We just arrived from NOLA and had a great time. We couldn%26#39;t been happier with the weather, the food, and people. Here%26#39;s our trip report, and we hope it is helpful for you.
NOLA Trip Report: April 14-18, 2009
April 14
My GF and I woke up at 2:45 am in order to catch our 6 am flight. With a brief stopover in Atlanta, we finally arrived in NOLA at 10 am and were checked in the Renaissance Pere Marquette hotel by 11 am. What a beautiful day! Clear blue skies and very comfortable temperatures -- 50%26#39;s to low 60%26#39;s. After a brief nap, we walked 2-3 blocks (crossing Canal Street and into the French Quarter) over to Acme%26#39;s for our first meal of our trip. GF had the sampler platter -- a cup of chicken and andouille sausage gumbo, jambalaya, red beans and rice, and a piece of andouille sausage. This was my GF%26#39;s first trip to NOLA. She loved the platter and thought the gumbo was better than Casamiento%26#39;s and Mr. B%26#39;s versions. I had the crawfish etouffe with the additional fried crawfish tails, 6 raw oysters and 6 charbroiled oysters. I thought the latter was very tasty and would try to have it again on the next trip. The charbroiled oysters were topped with some kind of bread crumb, garlic, butter and parmesan cheese mixture. I enjoyed the etouffee, but I was a littled disappointed that the crawfish flavor was missing and lacked more crawfish pieces. Nevertheless it was a very good introduction to NOLA.
After lunch, we walked all around the French Quarter -- Royal Street, St. Louis Cathedral, Decatur Street, the French Market (which is a lot cleaner and open but had far fewer vendors since the last time I remembered back in 2002). Later that evening, we had dinner at Mr. B%26#39;s Bistro. GF had two appetizers -- a crab cake and panko-fried shrimp -- that she thought were delicious. I had the gumbo ya-ya and barbeque shrimp. Both dishes were excellent and highly recommended. The gumbo was the best I tasted on our trip; it was smokey and had a full-bodied consistency that I liked. What can I say about the barbeque shrimp -- it was messy but oh so good. The sauce that the shrimp sat on was sinfully rich and would have gladly had a separate entree with just rice. I don%26#39;t want to know how much butter was emulsified into the sauce. Lastly, we capped our dinner with a white chocolate brownie a la mode. Yumm! There were other desserts that I would have gladly tried, but the restaurant would have needed to call EMT if I had another bite. After dinner, we walked (rolled is probably a better term) to Bourbon Street and listened to some entertaining jazz at Maison Bourbon. We finally called it a night at 11:30.
April 15
I didn%26#39;t even realize it was tax day. Being an accountant, this meant I was already on vacation-mode or perhaps it was the potent Sazerac from last night that brought on the temporary amnesia., We took our time getting ready and ordered room service for breakfast because our hotel rate of $100/night included a $20 daily beverage and food credit. We were out of our hotel room by 10:30, walked 2 blocks over to the St. Charles street car ($1.25 exact fare), and headed to the Garden District. Again, beautiful weather -- sunshine with low humidity and temps in the low 60s. The Garden District and homes were even more beautiful and colorful than I remembered. The scent of jasmine and roses permeated the streets, making our walk through the area even more romantic. I found a self-guided walking tour online which we tried to follow. It wasn%26#39;t the best, but it gave us a good starting point and offered some information on a few houses that we saw along the way. One could easily spend several hours walking up and down every street and admiring each unique home.
Eventually, we walked over to Magazine Street, bought a small cup of The King gelato (banana, chocolate, and peanuts) from La Divina Gelateria (highly recommended), and checked out the great-looking shops while heading to Casamiento%26#39;s (cash-only) for lunch. GF had a small plate of their fried shrimp dinner (french fries, cole slaw, and toast), and I tried their chicken and andouille gumbo, oyster stew, and an oyster loaf. The gumbo was so-so, the oyster stew was good to very good (the consistency reminded me of a New England clam chowder without the potatoes), and the oyster loaf was very good. Would I eat here again? Probably not. There were a few other interesting restaurants on Magazine Street that I would try first. By the time we finished lunch, it was a little after 2 pm, and we decided to window shop a little bit more before walking back to St. Charles Avenue to catch the streetcar back to our hotel where we freshened up for the evening.
We had dinner reservations at Cochon at 6:30. Although the restaurant was within walking distance from our hotel, we decided to take a short taxi ride since our feet were becoming sore from all the walking we were doing. Cochon came highly recommended, but I%26#39;m not sure if I would eat here again. We shared a very good Hurricane and root beer. GF had the BBQ spare ribs while I had the pork cheeks as the starter. The ribs were delicious and falling off the bone, but my pork cheek was just so-so. Cochon has a good concept, and having had Creold/NOLA cuisine the past several meals, I was looking forward to a little change of pace. For the main course, GF had the smoked beef brisket and I the smoked ham hocks. The brisket was good, and the ham hocks were good to very good. Both meats were tender. The ham hocks were falling off the bone although not as tender as I%26#39;ve had in prior experiences. The wine list looked attractively price and had good stemware. We didn%26#39;t have any wine with our dinner because we were meeting friends for drinks at WINO (Wine Institute New Orleans) later that evening.
