Things to do in Louisiana
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Southern Food & Beverage Museum
Sitting as it does in the commercial crassness of Riverwalk Mall, the Southern Food & Beverage Museum isn’t immediately appealing – from the outside it looks more like a gift shop than anything else. Don’t judge this book by that cover. There’s actually a pretty fascinating, well-executed exhibit behind the fronting shop that includes more information than you’ll probably ever need on the food staples and dishes of the South, and New Orleans and Louisiana in particular. The attached Museum of the American Cocktail isn’t much more than a small gallery hall, but admission is free with the food museum and, hey, how often do you get to see 19th-century ads for Sazer…
reviewed
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B
Café du Monde
Du Monde is overrated, but you're probably gonna go there, so here goes: the coffee is decent and the beignets (square, sugar-coated fritters) are inconsistent. The atmosphere is off-putting: you're a number forced through the wringer, trying to shout over Bob and Fran while they mispronounce 'jambalaya' and a street musician badly mangles John Lennon's 'Imagine.' At least it's open 24 hours - you might be able to capture some measure of noir-ish cool as the drunks stumble past in the Edward Hopper-esque wee hours.
reviewed
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C
Angeli on Decatur
Great philosophers have long debated one of the most pressing of human questions: what makes a late-night place great? We humbly submit: the food tastes as good sober as when you’re trashed at 3am. Enter Angeli: decked out with hipster art and patrons, the food here is wonderful no matter your state of mind/inebriation/whatever. It serves burger, pasta and pizza fare, but it’s top-of-the-line stuff, especially if you need to layer your tummy after a long night out. Early music sets by solid live acts are a good way to launch your evening, but bring cash – credit cards are not accepted. Good range of vegetarian dishes.
reviewed
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D
Metairie Cemetery
Visiting other New Orleans cemeteries doesn’t quite prepare you for the architectural splendor and over-the-top extravagance of Metairie Cemetery. Established in 1872 on a former race track (the grounds, you’ll notice, still follow the oval layout), this is the most American of New Orleans’ cities of the dead and, like the houses of the Garden District, its tombs appear to be attempts at one-upmanship. This is the final resting place for many of New Orleans’ most prominent citizens. William Charles Cole Claiborne, Louisiana’s first American governor, rests here, as does Confederate General PGT Beauregard. Jefferson Davis was originally interred here, only to be moved to R…
reviewed
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Houmas House
In the 1940s members of the same Crozat family that salvaged Bocage Plantation also purchased Houmas House, 2 miles downriver. The original structure, built in the 1790s, now forms the back end of the main Greek-revival house, built in 1840. In its heyday, this plantation controlled 150,000 acres of sugarcane, covering towns of today up to 8 miles away. Most of the furnishings are not original to the house, but the current owner (and resident), Kevin Kelly, has collected some fine period antiques to fill in. Check out the fascinating 1800s map of plantation plats found in the house. As you tour the wonderfully landscaped gardens, keep a look out for decedents of Princess …
reviewed
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Port of Call
The Port of Call burger is, simply put, one of the best we’ve had, anywhere. The meat is unadulterated and, well, meaty, and the burger is enormous – a half pound that easily looks the size, and we mean this, of your face. There are a lot of other menu items, but we can’t get enough of that burger-y heaven, and neither can the locals, who willingly wait outside in long lines for a seat (no reservations).
reviewed
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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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Crescent City Brewhouse
A micro-brewery that produces passable pilsners and wheat beers. The menu features Louisiana standards, with a seafood emphasis: redfish, softshell crabs, crabcakes, steaks and burgers. There's often live music. It's a lively, upbeat place that can take care of an entire family's needs.
reviewed
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New Orleans Museum of Art
The elegant New Orleans Museum of Art was founded in 1910 and is well worth a visit both for its local exhibitions and top-floor galleries of African, Asian, Native American and Oceanic art.
