Shopping in New Orleans
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Mary Jane’s Emporium
By ‘Mary Jane, ’ they’re not referring to shoes. This is an essential stop for smokers of legal tobacco products, including finer brands of cigarettes not sold at your basic corner store. Also, a variety of apparatus for the smoking of unsanctioned herbal products and such is sold here. All right, it’s basically a head shop.
reviewed
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B
Santa’s Quarters
This place keeps the Christmas spirit alive year-round, with ornaments, lights and every festive trinket imaginable. Now, you have to wonder about people who might be tempted to purchase Christmas ornaments on one of August’s most sultry days. And what about the zero-receipt days this shop surely endures for much of the year. So is it a front for something more sinister? Or is it simply a vanity concern for St Nick? And, if so, why is it New Orleans? Or is the fat man indulging a local filly he’s keeping on the side? Anyway, on with your shopping…
reviewed
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Dr Bob’s Studio
Self-taught outdoors artist Dr Bob is a fixture in the Bywater, and you’re sure to recognize his signature work – the ‘Be Nice or Leave’ signs that appear in restaurants and bars around town. Dr Bob’s work also turns up in the House of Blues and museums throughout the South. In addition to the signs, he’s known for his alligator carvings and sculptures of assembled found objects. Garbage-can lids, bottle caps, pieces of junked musical instruments and essentially anything that strikes Dr Bob’s weird sensibility is turned into art. His gallery is really a fascinating junkyard of art, with a sculpture garden comprising spray-painted lawn ornaments. The man himself …
reviewed
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James H Cohen & Sons
From the sidewalk windows, you might be inclined to pass this one by if you’re not interested in guns. Cohen & Sons does sell antique guns for people who like to play cowboys and Indians with authentic hardware. The choice of firearms here includes some remarkable specimens of flintlocks, colts, Winchester ’73s and even a French musket or two. Beyond weaponry, the place is a repository of relics and historical curiosities, with many fascinating artifacts on view in glass display cases. Duck in for a look at the ancient coins from Celtic and Hellenic cultures worn smooth by human hands millennia ago. Or disturbing slave documents and notarized bills of sale for the transfe…
reviewed
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Zombie’s House of Voodoo
Just around the corner from Bourbon St, this voodoo shop gamely makes its pitch amid the drunken hordes. Step inside and it’s plain to see this is one religious store that’s not bent on snuffing out the party. There’s an altar at the entry with a serious note not to disrespectfully take photos, and then there is the truly splendiferous display of plaster-of-Paris statuettes imported from the Santeria realms of Brazil. All of them are fun and charming, and many are simply beautiful. Works of folk art are mass produced. They laugh at death, celebrate sex and honor great figures in history. Some make great gifts to take back home – such as the smiling bust of Louis Armstrong…
reviewed
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F
Rock & Roll Collectibles
In this cluttered and very exciting shop you'll find the French Quarter's largest selection of vinyl (that's old-timey 33 rpm long playing records, pal). Come to think of it, this is the only shop selling records in the Quarter anymore. After two-plus decades of CDs and the emergence of eBay as the primary marketplace for used LPs, this place keeps things humming. (Though the store does have a presence on eBay.)
Rock, blues and R&B are the primary areas of interest here, spanning everything from highly collectible 1940s jump blues to those latter-day Stones albums nobody seems to want. The store also carries a limited supply of rare 78 rpm discs, and the walls are covered…
reviewed
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New Orleans Fashion Collaborative
In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, many local and independent clothing designers banded together and formed this collective and began staging a weekly fashion bazaar at the Maple Leaf Bar in the Riverbend. Many of the vendors here sell their goods in shops around town, particularly on Magazine St, but this big stylish event brings it all together, with a wide selection of women's and men's apparel.
