Thursday, October 16, 2014

2014 Trip - Day 14 - October 16


 

No breakfast today, as we got ready and went straight to the Friends of The Jefferson Public Library. It was being held a The Pontchartrain Center in Kenner about 30 minutes from the French Quarter. We loaded up on some books and videos (probably more than we should have, since now I've got to get them stuffed into the car for the trip back home).





On the way back in we stopped at Parkway Bakery and Tavern for a roast beef po boy, bread pudding and some long neck Barq's. They were packed at 3:00, I don't know how busy they must be at lunch. This was a good sandwich and I like the bread pudding which has a rum sauce.



Back to the apartment and some crazy rushing back to where I first parked the car when we returned this afternoon, when a space came open in front of the apartment (makes it easier to load out in the morning). We walked down to Acme, but the line was tremendous, so decided to eat at Camellia Grill, but on the way, we thought Chartres House looked good, but it was so noisy in the back, that we left and went across the street to our original destination, Camellia Grill or The Grill as they like to call it. Peggy had a pecan waffle and I had ham and cheese on rye. She also ordered a side of bacon and they REALLY gave her a side of bacon (see photo) above.

This will be the last entry for this trip. Normally, I'm ready to go home, whether we've been here two weeks or six weeks, but this time I really don't give a whit about going back to Greenville....and I don't even know what a "whit" is!

Wednesday, October 15, 2014

2014 Trip - Day 13 - October 15


 

We had a light breakfast at Wink's Bakery (split a breakfast sandwich and we each had a buttermilk drop). Then we had to get clothes washed. After completing our chores, we went to Yo Mama's and split a Yo Mama's Cheeseburger and baked potato. 



After a brief rest we walked down to Riverwalk so Peggy could do a little shopping and then walked back to the apartment and after another very brief rest, we walked to Mother's and had a baked ham po boy (just ok), red beans and rice (passable), bread pudding (good, but it's the old fashioned kind with fruit cocktail - Peggy likes it better than I do) and I had a piece of sweet potato pie (good). 



There's so few people here tonight, there wasn't even a line at Coops, however, they were full inside. Lots of gutter punks out tonight on Decatur and lots of hustling of tourists on Bourbon tonight.

2014 Trip - Day 12 - October 14



After the storms yesterday, the internet wouldn't connect on our laptop or Peggy's Kindle, but for some reason would connect on my Nook. We went to Cafe Envie since they had free internet, but once again they screwed our orders up. After catching up with our online pages, we went out of the French Quarter and did some thrifting and then stopped by Dorignac's to load up on some items to take home that we can't get in Greenville. Dorignac's has a new commercial on TV down here where there slogan is "We Got Dat" and to my amazement that have Dukes Mayonnaise, although we're getting pretty used to Blue Plate, which is to New Orleans what Duke's is to us native Greenvillians.



We picked up a few things from the Dorignac's bakery also and headed to Parkway for a roast beef po boy, but to our chagrin, they were closed on Tuesday. We thought about going to Cafe Reconcile but when we checked, we found they had already closed for the day. I remembered I always wanted to try Cochon, so we headed out to Tchoupitoulas and got a parking spot just a half block from their door.



This was a great meal, we had wood fired oysters with chili garlic butter, fried boudin with pickled peppers, gumbo, and an apple and beet salad with pecans, feta and pickled mustard seed vinaigrette. For dessert we had upside-down pineapple cake with cherry sherbet and dulce de leche.

Later at the apartment, we realized we had eaten so much, we didn't need another meal, so we ate a couple of pastries from Dorignac's and a couple of buttermilk drops we had gotten this morning when we passed by Wink's.

Tuesday, October 14, 2014

2014 Trip - Day 11 - October 13



We started the day by taking a white knuckle drive across The Causeway Bridge (longest continuous bridge over water in the world). I was in for 24 miles of pure grip the hell out of the steering wheel and hope I don't have a blow out and go over the side (3 people have died so far this year going off the bridge). With relief we made it across and we went to see our friend Eddie Rome, who used to live next door to us on Bourbon.



Eddie had a great house and a new sweet dog named Olivia. After we caught up on some things, we went to downtown Covington to eat lunch at Mattina Bella Restaurant. I had Blue Crab Benedict and Peggy had a Western omelet, everything was mighty tasty.



After brunch, we rode around a little bit and saw the countryside then made our way to Abita Springs (yes, where the beer is made), but the real treat was when Eddie said he wanted to take us to this museum. Well, have you ever forgotten something that you really wanted to do...this museum was one of those things for me. It used to be called the UCM Museum, but is now changed to The Mystery Museum. Full of....well, everything you could think of to collect.



