[Note: if you missed the First Annual Partially Complete New Orleans Guide to Making Friends and Eatin' Good, click here. Some places on this year's list are repeat venues since they are too good to hit every year.
TUESDAY, 1/12
3:15 PM / Mother’s (401 Poydras Street, Mid City): For fellow meat-lovers, the following beautiful statistic from their web homepage really sets the tone for your experience in New Orleans – “In a single year, Mother’s serves up no less than 175,000 pounds of ham and roast beef.” If you are a newcomer, go with the Ferdi Special, or what I’ve come to call the “Double Meat” – ham and roast beef po’boy dressed with shredded cabbage, pickles, mayo and Creole and yellow mustards. If your friends pound po’boys at a slower clip than you, walk around to see all the celebrity photos. My personal favorite is Jim Belushi looking very unfulfilled like he just got done shooting K-9. The Belushi, incidentally, is a great name for a sandwich.
5:05 PM / Napolean House (500 Chartres, French Quarter): If your city has a place like Napolean House, your next Pimms Cup is on me. No need for a time machine when you can just walk into this 200 year-old establishment and be taken back to the 19th century. The building’s first occupant was Nicholas Girod, Mayor of New Orleans from 1812-1815 who issued an open invite to Napolean during his exile to be roomies. The name stuck even though Napolean never took him up on the offer thereby thwarting one of the best-ever tombstone engravings – “Mayor and common-law husband of Napolean.”
7:05 PM / Lafitte’s Blacksmith (941 Bourbon Street, French Quarter): If your city has a place like Lafitte’s, I will buy you your own Blacksmith. That bet is safe since Lafitte’s is the oldest bar in America, serving spirits since before our nation’s independence. Set back beyond the craziness of Bourbon, Lafitte’s is lit by candlelight which lends itself to deep, late-night life theory discussions not to mention a perfect hide-away for celebrities or smokers caught without matches (Going Out in New Orleans Tip #1: Don’t walk into a bar wearing that new argyle sweater.) Several minutes past seven is too early to appreciate this place especially since the piano bar will be quiet until 9pm but today was just for a quick drink to prime the soul for a future awakening.
8:35 PM / Praline Connection (542 Frenchman Street, Marigny): Speaking of soul, you can’t find more of it than here in this “down-home” Cajun-cooking hot spot. I talked at length last year about the Taste of Soul platter being the best under twenty-dollar value in the country. Since inflation isn’t something cooked on their griddle, let’s make it two years in a row. You can read the menu or you can simply say “Yes” to the Taste of Soul. After dinner, you can walk around Frenchman to get a taste of jazz with great clubs such as the Blue Nile or the Spotted Cat.
10:15 PM / Mimi’s (2601 Royal Street, Marigny): The upstairs and downstairs of Mimi’s fit together like a pair of perfectly worn-in slippers. The upstairs, chill with couches, feels like the downstairs of your friend’s house growing up. If only your friend’s basement came with the stylings of the DJ Soul Sista your life may have been changed more profoundly than watching porn. DJ Soul Sista, employing a rare groove format, is one of the few female djs to spin and mix "100% funk on 100% vinyl.” Or as Flavor Flav calls it, his sexual preference.
WEDNESDAY, 1/13
8:30 AM / CC’s Community Coffee House (650 Poydras Street, Central Business District): If you want to avoid the hustle and bustle of Café Du Monde and experience good coffee with a neighborhood feel, drop in on a CC’s. If national coffee chains had soul, free high speed Internet and 17,000 less locations you would something like CC’s. The Poydras location feels a little less homey (and the baked goods a little more stale) so grab a newspaper and head to the Esplanade shop.
11:30 AM / Coulis (3625 Prytania Street, Touro): When I was 17, I once ate 9 omelets in 7 days. That’s what happens when you have access to complimentary breakfast in Hilton Head, SC and the metabolism of a teenager. None of those nine omelets (nor any I’ve eaten since) can hold a whisk to the one I ate a Coulis. Perfectly cooked with fresh mushrooms. And the potatoes are award-winning. Good coffee. The only thing that would have made this breakfast align more magically was if Dave Coulier was reading the newspaper next to me.
7:24 PM / Mister B’s Bistro (201 Royal Street, French Quarter): I’ve grabbed a quiet meal to myself at the bar two years running at Mister B’s. Always meet interesting people. Mister B’s is the ideal destination for the solo traveler looking for a really good meal and some new friends. For a meal, I went with the cup of gumbo (comes with fresh bread in a white paper bag) and for a new friend, I turned to my left to meet the chef of a Seattle restaurant on a New Orleans tasting mission. Unless you are at the bar, you are a little out of place without a jacket. First class service with first class clientele.
9:45 PM / Garden District Pub (1916 Magazine Street, Lower Garden District): Would you go here if your friend was not the bartender? Probably not but mine is so I dropped by to meet up with fellow alumni. Comfortable and relaxing pub plus you can’t argue with their jukebox deal of three songs for a buck.
Check back later for all of the other places hit including Dooky Chase, Pravda, HerbSaint and Clover Street Grill.
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