The sensibilities run the gamut from hip to casual, way-in to way-out, with lots of groovy retro styles woven into the fabric. Costumes, hats, shoes and jewelry are also sold. The low overhead means better deals for shoppers, and it's an excellent opportunity to assemble your pa…
reviewed
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Canal Place
A standard-issue shopping mall right at the edge of the French Quarter? That’s right, but as it’s just below the towering Wyndham New Orleans Hotel you’d hardly notice it if you weren’t looking for it. This is where you’ll want to go if your shoe suddenly implodes or if your only suit has to be shipped off to the cleaners after a gin-fizz mishap. The upscale mall is anchored by a Saks Fifth Ave store; supporting roles are played by Kenneth Cole, Ann Taylor, Laura Ashley, Brooks Brothers and Banana Republic. A multiplex cinema and the Southern Repertory Theater are on the 3rd floor. The mall parking lot is convenient and has reasonable rates.
reviewed
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Collectible Antiques
You never know what you’ll find between the piles of old furniture stacked along the walls of this large, garagelike emporium of tantalizing junk. Perhaps you collect old photographic portraits from long defunct studios. You might find everything you need for that tiki bar you’re slapping together in the basement. Or maybe you’re just after an art-deco martini shaker, an old dented trumpet, a Pewee Herman doll, a heavy army-surplus coat or some silverware. Remarkably, the entire assemblage is not just a heaping mess. Every piece is lovingly contextualized to add interest. Browsing through the wares here is somewhat like a visit to a grab-bag museum.
reviewed
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Fleur de Paris
Some stores in New Orleans exist to indulge the most eccentric and particular interests a person can possibly have. This boutique in the Labranche Building is a case in point. The woman who wants to appear ready for the 1904 St Louis World’s Fair need look no further. The custom hats are bouquets of plumage, fur felt, lace and, here and there, a snatch of black netting. The evening gowns are devastating showstoppers guaranteed to make a dapper Dan in spats swoon. The store’s website suggests wearing one to the Academy Awards. Failing that, you’ll want to promenade around a city park or at least have your picture taken.
reviewed
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House of Lounge
Its name doesn’t exactly have a svelte ring to it, but House of Lounge has its big vampish heart in the right place. The shop sells just about everything you would need to turn your foreplay into a classy burlesque review. The lingerie is sexy and shameless, the ‘baby doll’ assemblages are cute as all get-out (and gettin’ out’s the idea) and the feather fans will keep everything coyly covered. For the femme fatale who really knows how, the shop also sells cigarette holders and flasks, and – if all of the above fail to induce intimacy – there’s a good stock of vibrators on offer, too.
reviewed
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MS Rau Antiques
With a massive 30,000-sq-ft showroom (you’d never know it passing by on Royal St), and after nearly a century of doing business, MS Rau ranks among New Orleans’ most venerated dealers of antiques. It’s a bit serious – these are the sort of frosty antiques that require their own insurance policies – but it’s a family business and the professional salespeople are quite approachable. You’ll find fine art, jewelry, music boxes, clocks, Judaica, 19th-century globes – all in impeccable condition and unbelievably expensive. Nothing’s keeping you from just having a look, though.
reviewed
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Jackson Brewery
This site really was a brewery once but, despite its proximity to boozy Bourbon St, the company failed, and the old brick structure was converted into a shopping mall. Jax has dozens of shops and eateries, most of them singing siren songs to unwary tourists. Proceed with caution or your next credit card statement will include charges for such items as Cajun golf clothing (?!), novelty ties, old-time photographic portraits and the like. However, if you’re looking for a crawfish T-shirt for your cool niece or a new pair of sunglasses, or are just in need of a bathroom break, come on by. There’s an ATM on the sidewalk.
reviewed
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Stone & Press
A cool shop for enthusiasts of fine-art mezzotints, lithographs, wood engravings and etchings by modern American artists. Mezzotints are the emphasis here, and flipping through the huge collection (filed away in bins like records in a record store) is a good way to gain an appreciation for a largely underappreciated art form. Most of the artists featured are contemporary, and some are clearly pushing the envelope, exploring new possibilities and techniques. A startling range in texture, tone and definition is achieved in black and white and sepia hues. All works are original and printed in limited editions.
reviewed
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Lucullus
Peeking in the window, you’ll see a battery of ancient copper pots that appear to have generations of dents tinkered out of their bottoms. Owner Patrick Dunne is an advocate of using, not merely collecting, culinary antiques. Follow his advice and add more ritual and elegance to your life with an antique café au lait bowl or an absinthe spoon for creating your evening cocktails. Don’t just pop open your champagne and pour it; chill it in a silver bucket. You get the idea. A visit to this shop can turn an ordinary dinner party into the classiest, most exotic to-do.
reviewed
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Louisiana Tax Free Shopping
Some merchants in Louisiana participate in a program called Louisiana Tax Free Shopping. Look for the snazzy red-and-blue ‘tax free’ logo in the window or on the sign of the store. Usually these stores specialize in the kinds of impulse purchases people are likely to make while on vacation. In these stores, present a passport to verify you are not a US citizen and request a voucher as you make your purchase. Reimbursement centers are located in the DowntownRefundCenter and the main lobby of the LouisArmstrongAirport.