After dropping Eddie back off at his house, we had to make that white knuckle drive back across the bridge and they charged me a 3.00 toll for that pleasure. We decided to go to The Palace Cafe for their 5 after 5 special and it rained all the way during our walk, but we made it in at 6:45, just 15 minutes before the cutoff....unfortunately, we didn't get waited on until 5 minutes after the cutoff time. I decided to complain to the management and this got fixed posthaste. We had buffalo oysters,  duck spring rolls with a vidalia onion marmalade dip, and of course, our true reason to come...White Chocolate Bread Pudding! Best dessert in town, even though the slices cost more than our appetizers

One final note, we got some new neighbors and the redhead sitting outside introduced herself as GINGER...who woulda guessed!

Monday, October 13, 2014

2014 Trip - Day 10 - October 12


We started the day out at Camellia Grill with pancakes and pecan waffle....oh, so much better than the bad breakfast at Horn's yesterday. We visited some of the bookstores in the French Quarter and then I had a mid afternoon nap.



After my nap, we went back to Drago's for a dozen charbroiled oysters and some bread pudding. Our waitress was close to being surly and won the award for the least liked server we've had so far (I guess she can still be topped before we leave). She wasn't terrible, just seems she might be in the wrong line of work.

We visited the Hustler store and had a fun time checking out two floors of adult goodies. My favorite thing was one of the classifications in the "DVD Special Interest Section" labeled "Family"....really a family section.....oh, not for the family, but about family...my bad...anyway, that amused me.



We needed a little something else to eat before heading back in and decided on Cafe Maspero's. We used to eat there a lot in the past, but haven't been there in many years. The oysters on the po boy were very good, but the sandwich could have used more oysters....guessed we're spoiled. Next time, we'll just order an oyster dinner - more oysters less bread. The banana bread pudding was ok, not great. My favorite thing about the whole meal was when we ordered Barq's in the bottle, our waitress wanted to warn us, we couldn't get any refills on them....really, you mean you want refill my bottle...haha...but she was nice and just trying to look out for us old codgers!

Sunday, October 12, 2014

2014 Trip - Day 9 - October 11



Horn's now occupies the space that our beloved La Peniche used to be in, but we thought we would give them a try. All I can say is too bad that La Peniche is gone, because Horn's sure didn't win us over. Everything but the sausage was overcooked with Peggy's waffle being so hard, she got tired of cutting it. The manager did come back and asked us how things were and when she told him about the waffle, he took it off our bill...guess I should have told him, that I'm no fan of crispy pancakes....yes crispy pancakes. Oh well, live and learn. I'm not even going to provide a link to this place, since it was such a disappointment.

We went to The Mint, part of the Parks Department, to see Tom Buck, who gave a one hour lecture with examples on the development of Jazz in New Orleans...to bad  regular school was never this entertaining. He was introduced by park ranger, Bruce Barnes...as in Sunpie Barnes. After this concert we walked around to Louisiana Music Factory and caught the last part of Kyndra Joi & Soul Therapy. There was hardly anyone there and those that were there drifted off....too bad...I think they looked at this group and thought "just a bunch of sisters from the hood".... but they were super talented and had good stage presence.


After these two shows we went to Molly's at The Market where there is a tiny restaurant in the back called L'enfant. We had scotch eggs which were wrapped in boudin and covered with a remoulade sauce. These were quite tasty and I would definitely recommend them.


We went to One Eyed Jack's and saw Fleur de Tease's Halloween show and after the show we finally made it back to Acme again for some Boo Fries and Meat Pies (the meal that rhymes). Looks like 10 pm on a Saturday night is when the line is finally down.

Saturday, October 11, 2014

2014 Trip - Day 8 - October 10



We had a light breakfast at Wink's Bakery (buttermilk drops and honeybun), since we planned to have a larger meal at lunch at Sobou. One of the attractions was 25 cent martinis, the other was some interesting small plates. I had boudin balls, sweet potato beignets (foie gras fondue, duck debris, chicory coffee ganache), and pork belly steam bun (confit pork belly, pickled napa cabbage, with a peach bbq sauce) . Peggy had kale and satsuma salad with spicy pecans, goat cheese, and muscadine vinaigrette and for dessert we split a pecan pie not pie (served in a jar with a chocolate covered cracklin and peanut butter whipped cream) with a couple of martinis, a rum collins, and coffee. I needed a nap this afternoon.




After my nap, we went to DBA and saw Linzzi Zaorski  (old time swing songs), but while her voice was still good, she just didn't have the snazzy stage presence she's had in the past, we attribute this to her being four months pregnant.



