but there were two thick, round hunks of meat about the diameter of a hockey puck but thicker. They were crusted on the outside but fell apart with the touch of a fork and were extremely moist and flavorful. Served on grits with a side of greens, this was an excellent meal.

The last night there I went to K-Paul's with five others. I was a little apprehensive given the varied opinions I've heard about the place. When I mentioned to my wife that we'd gotten a reservation, her response was, "I hope you won't be as disappointed as I was", which didn't help. In the end, though, the dinner was terrific. We shared an app of fried green tomatoes with shrimp remoulade that was excellent. I also had a cup of gumbo that was the best I've ever had, with an amazing depth and complexity to it. My main was a fried fish filet (can't remember the fish) with jambalaya that was also wonderful (I'd never had fish that was fried that perfectly). For dessert, we split an order of bread pudding and one of creme brulee. One of my friends was so taken by the bread pudding that she ordered another one just for herself. Everyone at the table was extremely impressed, with one calling it the best meal he's had in fifteen years. If they've had problems at K-Paul's in the past, those issues appear to have been handled.

I also hit the World War II Museum, which is well worth the time away from the bars and restaurants. The European and Pacific theaters each get a major exhibit, with both having you walk through winding corridors containing all kinds of artifacts, weapons, letters from soldiers, replicas of foxholes, vehicles, etc. They're done chronologically, so you start out with background info on the rise of Hitler or the Japanese invasion of China and work your way through to V-E/V-J days. I found it to be grueling and finished with tremendous awe over the courage and persistence of the soldiers and a strong urge to cry over what human beings do to each other. Time spent listening to wonderful music on Frenchmen Street helped put me right again.

Thanks for the report, Mike.

Good to hear that K-Pauls is back on form. I only visited there once, back in 1986, but the meal was memorable.

-Paul W.

Speaking of livers, Mike:

Some years back had an ITB friend who was appointed State On-premise manager for LA. Young, single, good looking and cool.

He got an apartment in the Quarter, right above GW Fin's. Came down one day while talking on his wireless landline handset. He stepped across the street into the French 75 Bar and his phone still worked. Arnaud's immediately became his office...to the point that the bartender would answer his phone for him.

The man had style.

Speaking of livers, Mike:

Some years back had an ITB friend who was appointed State On-premise manager for LA. Young, single, good looking and cool.

He got an apartment in the Quarter, right above GW Fin's. Came down one day while talking on his wireless landline handset. He stepped across the street into the French 75 Bar and his phone still worked. Arnaud's immediately became his office...to the point that the bartender would answer his phone for him.

The man had style.

That's a gorgeous room - you couldn't ask for a nicer office.