April 16
Another beautiful looking day. Plantation Day. I walked over to Cafe Du Monde for some beignets and brought them back to the hotel room. Yumm!! I think the best place to eat these is at the cafe when they come out nice and hot and buried in powdered sugar. After devouring our healthy breakfast, we picked up our car from Hertz ($35), hopped on to I-10, and headed west to the plantations. We had a rather late start so we only had time to visit two plantations -- the Laura and Oak Alley -- both of which were $20/pp. We decided to drive ourselves rather than take a tour because we liked to go on our own pace, and the cost was roughly the same if not cheaper. (By the way, I would skip the scenic route on Hwy 18 and stay on I-10 until you reach the exit for the plantation that you are visiting.) The tours at Laura were very informative and more interesting than Oak Alley although Oak Alley with its majestic oaks was stunning. Great picture ops! Prior to doing the Oak Alley tour, we had lunch at the restaurant. GF had a garden salad, some kind of crawfish hush puppies (very good), and pecan pie (very good). I had the chicken and andouille sausage gumbo (not good), crawfish etouffee (delicious), and bread pudding (very good). Overall, not a bad value since there weren%26#39;t a lot of dining options near the plantations.
We got back to our hotel, freshened up a bit, and met the same friends for dinner at Jacques-IMOs (highly recommended although it may be difficult to reach without a car). Our friends were more familiar with the menu and deferred the choice of appetizers that we shared. All were delicious -- we had the alligator cheesecake, shrimp with fried green tomatoes, and some kind of eggplant dish with a mushroom sauce. We shared two entrees -- crawfish etoufee (good) and some kind of squash dish with oysters (very good). This place really had a funky feel to it, and the food was delicious.
April 17
Our last full day. So sad. The weather had gotten more cloudy and a little more humid but still comfortably cool. We woke up early enough to watch the French Quarter Festival parade on Bourbon Street. A lot of fun! Lots of bead throwing, bands playing, and interesting people watching. The parade lasted about 45 minutes, and it was just in time for us to get in line and put our names in for a Friday lunch at Galatoire%26#39;s first floor dining room. We were the first 30-40 people or so on line, but for some reason, we were penciled for around a 1:30 sitting. No big deal. We walked around the French Quarter and listened to the band playing at the park in front of the St. Louis Cathedral. The area was getting more crowded and jumping. We went back to Galatoire%26#39;s and waited to be seated. It was definitely worth the wait. The atmosphere on the first floor was loud, sometimes racous, and yet festive. Food was excellent. It wasn%26#39;t super fancy -- just very tasty. We started with the Galatoire Grand Goute -- equal parts Shrimp Remoulade, Crabmeat Maison, and I think, . For entrees, I had the Crabmeat Sardout -- a layer of spinach, then crabmeat, and finally, some creamy Hollandaise sauce. GF had the Stuffed Eggplant (crabmeat and shrimp). As a topper, we each enjoyed a bananas foster bread pudding (the best!) and chocolate pecan pie. Pure gluttony. GF thought this was the best meal of the trip. Mr. B%26#39;s Bistro was excellent as well and appeared to be more refined in some ways.
We really didn%26#39;t have anything to eat the rest of the day. We picked up some dacquiris and whatever was in those grenades and again walked around the French Quarter, listening to the bands and sometimes impromptu music performances. Just a fantastic day and week. We couldn%26#39;t have been more pleased. We%26#39;re looking forward to another trip some day.
NOLA Trip Report: April 14-18, 2009
Wow - you take good notes or have a phenomenal memory!
Glad you all had fun.
Thanks for your report! I love Jacques-Imo%26#39;s and just had dinner there tonight! It%26#39;s great that you enjoyed Galatoire%26#39;s too - for me the food has always been just ';okay'; (we go for the atmosphere) but it looks like you hit a good day!
Thanks for the TR! What did you guys think of WINO? Care to share a little about that experience? I%26#39;m staying very near there next month and definitely plan to check it out.
Thanks for the report.
If you are staying near WINO, I highly recommend a visit or two. You have a choice of a preset limit or to run a tab. Pours are done automatically at 1 oz, 2 oz, or 3 oz. I think they had over 50 wines available, and at least a dozen of them were wines that were $50 or more per bottle. The cost was as low as $2 for 1 oz or $10 for 1 oz. It%26#39;s a great way to try different wines. They also serve gourmet cheeses that can go well with the wines. It%26#39;s also good to have wine before heading out to dinner or to have some dessert wines after dinner. We were there on a Tuesday and didn%26#39;t realize they closed at 10 (midnight close on Friday/Saturdays though).
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