After seeing Linzzi, we walked down to Canal Street and caught the streetcar to Chickie Wah Wah  (how I love to say that name), since one of our favorites, Paul Sanchez, was playing there. It is a super nice small club and they have a restaurant inside, Blue Oak BBQ. We had pork bbq nachos, which were pretty good, but the standout was the Beef Brisket Tacos, they were so good, we wished we had skipped the nachos and got two orders of the tacos.

This was a big adventure for us, out riding the streetcar at night to an unfamiliar (at least at night) part of town. We found that, just like everyone else in town, the streetcar drivers (at least the ones we had) are very nice. As an added treat on the way back in, a mentally disturbed woman boarded and I realized that I enjoy being on a streetcar with people like this....I guess New Orleans is the place for me!

Thursday, October 9, 2014

2014 Trip - Day 7 - October 9



 We started our day at Wink's Bakery again, splitting a breakfast sandwich and an order of buttermilk drops. After breakfast we headed over the bridge to The West Bank and did some thrifting and then drove into Algiers Point, since we're considering that as one of our move to places next year.



After getting back to this side of the river (surprisingly there is no longer a toll coming back into New Orleans), we went to Liuzza's By The Track for their great Reuben sandwich, slaw, and gumbo. Peggy says that's the best slaw she's ever eaten, I'm still partial to the slaw at Holmes Hot Dogs in Spartanburg, SC. She also liked my gumbo, and she's not a big gumbo eater like me. I think they have one of the best in New Orleans.



I found out why there was nothing going on in Armstrong Park yesterday, it was today...us old people get confused easily. We walked over and caught the last part of Daria and the Hip Drops, a good act, but Daria doesn't have the best voice in the world.  We caught a little bit of Jon Cleary before heading back into the FQ. 



Coop's had  a line out the door again...I'm assuming it has been featured on some TV show, since it has never been that crowed here before, not even on the weekends. Since Molly's was also packed, we headed a little further down the street to The Louisiana Pizza Kitchen. We used to eat here quite often, but it has been many years since we dined there. The wood fired Margherita pizza was delicious and we also split a bread pudding with lemon Chantilly sauce, which was pretty good.

2014 Trip - Day 6 - October 8



We had a light breakfast at Croissant D'or -- a couple of raspberry croissants and we split a coke - 8.00. After breakfast we headed out to Jefferson Highway to hit a couple of thrift stores (Salvation Army and Red, White, and Blue). At Red, White and Blue, I made an error in what I thought was on sale and spent a little more than I meant to..oh, well...that's how it goes sometimes.


On the way back in to the French Quarter, we first stopped at Haydel's for a Cajun Kringle. After that brief stop, we headed to Crabby Jack's to get one of my favorite po boys, Fried Green Tomatoes with Shrimp Remoulade. We split a 12" and with a couple of drinks our tab was 18.00.


We got a surprise when we got back to the apartment, even though the Cajun Kringle was in the same size box, the width of the kringle was about 1/2 what it used to be, but it is still mighty tasty.


Walked to Armstrong Park to see John Cleary, but either we couldn't find where the concert was happening OR we got there at intermission. Will try again next Wednesday for the same event. We decided to grab a quick bite and go see The Tin Men at DBA. Went by Coops and it was jam packed, so headed on over to DBA for the show. After watching their first set, we were hungry and went back by Coops and they had a line out the door, so, we decided to go to Acme, where we found another terrible line....WTF..it's Wednesday and there aren't a lot of people here....but they all want to eat where we want to eat. 


We walked on down to Decatur street to Felipe's Taqueria for a couple of tacos and back at the apartment we had some Kringle for dessert.

Wednesday, October 8, 2014

2014 Trip - Day 5 - October 7


Since we were going to have an early lunch (at least for us), we just grabbed a couple of coffees from Cafe Envie. They made them wrong, but they were still better than Starbucks. 

We drove out to Magazine Street and ate at Casamento's. Peggy had a bowl of oyster stew and I had 1/2 of an oyster loaf and a cup of seafood gumbo. We both had long neck Barq's and they were served with the tiny glasses.


After a brief stop at Wally World to pick up some supplies, we drove to Gentilly to see our friends David and Danny. It was a super nice neighborhood, very clean and quiet, but in my opinion (and whose else really matters), it's to far out if you want to live in New Orleans. 

After arriving back in the French Quarter, we got a pretty good parking spot. We decided to walk down to Wink's to get a couple of desserts for later in the evening. We bought a cinnamon roll and a brownie, but best of all, they had buttermilk drops fresh out out of the fryer and we ate all three (you get 3 per order) while walking back to the apartment. These truly deserve the letters OMG. 

