New Orleans

Heading to New Orleans this weekend for 4 days and staying half a block off Bourbon St, any suggestions on what to do and whereto eat?

Hurricane at Pat O'Brian's.

WWII museum is great. Worth the time.
Take a haunted tour one night, my wife enjoyed that.

Food wise:
Brennan’s, mr b’s, gw fins, commanders palace are options for
Dinner
Lunch at mama’s. Lots of options there.

Possibly a food tour. There’s a zillion jazz clubs and they are all good, just gotta find something that suits you.

Biegnets are a must. Care du mond is the place to get them close to jackson square.

My wife and I have seen some of NO, but we do enjoy the food

WW2 Museum for sure. Food is pretty good wherever you go, looks like you will be near the touristy areas. Better food further away.

Acme Oyster Bar for Po Boys.

Antoine's

Gotta agree with Bill on Pat O'Brian's and Acme. Solid choices
Antoine's Another solid choice

I lived there for three years but it was 50 years ago. I yield to most of the above. Just go.

Was just there...Mulates about a block down from Harrahs. Get the Crabe au gratin...
Finish with bread pudding and butter rum sauce.

Leave as soon as possible.

Never take advice from dated information as times change

Pascals Manals shrimp is great.

Ooooh, yes...Manales at Jackson and St Charles. And you HAVE to get a burger and beer at the Port of Call on Esplanade. I think they still won’t let you order fries, so just tuff it out.

The Napoleon House for a Muffaleta sandwich (not the Central Grocery).

And for me...find a good Po Boy shop and order the following: “Meatball PoBoy, dressed, American cheese, extra dose of hot mustard”. Close your eyes as you chew, and enjoy the experience. “Dressed” means lettuce, tomato, pickle, etc.

I’d go back there (lived there for 7 Madrid Gras, and rode Bacchus twice) for a visit, but the wife refuses.

Do NOT go north of ST Claude Avenue if you are walking around. Avoid dark places and streets after dark in the Quarter, and I wouldn’t walk around on St Charles Avenue after dark. Take a cab to Manales and a cab back to the hotel. It isn’t a safe city. Safety in numbers...

They have really good Vietnamese food there.

Mother's for lunch.

Charlie

Cochon Butcher near the WW museum, you’ll go back again and again

Cast Net for lunch. It’s where the locals go and about a 15 min drive from the French quarter. It’s not fancy and not expensive but excellent sea food. It falls under the “whole in a wall” type place.
If you ever boil crawfish, buy some of their spices too..

Gotta get a debris po boy there if going.

I think Felix's makes a damn good char grilled oyster, Acme Oysters is overrated.

The Old Absinthe House makes a good Old Fashioned and Bloody Mary, they taste the best around 11 am when Bourbon is at its most quiet time.

Peche Seafood Grill

The corn on a cob by the street vendors on Bourbon street was great.

If you do the WWII museum, skip the restaurants inside. Wildly overpriced junk food. Walk two blocks or so to Magazine Pizza. It's a little spendy, but we had a couple awesome pizzas there.

If you're into jazz and stuff go to Frenchman street. For restaurants/bars/shops that are a little more tame go to Magazine street (the bulldog pub is a cool spot for a beer)

+1

Dragos for Charbroiled oysters, bottom floor of Riverside Hilton.

To spend more time at the WWII museum is the only reason I will go back to NOLA...

New Orleans hamburger and seafood company. Moderately priced, tasty food. Plus their house specialty Hurricane, the 44. 44 ounces of awesomeness, 4 different rums for $4.44 . Best deal in town.

I emailed this link to Cathy. She was born there and has spent several nights as stopovers on the way to visit. Her school also sent her with law students to do pro bono work. Here is her reply.


"Though your recs may be from fifty years ago, those institutions have stood the test of time pretty well.

I second the recommendations for Brennan's (particularly for brunch), Cochon, Vietnamese, Felix's, and Drogos.

In the fancy classics department, I also love the Jazz Bistro at Arnauds. Their oysters and almond are great as are their French 75's. The band is fantastic.

For po-boys, I love Mahoney's on Magazine in the Garden District. Johnny's in the quarter is good for people who want something in the quarter.

A couple of other great places in the Garden District on Magazine are Coquette and Rum House (Cajun and Carribean taco fusion--delicious, cheap, festive--and all kinds of daquiris).

Meauxbar Bistro on the edge of the Quarter near Bywater has some of the best escargot I've ever had. It's non-traditional yet delicious.

Vincent's Italian on St. Charles Uptown is fantastic. It's sort of Italian-Creole fusion.

