Postcard From New Orleans
I recently visited New Orleans and it was a great time to be there - not for Mardi Gras or Jazz Fest, not during summer, not for any holiday at all. Among my five other traveling companions (my husband, my brother-and-sister-in-law, and two friends) I was the only one who hadn't been to the city before, so it was a first for me. We checked the weather forecast a few days in advance, and then again early in the morning on the day of our departure, and there was no discrepancy that it was going to be a chilly, overcast day with some rain. We landed and there wasn't a cloud in the sky, the sun was shining bright, and it was in the mid-60s. Apparently, it had rained earlier in the morning, but we later learned that this is quite typical, and the locals all know that the forecast is changeable, even within the same day.
The locals also know that no one uses the standard directions of north, south, east, and west in New Orleans. Because the Mississippi River curves through the city, and doesn't flow in a straight north-south or east-west direction, people define direction by the Mississippi and Lake Pontchartrain. Therefore, instead of north, there is 'lakeside' (referring to Pontchartrain) and instead of south there is 'upriver' or 'uptown' (west) while 'downriver' is east. Plus it helps to know where the Gulf of Mexico is. It's confusing at first, but eventually you get it.
We stayed at the terrific Henry Howard Hotel in the Lower Garden District. Henry Howard was a prolific 19th century architect and his work may be seen throughout the Garden District and much of Uptown as well as a few places downtown. Howard was a fan of Greek and Roman architectural elements but he designed shotgun houses, grand mansions, commercial buildings, and houses of worship (a good book for delving into his work is Henry Howard: Louisiana's Architect by Robert Brantley, co-published by the Princeton Architectural Press and The Historic New Orleans Collection in 2015). The Hotel was not designed by Howard but is a very attractive building that also dates from the 1800s and is in a quiet location on Prytania Street, one block from the St. Charles streetcar. The main first floor room, with a bar, has lots of comfy chairs and is a lovely place to sit - it's also where coffee and tea are served every morning. Guestrooms are large, nicely appointed, and feel of the place, and the staff is welcoming, helpful, and eager to make sure guests have a nice stay. The #wheretogeaux - a local guide featured on the hotel's website - is excellent, with dozens and dozens of worthwhile recommendations. Additionally, there is a 'Walk the Garden District' self-guided walking tour available on the site for $18.
On our first afternoon we went on a great tour of the city with Celebration Tours. Our guide was an amateur historian and very knowledgeable, and the tour was very thorough, taking in Basin Street Station (the tour begins here), the French Quarter, Treme, Armstrong Park (formerly Congo Square), Lake Pontchartrain, the central business district, the Garden District, City Park (with a stop for beignets and coffee at an outpost of Cafe du Monde), and Metairie cemetery. The tour is especially good for learning the geography of the city.
We enjoyed meals at Paladar 511, Bayona, Casamento's, Molly's Rise and Shine, Acme Oyster House, and Galatoire's - Friday lunch is the time to come to Galatoire's (after a Ramoz gin fizz at the bar at the Roosevelt Hotel) but we had to make do with lunch on Saturday, which was big fun. There are three floors at Galatoire's but the first floor is where you really want to be, at least if it's your first time. The day we went it was super loud - nearly every table was taken by a bevy of young women who were all dressed up and wearing holiday tiaras and hats - but it was also super entertaining. The menu has all the New Orleans classics you might expect, but don't miss the café brulot at the end of your meal!
We also enjoyed rounds of absinthe at the Old Absinthe House in the French Quarter, sazerac at Pat O'Brien's, Negronis at the Hot Tin bar on the roof at the Pontchartrain Hotel (a block from the Henry Howard Hotel), and Pimm's Cup at Napoleon House. Cane & Table is also an excellent bar (and restaurant) near Jackson Square. There are so many specialty drinks in the city that you really have to plan out your evenings or you can end up drinking the equivalent of a Long Island Iced Tea and be quite unwell the next morning. I regret we didn't make it to Bacchanal in Bywater, which had been highly recommended by a friend who is from the New Orleans area. So many bars, so little time.
Bourbon Street is fine to walk along exactly once, though it's hard to escape entirely as you often have to cross it to reach somewhere else you want to go. Frenchmen Street is far preferable, especially for The Spotted Cat club. The highlight of the visit for me was a performance of the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, which was awesome.
Without doubt, the very best preparation for a trip to New Orleans is the outstandingly wonderful book Unfathomable City: A New Orleans Atlas by Rebecca Solnit and Rebecca Snedeker (University of California Press, 2103). This edition is one in a small series (other editions feature San Francisco and New York) that I wish would grow into a very large series. Solnit and Snedeker are joined by 40 other contributors to create a thought-provoking compendium that is an all-encompassing picture of New Orleans. Each themed chapter is introduced with a map that illustrates that particular theme and how it's relevant to the history of the city. Readers discover so much here, some really good and some really awful, shameful things; but as the two Rebeccas explain in the Introduction, "fathom" is an Old English word that originally meant outstretched arms and an embrace by those arms, and it came to mean a measurement of about 6 feet, the width a man's arms could reach, as well as the embrace of an idea. "To fathom is to understand...New Orleans is all kinds of unfathomable, a city of amorphous boundaries, where land is forever turning into water, water devours land, and a thousand degrees of marshy, muddy, oozing in-between exist; where whatever you say requires more elaboration; where most rules are full of exceptions the way most land here is full of water...No matter how deeply you come to know a place, you can keep coming to know it more."
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