We walked back to Riverwalk Mall for Peggy to pickup some shoes...they could only find one shoe of a pair last night, but sometime in the last 24 hours they found the mate. It wasn't too far of a walk from the mall to Mother's. We split a debris po boy and some potato salad. Our server brought someone else's seafood gumbo to the table and he said just keep it for free. It was pretty good, made even better by being free. An amusement near the end of the meal came when our server told us even though the sign said no tipping, it was ok to leave something on the table. Amusing, since we never saw the sign and always leave a tip there.

Tuesday, October 7, 2014

2014 Trip - Day 4 - October 6



We started our day once again a Wink's Bakery, where we split a breakfast sandwich and an order of buttermilk drops. What a great place and everyone that works there seems to be really nice also.With a couple of coffees, our bill was 12.00.


After some roaming around the French Quarter, we decided to head over to Dragos for some chargrilled oysters, the first dozen was so good, we ordered a second dozen. Even though this was suppose to be a light lunch, we found that we were pretty full by the end of the second batch. With a couple of sodas, our bill was 50.00 pre tip.


After some more roaming about the French Quarter and resting some at the apartment, we decided just to split a club sandwich and pick up a couple of pieces of cake from The Quartermaster (sometimes referred to as The Nellie Deli), with a couple of sodas our bill was 18.00.


Sunday, October 5, 2014

2014 Trip - Day 3 - October 5

 

We started the day off at Camellia Grill, but I forgot to take photos, but most people know what 3 pancakes and bacon looks like. As a side note, I will say that they have the strongest coffee I have ever had. Peggy thought it was great, I just never could get it tasting right for me. Our bill was around 17.00 before tip.


After a short rest we took the ferry to Gretna Fest. They now charge for riding the ferry, to Gretna or just across the river to Algiers Point. We ate a great meatball sandwich and some tasty chargrilled oysters. One of the main people I wanted to see was an old rockabilly star Joe (Don't Mess With My Ducktail) Clay, but he turned out to be more of a player in a band than the actual leader of the band. We caught a little bit of Bonerama, and then walked over to see a duo called Baby Bee and they turned out to be the best we saw today. The only other band we watched for a while was Mrz Crowley, a cover party band, who were also good. We tried to see a band called Little White Lies, but they didn't show up, so I guess there name suited them.



Once we got back to the apartment this afternoon we had a short rest and then went to Acme Oyster House and split some Boo Fries (fries covered in cheese and roast beef gravy...in fancy restaurants this dish is called Poutine) and Meat Pies with a couple of Barq's....Man! that Barq's is so good in the long neck bottles. Our bill ran around 18.00 before tip. Finished out the night with the rest of the mini dark chocolate mocha cake from Wink's.

2014 Trip - Day 2 - October 4



We started the day at Wink's Bakery, I had a terrific honey bun and Peggy had buttermilk drops, which she said were like eating a cloud of goodness. 


Thought they would be busy, but The Napoleon House wasn't too full and we were able to get a good table in the bar area. We split a 1/2 of a muffaletta and a couple of beers. One minor disappointment, they switched from Michelob dark draft to Abita Amber, which isn't as good. I drank mine and finished Peggy's and she ordered a Blue Moon instead, but the sandwich was good as usual, 23.00 pre tip.



On the way to Louisiana Music Factory we stopped by Envie Expresso Bar and Cafe for a couple of white chocolate lattes, which were mighty tasty. At the record store, we saw Jimmy Carpenter and then went back later and saw Susan Cowsill. She wasn't scheduled to perform, but had come by to support an artist friend of hers who was doing a pop up art show and decided to do a short set (4 songs). Peggy preferred Jimmy Carpenter best,  but I liked Susan Cowsill better and wished she had done a longer set.



We were in the mood for charbroiled oysters for dinner, but Acme was swamped and Dragos was a 30 minute wait, so we swung by Popeye's and got a couple of chicken finger combos. Later we had part of a dark chocolate mocha mini cake we had picked up from Wink's earlier.



Friday, October 3, 2014

2014 Trip - Day 1 - October 3




I thought I had died and gone to Hell this morning, but realized I was just driving (well sitting still and occasionally creeping along) through Atlanta on I-85 in a rain storm. Surely, Hell would be more pleasant than this! This threw us somewhere between and hour and an hour and a half behind schedule.....well, the schedule I had set for myself. We finally arrived in New Orleans shortly before six pm CST and really lucked out when someone left a parking spot directly across from the apartment.

 

After we did some unpacking, we made our way to Mona Lisa on Royal Street for a couple of salads and a garlic pizza with fresh basil and tomatoes...I know this isn't a typical New Orleans meal, but it's one of our favorites and since it's a just a tad off the beaten path, it's usually not too busy on a Friday  night. With a couple of sodas, our bill was 25.00 pre tip. After eating we walked down Royal for several blocks and turned back up walked back up Bourbon and back to the apartment to rest up for tomorrow.