I just went to New Orleans a few months ago, but a group of friends were going and asked me to tag along. It’s New Orleans, so of course I said yes.
Getting into New Orleans
I took an afterwork flight out with a few friends on Friday. There was almost everyone going on our flight, and we got in without issue. We checked into our hotel and divied up the rooms, dropping off our gear before heading out. We stayed in the Central Business District for this trip, which I liked a lot.
Friday Night
After settling in, we split up and a few of us went to a grocery store and got some sundries: some wine, some soda water, crackers, and the ilk. Everyone then went to Cochon Butcher for dinner and headed toward the Frech Quarter and to Bourbon Street. I usually hate Bourbon Street, but this time, it was a shit ton of fun.
We started by ducking into a place a friend recommended and got a Shark Attack. It was a blue-tinted, sugary drink with grenadine splashed like blood. There was a whole production done in serving it complete with throwing ice and ringing a bell. We downed the first drinks of the evening and ducked out fairly quick to walk the street a bit.
What proceeded was a procesion of bars and ducking in for a quick drink or two and migrating to another spot. We hit Old Absinthe House and Fritzels among stops. The group spent the majority of the evening on Bourbon and grabbing drinks.
We finished up by walking back to where we were staying armed with chicken from Brother’s Food Mart.
Saturday
Saturday, we woke up and a few of us went to go watch college football. We found a spot and watched the majority of the first game before heading off to meet up for a late lunch. We met up at Brennan’s and got lunch. A few people bailed early to watch the college game they were interested in and the rest of us walked toward French Market.
After a bit, we ventured to New Orleans Vampire Cafe to get the password for Potions Lounge, a speak easy in the back of Fritzels. The food at Vampire Cafe was alright and the cocktails were fine. There were a lot of bachlorette parties in the restuarant, which seemed a bit odd, but they weren’t your typical all-matching, all-blonde, woo-girl, boots and cowboy hat bachlorette party that you see in Austin. The place was amusing and exploring the cafe to look upstairs was actually pretty neat.
We then met up with the others and walked to Marie Laveau’s House of Voodoo on Bourbon. After, we went to Erin Rose and had a few beers and a po boy. After, we wound up for a bit at Pat O’Brien’s watching the dueling pianos and drinking hurricanes. Once back on Bourbon, we repeated the goings on from the evening before and toured Bourbon’s selection of bars. We also repeated the finality of the previous night by getting chicked from Brother’s Food Mart.
Sunday
On Sunday, we got up and split the group. Some going to watch football and the rest of us going to Carousel Bar before going to Acme Oyster House. At Acme, we had a bunch of oysters. I don’t really like oysters, but had a couple of the grilled oysters, which I still am not a fan of. The red beans and rice were good though.
From there, we headed back to French Market and wandered around the area for a bit. Along the way, we went to Peychaud’s for a couple drinks and it was an incredibly impressive bar. The cocktails were good and the staff was really cool to talk to. I would highly recommend New Orleans to anyone for the quality of resteraunts and bars in the city, but I would recommend Peychaud’s specificly.
We hit a few stores near Frenchman and went to Jackson Square before we sat on the Mississippi for a bit. After spending an hour or so there, we went to Coop’s Place. I would also recommend Coop’s.
Our waiter gave us the run down for the place: “don’t use your phone at the table, no split checks, he knows the menu and will advise you on it.”
He also gave us a run down of the menu: “This is fried food you can get anywhere, so don’t order it. This is a pork chop, you can get it where you live, don’t order it. This is etoufee, it’s rice and tomatoes, don’t order it.” He then pointed at the menu and the various sections on it. “In summary, fuck no, fuck no, fuck yes…” The food was great and the service was just the type of service that I appreciate; direct and to the point from a waiter who would be otherwise completely indifferent to me.
We went from Coop’s Place to meet up with people at Potions, the speak easy that we got the password for from Vampire Cafe. We waited for the entirity of the group before going in. Potions was pretty underwhelming. The drinks were okay, but the atmosphere was a bit kitschy. It was good to have been to, but I think I liked the scene at Fritzel’s better.
I had to bail from Potions to catch my flight back to Austin and get to work the next day.
Overall Thoughts
I dig New Orleans a lot. The group of people I went with really made this a tremendous trip. Everyone was super cool and it was the first time I spent a considerable amount of time on Bourbon and had fun. I’d happily go somewhere else with that group of people again.
The resteraunts we went to were all good and worth repeating. Coop’s Place was somewhere I immediately thought to rotate in for future trips to New Orleans. Peychaud’s was a great cocktail bar and it’s courtyard was perfect to kill an hour in.