reviewed
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Lafayette Cemetery No 1
This necropolis was established in 1833 by the former City of Lafayette. Sitting as it does just across from Commander’s Palace and shaded by magnificent groves of lush greenery, the cemetery has a strong sense of Southern subtropical gothic about it. The layout is divided by two intersecting footpaths that form a cross. As you walk about, look out for the constructs built by fraternal organizations such as the Jefferson Fire Company No 22, which took care of their members and their families in large shared crypts. Some of the wealthier family tombs were built of marble, with elaborate detail rivaling the finest architecture in the district, but most tombs were construc…
reviewed
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Jackson Square
Sprinkled with lazing loungers, surrounded by sketch artists, fortune-tellers and traveling showmen and watched over by cathedrals, offices and shops plucked from a Parisian fantasy, Jackson Sq is one of America’s great town greens and the heart of the Quarter. The identical, block-long Pontalba Buildings overlook the scene, and the nearly identical Cabildo and Presbytère structures flank the impressive St Louis Cathedral, which fronts the square. In the middle of the park stands the Jackson monument – Clark Mills’ bronze equestrian statue of the hero of the Battle of New Orleans, Andrew Jackson, which was unveiled in 1856. The inscription, ‘The Union Must and Shall be Pr…
reviewed
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Dick & Jenny’s
You could easily accuse New Orleans of doing the contemporary Creole thing to death, but Dick and Jenny (a real couple) have breathed life into this overdone genre. Hidden away in what looks like grandma’s shack by the river is a warm dining room packed with artsy accents, laughing locals, families out for a good night and couples on romantic dates. The food is a good example of what can be done when a profound respect for local ingredients meets a talent that goes beyond craft into art; the last time we visited, a roasted duck seemed to melt off the plate onto a bed of pecan risotto. We wanted to sleep a happy nap right there and then, and that’s the essence of D&J’s – f…
reviewed
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Café Adelaide
The Brennan family tribute to their endearingly eccentric aunt Adelaide is as funky as you like; try dining in the ‘Turtle Room, ’ where two shelled lovers dance a reptilian pas de deux on the wall. The motto here is the namesake’s own: ‘Eat, drink and carry on, ’ a philosophy realized by haute Creole cuisine cooked, apparently, by a pleasantly insane jester. Examples? Steak with brie mashed potatoes, a truffled crab-claw ‘cake’ and a brilliant take on biscuits and gravy, where the ‘biscuit’ is duck cracklin’ and confit, and the ‘gravy’ is foie gras mustard. It’s all as good as it sounds, and the attached Swizzle Stick is one of downtown’s better bars.…
reviewed
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Muriel’s
Good food, sultry atmosphere and location, location, location make Muriel’s hard to pass up. You have your choice of settings: the main dining room evokes the lurid pomp of Storyville, with deep-red walls and chandeliers; in the eclectic bistro, 19th-century art hangs from exposed brick walls; the courtyard bar exemplifies traditional tropical decadence with potted palms and marble-topped cafe tables; while the balcony seating affords an elevated view of Jackson Sq’s motley krewe of musicians, magicians, painters and tarot readers. The kitchen tinkers with the Creole ethos enough to steer clear of stodginess without alienating the average patron. It’s also a good spot for…
reviewed
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Café Degas
A full-grown pecan tree thrusts through the floor and ceiling of the enclosed deck that serves as Café Degas’ congenial dining room. This is a rustic and romantic little spot that warms the heart with first-rate, very reasonably priced French fare. The casual atmosphere is accentuated by eccentric, exceedingly polite waiters. Meals that sound familiar on the menu – steak frites au poivre, parmesan-crusted veal medallions, seared duck breast with mushroom spaetzle – are arranged with extraordinary beauty on their plates. You might feel guilty for disturbing art like this, but it’s a crime for which you will be amply rewarded.
reviewed
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Café Amelie
We’ve waxed rhapsodic over the Quarter’s beautiful backyard gardens, but Amelie’s takes the cake. This may be the most romantic dining spot in the city, an alfresco restaurant that’s practically as cute as the movie of the same name, tucked behind an old carriage house and surrounded by high brick walls and lush shade trees. Fresh seafood and local produce are the basis of a modest, ever-changing menu. Lunch is lovely, when you can nibble sandwiches amid the green, but an evening dinner under starlight while feasting on shrimp and mushroom linguine is just as magic.
