A Big, Easy Weekend: While City Systems Fail, New Orleans Culture Is Wonderfully Alive

The streetcar track runs through the center of St. Charles Avenue, on a grassy strip of land between each direction of the road. Joggers run on the narrow area of grass that separates the two streetcar tracks, because the sidewalks are too uneven to safely exercise on. After all boarding passengers have inserted $1.25, the streetcar jerks to life and heads toward the next stop. While our elevated seats provide great views of stately mansions on St. Charles, and tourists snap photos of the streetcar as it goes by, the old world ride is only graceful on film. Our ride is rickety and slow, and as the driver winds a joystick back and forth, the engine and breaks shudder and groan as we continue toward the bustling French Quarter. The lights flicker on and off, and the stop requested signal interrupts any streetcar-induced reverie like a blaring alarm. This is New Orleans.

Last week, I headed down south to see my best friend Annalee and visit New Orleans for the first time. I came in with an open mind, with only Annalee’s descriptions and the occasional NCIS: New Orleans episode coloring my perception of the current state of the city. What I found was a city that innately knows how to shape daily life around dysfunction, a city does not live in denial about this but, accepting some things can’t or won’t be fixed, shrugs it off, and goes on with what it does have. And what it has is Big Easy culture.

Our Friday night destination, after I land at about 9:40pm via a nonstop American Airlines flight from DCA, was a wine bar that’s a favorite with students and young professionals in the area named Delachaise. The cozy bar, welcoming and well-lit with string lights and a full outdoor seating area, contrasted with the reconstruction of the post-Katrina quick fixes we passed getting there. They are famous for their grilled cheese, in addition to the frog legs, cooked in duck fat fries, and steak bruschetta. They have an extensive wine and cocktail selection, and we ended up splitting a bottle of their Marlborough County Sauvignon Blanc, an excellent choice in any situation. It was a great start to our food Tour de New Orleans.

On Saturday morning, we headed out to Edgard, about 40 miles west of New Orleans in rural Louisiana, to visit a plantation. We chose Evergreen, as it would be a new landmark for both of us, but I also highly recommend Oak Alley, which Annalee previously spent a whole day at, as you can wander about the grounds, at lunch on the plantation, and even enjoy a gift shop. A 1.5 hour guided tour is required at Evergreen, and there are no working sections of the plantation. We both agreed that the live oak canopied private drive at Evergreen alone was well-worth the visit.

The main house at Evergreen also encapsulated some of the New Orleans dysfunction that seems to have existed in southern Louisiana since its colonial founding. At first, the main house was a Creole cottage, a tiny, one level shack with three rooms. A following owner of the plantation wanted something more grandiose, so he raised the house to build a level beneath it and added Greek revival columns to the front as well as the sweeping staircases seen today, going bankrupt in the process. But the house only looks grandiose from the front- the columned facade does not reveal the literal lack of depth to the house. After a few steps, you’ve crossed the entire building, and the slim extension in the back was only added recently by the current owner. Of course, there are many other buildings that supplemented the main house, but the flagship building is just another example of how the proud presentation of the South is mismatched with what’s within.

Back in New Orleans, we got ready for an early dinner and a long night out in the French Quarter. We took the streetcar from the residential area near Tulane where Annalee lives to Canal Street and took a short walk to Annalee’s favorite upscale French Quarter restaurant, Galatoire’s. There we met up with two of our friends and enjoyed cocktails, oysters Rockefeller and fried oysters as appetizers, and crab Yvonne, red snapper with crab Yvonne on top, the duck, and crab Rigote respectively as entrees. It was all delicious, and we topped it off with a bread pudding to share, which was highly recommended by my three local dining companions.

The night was still young when we left the restaurant, but from the Daylight Savings early darkness and how Bourbon Street never closes, you would think it was at least 10:30pm. Bourbon Street glowed from the neon signs, and people strolled around with grenade and fishbowl shaped souvenir drink containers or plastic cups. As we caught up on our respective lives over drinks and watched Saturday night in New Orleans come to life we visited the Crescent City Brewhouse, where neither of us actually drank a beer.

Being an avid traveler, especially of major U.S. and European cities, I have a particular love for well-designed boutique hotels, and now that I’m in my twenties I also notice and appreciate a unique hotel bar. It was only natural that both Annalee and I separately decided that the French

Quarter’s Hotel Monteleone Carousel Bar was a must-go for us. There was an election party in the bar so we only expected to stay a few minutes to take in the ambiance, but then a lady unexpectedly came up to us and asked if we wanted their table as they were just about ready to leave. Yes please! So the next phase of our evening became people watching with prosecco from prime window seats, and we were quite content. Hotel Monteleone had already put up their external Christmas lights and garlands, so the lights outside our window complemented the bar’s chandeliers to make the scene very cozy while it was also a New Orleans elite networking party.

When the oversized leather wing chairs started becoming too comfortable and our narcoleptic tendencies began to kick in, we closed out and took another walk through Bourbon Street as we headed to Frenchman Street to take in some authentic New Orleans nightlife. We stopped in at Maison where we ended up staying the rest of the evening thanks to the incredible sounds of the Big Easy Brawlers band.

On Sunday, we realized that the Georgetown-Duke game was happening for the first time in several years and we stopped in at the Avenue Pub on St. Charles Ave to watch some of the game. After that, we turned our focus back to the Big Easy.

It was a gorgeous, crisp fall day in New Orleans and excellent weather for beignet eating. So we stopped in at one of the most important places on our list- Cafe Du Monde. There is virtually always a line, so you have to know what experience you want: if it is a sit down, café break you want, then the front line will get you a seat. If you prefer a coffee and some beignets to go, loop around behind the building (going towards the water) to get in the to go line. In my opinion, the beignets are well worth a sit-down-and-savor experience, even if it means standing a few minutes in line. They were delicious, not to mention buried under mountains of powdered sugar. The whole cafe is practically made of powdered sugar from the amount they use.

The rest of the day we walked around the French Quarter, walking down to the Mississippi, taking in Jackson Square and the merchants that surround it, walking along Royal Street, daydreaming about massive chandeliers for our dream houses at Fischer Gambino, buying pralines, and checking out bookstores. Once our blood sugar ran low, we walked over to Mother’s Restaurant, a cafeteria-style culinary gem of the French Quarter. We got a feast, since I needed to experience many new dishes. We got jambalaya, seafood gumbo, red beans and rice, turnip greens, and the crowning dish, crawfish etoufee. It’s not the most Instagrammable food, but it is a treat. We topped it off with a slice of sweet potato pie.