There's a Mediterranean place that's won a bunch of awards, but I've never been. There are a couple of other places I haven't been as well.

Places that I consider to be just alright but not all that are Antonines (though they've got original Rockefellar, so it's a cultural experience), Court of Three Sisters, Cafe Amelie, Luke, Commander's Palace (but perhaps worth it for the atmosphere), Red Fish Grill, Ruby Slipper, Joey K's, Galatoires, and Cafe Du Monde (but you have to go if you've never been"

Surprisingly, there is a group of world renowned experts in a rare form of cancer in the oschner hospital just north of the airport...don’t ask how I know. That’s the only reason I will go back

Ruby Slipper for breakfast - they have really good grits, and awesome waffles.
Bon Ton Cafe - there isn't anything on the menu that I have tried and not liked.
Saint Lawrence - more of a bar, but they have a pretty good selection for dinner, and not real pricey.

My son goes to school in NOLA, so we get there pretty often.

PLUS 1 for DRAGOS! I had forgot about them but those oysters were AWESOME

Now I want oysters.

Cat’s Meow if you want to pick up drunken skanks for dessert.

That place is fun.

It would be a lot easier and cheaper to just start peeing in your garage everyday between now and August. Let it soak in really good. Then for vacation, set up a cot in the garage, drink a whole bottle of everclear, and have somebody come in about day two and crack the back of your head with a ball peen hammer. The total New Orleans experience right at your doorstep.

I have heard that....

They wash the streets down every morning.

Muffaletta at Central Market. Jackson square ??iirc.

Papalote

Would.

Yep

I like the way you think, and I am afraid you are dead on.

I didn't know there was such a thing.

There is a bar on the corner of Bourbon and something. Has an entrance on Bourbon and the cross street.
Don’t go there. No women in there.

I prefer the muffuletta at the Napoleon House (assuming it’s still there). If you want the one from Central Grocery, it isn’t facing Jackson Square, but is down Decatur Street a bit past Cafe DuMonde. Central Grocery also has stuffed artichokes, if you like them (I sure do). They have a lot of Olive Oil, so if you tend toward constipation, a stuffed artichoke will do wonders for your...uuuuu.....you know.

If you like oysters, see if you can find some Oysters Mosca. Wonderful.

Thanks for all the suggestions guys

New Orleans is a city of a 1000 smells, most of them BAD!

1st honeymoon with the 1st wife was in New Orleans...in June. When we got back to North Texas afterwards, a very talented musician friend of mine commented - "200 years of puke and piss". Much later I learned, through our equipment business, that the Quarter, at that time, maybe to this day, still had wooden water pipes strapped together with leather straps.

You either love New Orleans, or hate it. There's no in-between. I've always loved it. (I stay off Bourbon though.)

I have gone there numerous times. 2 times for pleasure and the rest on business because I had to. Now since I am retired I have no need to HAVE to go there again. I have seen and been in outhouses that smell better. And seeing what so called humans look like on bourbon street has not helped. Go if you must. But I would not waist my money. If you want good eats go somewhere else.

The armpit

Antoine's. Again. It's worth all the other crap.

If you're flying in drive the little canal roads in Kenner. Look for litttle Morgan buildings selling seafood with full parking lots. Will likely be some of the best you ever had, and better than anything in New Orleans at 1/2 the price. If driving in, drive out towards the airport in Kenner and do the same.

only place where you can smell cigar smoke, bourbon whiskey, horse pizz, horse manure, vomit and sweaty stripper all within a 100 yard stretch.


I partied more than my share back in the day and in some pretty sketchy joints & NOLA was the worst. I can honestly say I don't ever care to go to New Orleans/French Quarter ever again.

Smell #420 is Weed

Sometimes I just p and throw up in my garage to pretend I’m in New Orleans

Been twice neither time to party. First time with the inlaw for two days eating & sight seeing which was good.
Second time with my family as a stop over on our way to Destin, the kids had a frickin blast people watching in the French Quarters.

My youngest brother was in the Quarter this morning. He and his wife were walking down Royal Street in the morning. There was crime scene tape and a bunch of NOPD cars blocking the street. There had been a shooting earlier. A guy and a woman had been arguing/fighting, when a cop car showed up. The guy pulls his gun and misses the cop. The cop (she) shot the guy to death. I always considered Royal Street to be one of the safer ones.

The other brother was in the Quarter many years ago, with his boss. A minority kid rode up on his bicycle, pulled a gun, robbed them and shot my brother’s boss to death.

The brother mentioned first has an LTC, but doesn’t (to my knowledge) ever carry on his person. I need to show him my Bodyguard 380.