reviewed
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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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Praline Connection
If you’ve never had soul food before, the PC might blow you away, but connoisseurs of the genre may find this popular tour-group stop middling. The food is pretty good, in a mom’s-kitchen kind of way – standbys are of the meat loaf, fried chicken and fish topped with étouffée school of cooking – but this restaurant hovers in that frustrating space between ‘meh’ and ‘wow.’ The service is cool; besides being friendly, the waiters dress like the Blues Brothers, which we’re always down with.
reviewed
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Olivier’s
Olivier’s is run by an African American–Creole family that’s been in the restaurant business for five generations, passing down and refining recipes over the decades. That should make for some of the best Creole dining in town, but we’ve found the food can be hit or miss, although when it does hit, it’s great stuff. Go for the gumbo sampler to get an education in local cuisine before digging into specialties such as Creole rabbit, crab cakes and broiled catfish. Save room for bourbon-pecan pie.
reviewed
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Café Maspero
Maspero's is another New Orleans restaurant that oozes atmosphere without trying very hard. Its smoky, brick arches make its street-level eating rooms feel underground. Its large menu touches all the bases of cheap local cuisine: fried catfish sandwiches, red beans and rice, cold Abita on tap delivered to your table by an alert waitstaff.
During peak tourist season out-of-towners are usually lined up on the sidewalk to get in, but during the slow season, many locals sneak back in to reclaim an old haunt. Cash only.
reviewed
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Restaurant August
August’s converted 19th-century tobacco warehouse gets the nod for most aristocratic dining room in New Orleans. Candles flicker soft, warm shades over a meal that will, quite likely, blow your mind. Pied du cochon (stuffed pig trotters) with black truffles, pork belly stuffed with crawfish and blood oranges, and a 10-course, three-hour degustation (tasting) menu that local foodies weep over mean this book’s contents are actually more beautiful than its substantially attractive cover.
reviewed
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Slim Goodie’s Diner
This hip retro diner, all overlaid with some punk-rock sensibility, was among the first restaurants to reopen after Hurricane Katrina, so it deserves a hell of a lot of credit just for that substantial accomplishment. Burgers, shakes, all-American breakfasts and other short-order standards round out the menu; it’s good, if not exactly awe-inspiring stuff. Vegetarians are well treated here, thanks to the presence of items such as latkes and black-bean nachos on the menu.
reviewed
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Martinique Bistro
French cuisine with a squeeze of lime from the island of Martinique. In pleasant twilight, when the doors to the lush courtyard are flung open, the atmosphere at this converted cottage is both exotic and convivial. The cooking has an accomplished simplicity. Hawaiian sunfish glazed with a Tabasco beurre blanc, sesame-crusted salmon fillet drizzled with a cilantro-ginger-soy vinaigrette, curry Gulf shrimp – it all comes together perfectly. Make reservations.
reviewed
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Gumbo Shop
For an unabashed tourist trap, Gumbo Shop (a) does pretty good gumbo, and (b) gets a fair amount of respect from locals, although we’ve never seen a local inside here (unless they’re taking orders). The decor is actually quite lovely, all frescoed out with scenes of old New Orleans. We reckon the Shop, like most heavy-turnover food factories (for that is what this is), suffers from inconsistency in the food quality, though it’s never below mediocre.
reviewed
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Liborio Cuban Restaurant
Cuban food is one of those gems of the American culinary scene that is often done better here than in the homeland (thanks, access to nonrationed ingredients). It’s exceedingly easy on the most timid palate: flavorful meat and pork, strong but not spicy, usually served with some variation on rice and beans or sweet plantains. Liborio is a solid performer in the genre; we’d opt for the cheaper sandwiches over the somewhat overpriced mains.
reviewed
