Celebrating a Big One in the Big Easy

Monteleone Hotel

Darr celebrated a big birthday last month. I will give you a hint. The number starts with an “s.” That’s right, sixteen! He was crystal and crescent city clear about where he wanted to spend that birthday--New Orleans. I asked what we would do there and he said "eat." We ate and we walked and we took streetcars, and saw parks and cemeteries and giant oak trees. 

Carousel Bar

We stayed in an oasis of peace and quiet that I never knew existed in the French Quarter, the Monteleone Hotel. It was lux and deluxe with fantastic service. There was little sense from our room that there was barfing on Bourbon Street and that there were beads in the trees. The hotel has the Carousel Bar which spins around slowly while you drink. Darr had a concoction of five shots (bourbon, rye, cognac, liqueur, and bitters) called Le Vieux Carré, which means the old square. I told him he was a vieux carré. We went around five times and at the end a man told us he hopes we feel as good as we look. 

Commander's Palace

Commander’s Palace commands your respect and your attention, they call, text, and email to confirm that you are coming. As we walked in the hostess asked whose birthday it was and took us to a designated table with balloons. We had oysters and shrimp and sausage and an amazing bread pudding souffle and Darr was presented with a funny hat. 

Despite having been to New Orleans several times for conventions, a Super Bowl, and a Jazz Fest, I realized that I had seen only about one quarter of it. Yes, that quarter. We got on streetcar on St. Charles and saw stately houses in the Garden District.  

Live Oak Tree, Tulane

We had barely started our walk around Tulane University when we encountered a full production of The Tempest. The sky turned black, we sheltered under an overhang while jolted by enormous cracks of thunder and lightning strikes only a few hundred feet away. Tulane was empty, but the buildings were  open, so we made a lily pad hop from one to another before safely arriving in the main office where we were awarded with a Tulane umbrella. 

Audubon Aquarium

We were already wet, so we continued the aquatic theme indoors at to the Audubon Aquarium. There we visited the few surviving fish not being served that night in a restaurant. 

We had planned to go to one of Darr's favorites, Mosca's, an Italian restaurant that Calvin Trillin raved about in the New Yorker in 2010.  But it's a half hour drive, and after surviving the tempest it seemed too much trouble, so we walked over to Tujagues, the second oldest restaurant in New Orleans. I think it's feeling its age. The hostess was wearing a basketball referee’s shirt and the dining room was separated from the bar by a dreary curtain. None of this detracted from the delicious meal though, wedge salad, Oysters Decatur and Gulf Fish Almondine. 

Katrina Memorial

Above ground burial

The next day we took the Canal Street streetcar to see the Katrina Memorial and found ourselves walking through a death row of sorts, blocks and blocks of cemeteries with their weird above-ground tombstones.

Then on to the very alive, gorgeous sprawling New Orleans City Park dense with some of the city's oldest live oak trees whose branches reach the ground to surround and protect the visitor. We sucked down a frozen café au lait at the park's well located Café Du Monde and then went to the New Orleans Museum of Art. My favorite exhibit was America, a life-sized golden log cabin stuffed with representations of capitalism—coal, bullets, arrowheads, cotton balls, all painted in brash gold resin. 

New Orleans City Park

Birthday dinner at the Palace Café, surpassed all others. Darr had the famous crabmeat cheesecake, and broiled oysters. I had Andouille Crusted Fish doused in butter and Crystal Hot Sauce. 

 

Brennan's birthday treat

We had our post-birthday brunch at the elegant Brennan’s where even nine-year-olds wear seersucker suits. Darr had a crawdish quiche, I got the famous eggs Benedict, perfectly crisp potatoes, buttermilk biscuits to die for. And although we were too full to order dessert, the waiter brought Darr a huge pink cotton candy confection that looked like a Marge Simpson wig, concealing a piece of birthday cake and ice cream. And he got a Brennan’s apron. 

Second line band, outside St. Louis Cathedral

Did we go out to see music? No, but did we go out and see music? Yes. During an average stroll through the French Quarter there are any number of street musicians, and live bands, "playing real good for free,"as Joni Mitchell said.

Postscript My first visit to New Orleans was in 1988 to meet Darr on assignment at Jazz Fest. We ate at K Paul’s Louisiana Kitchen, now closed, where they stuck stars on your forehead based on how well you ate. We also went to Lafitte's Blacksmith's Shop Bar, established in 1700 featuring, I wrote, a pianist named Lilly who was 80 trying to look 50. You could make a song request but Lilly would ignore it and play whatever she wanted to." We celebrity spotted Paul Simon, and later David Byrne (wearing a cowboy belt that said Larry). I told Darr a friend said she hates New Orleans because it is "hot, dirty, cheap, and decadent." Darr breathed in the dubious foul smelling air on Bourbon Street, and said "Ah yes! It is all this and more." 

What a perfect spot for a "big birthday."

À tout à l'heure, New Orleans