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Visiting New Orleans - What to do and where to eat in the French Quarter?
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A Fool with CompassionPronouns: He, Him, HisRegistered User regular
A Fool with CompassionPronouns: He, Him, HisRegistered User regular
So my organization is sending me to a conference in New Orleans. While i'll be mostly sequestered to the schedule of events during the day, I have my own time for evenings.
Where should I go and what should I see? I'll be staying a block from the French Quarter and will need to use taxis/uber for transport.
Anything I should know? Things I should prepare for? I'm a swamplands Floridian, so the heat and humidity (even in December) won't be a problem.
Where should I go and what should I see? I'll be staying a block from the French Quarter and will need to use taxis/uber for transport.
Anything I should know? Things I should prepare for? I'm a swamplands Floridian, so the heat and humidity (even in December) won't be a problem.
+1
Posts
Magazine Street Window shopping; there are many places to shop along this corridor as well as many restaurants and bars. St. Joe's Bar in particular serves a wonderful Blueberry Mojito.
Audubon Park / Zoo. Take the St. Charles street car (1.25 per ride) down to Audubon park for the afternoon. The park itself is beautiful and the zoo is one of the best zoos I've ever been in (they recently renovated the Elephants' habitat.)
Frenchman Street. this street is on the north side of the quarter, next to a neighborhood called the Marigny. (Mar-In-Y) Every bar here has live music playing throughout the week. Bar hop until you find a group that suites your tastes. I would strongly suggest you spend your nights here rather than on Bourbon. Stop by Lafitte's on your way over (it's the last bar on Bourbon St before Esplanade. They make a grape Daiquiri of sort simply called "Purple Drink").
Cafe Du Monde: If you find that the historical location has an hour + line, feel free to go into the River Walk Mall; they have a location there that's almost never busy.
The Audubon Aquarium is along the waterfront downtown.
I'll come up with a list of restaurants for you later. There's plenty of options and you have to try to pick out a place that won't be good.
Uh, favorite bar was Kingfish, but also visit carousel bar which like next door.
Frenchman street was terrific.
edit- Pat O'Brien's is a fun bar, they have pianists who will do covers of just about any song you can come up with.
More info when not mobile posting.
Cafe du Monde was a huge disappointment for me. Crowded, dirty, the coffee was not good, and the begniet was worse.
Island Name: Felinefine
Agreed. Find any hole-in-the-wall New Orleans breakfast place. Its not necessary to go to Cafe Du Monde.
Speaking of which, camillia grill off south carolton for breakfast
Cafe du Monde is real hit or miss. I wouldn't go for breakfast though. It's best middle of the night in my experience. We will go in the morning with kiddo, but never just for us.
Camilla Grill is really awesome though. Great diner, and great food. Verde Mart is also awesome for a good po-boy. Really it is hard not to get a good sandwich here.
If you are looking for something specific I can help out more. General advice is stay out of the touristy places cause they over charge, and cook way more bland than I would like.
What's going on here that pulls you in town if I can ask?
At the very end of the French quarter
Small shop that does sandwiches in the back. Cash only. But oh so great at 2am
An accreditation conference for the SACSCOC universities and colleges.
Adolfo's Is a cash only Italian place also on Frenchman, very good and there is a dive bar under it.
Old New Orleans rum distillery tour was pretty great they’ll pick you up on bourbon street.
I’ll second Verti Marte, I had a muffaletta there after a hard night of drinking and it hit the spot.
If you are a block from the FQ, you won't really need to taxi to it...the interior of the FQ is really not very large (And typically doesnt have vehicles traveling in it much anyway).
Don't bother trying to leave the FQ to tour anywhere else really. its still a mess from Katrina.
(To be fair: I've not had bread pudding anywhere else in New Orleans)
I recommend Cafe du Monde beneights to-go, if you need a half lb of confectioners sugar for something and also feel like a beneight.
I could recommend some other places but, if you're eating in the FQ, it's hit or miss all over. Places spring up, close, or just go off the rails in quality on a whim. Yelp is your friend, that is my only recommendation.
Not even remotely true. Certain areas haven't recovered, but thats because the city never liked those areas to begin with. Anywhere that you would want to see has been built back up for some time now.
+1 on Cochon, one of the best meals of my life
coop's place was a fun hole in the wall
willie mae's scotch house is the best fried chicken, they won a james beard award for it
it's kinda fun to go to commander's palace for a martini lunch, need a reservation though and a jacket... 3 martinis for $.25 each
and then you can drunkenly walk around the pretty cemetary and by all the pretty houses around there
I suspect this is because NOPD frowns more firmly on public urination excessive jubilation south of Canal.
Back in FQ: I will recommend resisting the lure of the lucky dog cart or neon pizza signs and treat yourself to a late night gyro if you find yourself near Bourbon and St. Pete's. I don't know what it's called, but it will be the only place not being shy about the fact they sell gyros.
Looking for places that will be solid meals and experiences I can pop in and out of without needing to get wasted, if possible.
Ok, in that context:
In general, if you're navigating East to west: Bourbon isn't much to look at (though you'll recognize certain corners it in a lot of movies), is often crowded. Royale st is a block or two over, nice to walk down, kitchy shops, solid street musicians.
One thing I always try to do is eat a giant trough of crawfish on the balcony of the French Market Restaurant in the late afternoon / evening.
It's in a quiet corner of the quarter, but still good for light people watching. It's down there on Decatur so you can piss about in the daytime-quarter, go sight seeing on a river boat, hit up Jackson square for lunch at Muriel's, artists hucking their wares, nice scenery, and carriage tours with colourful tales from local history, then just stroll over for dinner.
sounds like you are academic conferencing wrong
Yelping takeout to your darkened hotel room where you are feverishly toiling away at your real job until the wee hours?
This isn't a publication/field conference, its the sort of conference you go to with your university presidents and provosts to ensure you are meeting accreditation compliance. I'll be watched most keenly by everyone in our 40+ entourage for most of the time I am there.
Very cool restaurant in general as well. Unless my memory is failing me its one of the ones where you walk through the kitchen to get to the tables. Very cool atmosphere.
if memory serves though, it has very tight hours.. I think it closes at like.. 4 or 5.. very early in any case. So might be tough to squeeze in during a conference
it wont be hot at all in December, Louisiana typically is colder than Florida in winter months
we also talk about other random shit and clown upon each other
We are assumed you can stop time and perform miracles considering the encmire
Ended up at Cafe Bengiet instead of Cafe Du Monde (Du Monde is apparently cash only, which is not how I travel). Got some of that sweet sweet breakfast funnelcake.
I didn't get to take a ride on the Natchez, but I did get to walk around it for a few minutes! It was a lot of fun.
Got a Po Boy at some restaurant along one of the alleys in the French Quarter, didn't catch the name, but it was delicious.
My hotel was right above the casino, and as an added bonus I got to watch about 12 or 13 people get arrested and carried out by police over a 48 hour period of time. Which was very entertaining!