reviewed
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Leah’s Pralines
In the heart of the French Quarter, this old candy shop specializes in that special Creole confection, the praline. Here you’ll get some of the very best in town. If you’ve already tried pralines elsewhere and decided that you don’t care for them, we suggest you try some at Leah’s before making up your mind completely. The creamy pralines are deadly. Try one with rum in it if you don’t mind a nice extra zing. Grab a box and have it expressed to your friends back home. Throw in some of the pecan brittle or rum pecans while you’re at it.
reviewed
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Sideshow: The Old Curiosity Shop
In the tradition of rummage stores of earlier times, this shop aims not just to sell you stuff, but to dazzle you as well. It does so simply by stocking oddities you'd expect to encounter in a sideshow tent (two-headed ducks, skulls of mythological creatures, and other mind-bending items). You can also buy magician's supplies, snazzy decks of risqué playing cards and a bevvy of other guilty pleasures from another age.
It's owned and operated by Elizabeth Anderson, wife of actor Harry Anderson (himself a magician).
reviewed
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Southern Fossil & Mineral Exchange
This store – something like a curiosity museum where most everything’s got a price tag on it – can induce bone-rattling nightmares. If you’re impressed by the selection of skulls from all creatures great and small, you can take some home with you. More subdued are the rocks on which ancient life forms have imprinted images of themselves. Pretty cool, even if it just ends up as a paperweight. A selection of animal puppets is just the thing to appease terrified children.
reviewed
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Big Fisherman Seafood
If you’re here in the spring, when it’s crawfish season, you may develop a taste for the little mudbugs. But you haven’t really had the full-on crawfish experience unless you’ve been invited to a crawfish boil in someone’s backyard. If that hasn’t happened, send some crawfish back home and invite your friends over. This busy little shop will pack and ship crawfish to anywhere in the USA. The price fluctuates widely from season to season, so call ahead for prices.
reviewed
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Yvonne la Fleur
They just don’t make them like this anymore – neither the clothes, millinery or lingerie for sale in Yvonne La Fleur nor Yvonne herself, the definition of steel in silk. She’s an amazing businesswoman who has outfitted generations of local ladies for their weddings, debuts and race days. She makes her own perfumes and gorgeous hats, overflowing with silk flowers, that seem to belong to another era. Wear some of Yvonne La Fleur’s classic couture as you explore the city that inspires Yvonne’s unique look.
reviewed
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A&P Market
Smack in the heart of the French Quarter, this is an economic alternative to the 'minibars' that commit hotel-room robbery in so many accommodations around town. A&P is convenient for cold beer, bottled water and snacks along with various sundry items. Best of all, it's open 23 hours a day (closing at 03:00 for just an hour of cleaning and restocking). A&P is also a fine place to go to stock up on Cajun spices and pepper sauces at lower prices than those at the Farmer's Market.
reviewed
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Le Garage
Got to admit, we liked the name better when it was simply ‘The Garage.’ But why quibble over a little ironic Frenchness? The place is still a garage loaded with interesting stuff to paw through. Things for sale here include odd items of clothing, hats, army surplus, curtains, yellowed pool balls, tattered Mardi Gras costumes from yesteryear, knitted Coors-can caps, furniture, and oodles of objects d’art to ogle or even buy. Treasures galore, we tell you. Dive in.
reviewed
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F&F Botanica
Forget all the fake voodoo shops in the French Quarter; this is a genuine Puerto Rican botanica that sells candles, gris-gris (spell bags) and spell components for use in voodoo and Santeria (the latter is a Puerto Rican religion related to voodoo). No tourist-oriented Hollywood-style dolls here; real worshippers drop in to deal with real issues, which, according to the spell lists, seem to mainly be related to heartache, immigration issues and the law.
reviewed
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Artists' Market
With a back entry on antique-mad lower Decatur St, this sizable emporium is a conglomerate of consignment dealers and artists who sell their own work. A walk-through is like snorkeling through a dense reef of art. You'll find yourself surrounded by paintings, prints, handmade glass beads, original lamps, candle holders, cast-iron designs and one-of-a-kind Mardi Gras masks. A few of the artists work on site. In all, the works of some 70 artists is sold here.
reviewed
