I recently found myself in New Orleans for a pharmacy conference. While the conference was a bust, the city turned out to be a neat place to visit. For the first time ever while traveling for work my wife, Lori was able to join me, which made the trip all that much better.
New Orleans is a lively place full of history and people with a lot of pride in their city. If you're looking for a place to have a good time at all hours of the day, then New Orleans is the place for you. I'm not the partying type, but I still managed to find things to do. Just walking up and down Bourbon Street watching all the weirdos was enough to hold my attention.
My days were spent on the conference floor, but the evenings were relatively free for Lori and me to explore the city. We stayed at the Queen and Crescent hotel, which was only a couple of blocks from Bourbon Street and the rest of the French Quarter, so that's where we spent most of our evenings. The hotel wasn't anything to brag about, but it worked for what I needed, i.e. a place to sleep for a few hours each night.
The French Quarter is interesting place, and is where Lori and I spent most of our free time. It has a neat feel to it; lots of older buildings with brick architecture along with plenty of places to eat. Every time we asked someone where to eat they would point us in the direction of the French Quarter. We took their recommendations to heart and found some great food.
The Food
I didn't have a bad meal the entire time I was in New Orleans. I ate red beans and rice with Andouille for the first time ever, had some awesome beef dishes, ate some unique deserts and my wife was in heaven with all the seafood dishes that were readily available in every restaurant we tried.
Some of the places I ate include:
Mother's Restaurant: Mother's was just around the corner from my hotel right in the path of my walk to the conference. While Mother's is nothing to look at, the food reminded me of my childhood; it was that good. Homemade jelly and biscuits, freshly baked ham, grits with everything and so on. I ate there three out of the five mornings I was in New Orleans, and I was never disappointed. The other thing worth mentioning at Mother's was the coffee. The coffee was strong enough to curl your toes, but it was good. Apparently restaurants in New Orleans like to put chicory in their coffee. I have no idea what the chicory is supposed to do, but it certainly adds to the flavor.
Cafe Du Monde: Cafe Du Monde is a historic place in New Orleans. They're open 24 hours a day, serve good coffee and Beignets (French donuts) covered with tons of powdered sugar and always have a line out the door to get in. My wife and I braved this place on a Saturday night. The Beignets were awesome and the coffee was great. In fact I liked the coffee so much that I bought some to bring home along with my souvenir mug. I must admit, the coffee is good when I make it here at home, but it was much better sitting at Cafe Du Monde eating Beignets with my wife.
Red Fish Grill: The Red Fish Grill may have been the best food I had while in New Orleans, and that's saying something. My wife had the Red Fish and I had beef tenderloin. We also had some deep fried clams, which was interesting. I don't like clams, but I liked these things. If I had to describe them I'd say it was like eating a squishy buffalo wing. And to top it all off, we had their "world famous" chocolate bread pudding. It goes without saying that it was incredible.
The eating establishments mentioned above were the best places we ate, but a few other places I had a meal included Luke's, Walk-On's and The Palace Cafe.
Walk-On's is a sports bar down near the Superdome; good sandwiches along with about 40 big screens all playing sports. How could you go wrong?
Luke's was decent food. I had their "famous top ten burger". I've had better burgers, but I don't think I've ever had better fries. No kidding, they were that good.
The food at The Palace Cafe was good, but pricey. It was easily the most expensive meal I had while in New Orleans. I'd certainly eat there again if given the opportunity.
Night Life
As I said previously, if you like to party, then New Orleans in the place for you. Bourbon Street wakes up around 10:00pm at night and gets livelier until the wee hours of the morning. My wife and I ended up on Bourbon Street almost every night. It's where everyone wants to be, so we were always with a group of friends.
Bourbon Street is crowded with all kinds of people, both young and old, all just wanting to have fun. There's live music to meet anyone's taste as well as a host of establishments that serve every kind of booze and food imaginable. I heard cover bands for Zeppelin, Def Leppard, Guns N' Roses and so on. In addition there were bars playing country music, jazz and just about everything else you can imagine. It was cool.
With that said, "the place to be" had to be Pat O'Brien's. Lori and I ended up in there a couple of times. It was always packed. The signature drink of O'Brien's is The Hurricaine, and everyone in the place had one in their hand. Me? Nah, not my style. I'm a Diet Pepsi guy myself, although I had to settle for Diet Coke at O'Brien's.
O'Brien's was also the location of the dueling pianos. My wife and I sat listening to the two piano players go back and forth one morning until 2:00 am. It was fantastic. People in the audience would write their request on a napkin, pass it to the pianist along with $5 and that was it, off they'd go. I would do that again.
Other Tourist Stuff
Lori had a lot of free time during the day while I was at the conference. She went on two tours during our stay: a plantation tour and a general tour for points of interest in the city. She enjoyed both activities. I only wish I could have gone.
NFL Football: Some friends of my company CEO had extra tickets to the Saints game on Sunday, December 4th against the Lions and they were kind enough to give two tickets to me and Lori. It was my first trip inside the Superdome. What an experience.
It was hands down the most exciting thing I did in New Orleans. I had a great time. The seats were in a prime location at the 40-yard line only a few rows up from the field. I could make out the faces of the players on the side lines. Yes, I was that close. The game was exciting as the Saints rolled the Lions 31-17, and the game was never that close.
Every time the Saints would score the stadium would rock out to "Halftime" by the Ying Yang Twins. It's a catchy toon.
The people of New Orleans love their Saints and the Superdome is a rocking place, especially when the Saints are winning. I would recommend that anyone visiting New Orleans during football season try to squeeze in a Saints game. You won't regret it.
I had such a great time at the game that I'm thinking of rooting for the Saints from this point forward as long as they're not playing against the Cardinals or the Bears. I might even buy myself a Brees jersey; easily the most popular jersey in New Orleans by a long shot.
Summary
Overall I think New Orleans was awesome. I'd love to go back. There were a ton of things that I wanted to do, but didn't have time for. Like a river boat cruise, or a plantation tour, or a tour of the areas hardest hit by Katrina. I wanted to go look at the dyke system around the city, and so on.
Something to consider is whether or not the city is family friendly or not. I believe it is given the right approach. Obviously you'd want to keep the kids off Bourbon Street, but other than that I think my family and I could easily fill a week with great stuff to do in New Orleans.
