Feb Weekend in NOLA

We spent Thurs-Monday in New Orleans for our annual trip with my mama. We've been going every year since 2007 I think. We never bring our kids for this trip and we really live it up. Michael loves New Orleans with a deep down passion. I love it too, and I think we do New Orleans really well. Usually we eat, drink and listen to music with occasional shopping interspersed and lots of meandering. This time our trip morphed into even more as mom closed on her condo; Tiff and Keith and Kade coincidentally were in New Orleans; and we had a very important brunch on Sunday.

Thursday we arrived mid-day and met mama at the condo. We quickly unpacked, had a glass of wine and headed to the quarter. We took the street car down and shopped a bit down Chartres on our way to Frenchman, with a quick drink at Lafitte's. We had dinner at the Three Muses to hear Tom McDermott play and then wandered down to the Spotted Cat to see Miss Sophie Lee. After her set we walked over to Bamboulas for Marty Peters and the Party Meters who were absolutely wonderful.

The next morning we met Ben for a walk through of the new condo and then they went off to the closing before picking us up and taking us to Friday Lunch at Galatoire's. Friday lunch is something very, very special and is not easy to come by. You have to wait in line sometimes from the night before and you still have to know someone to get a table. Ben pulled some strings to get us a six top and it was WORTH IT!. It was such a bucket list thing to do. We had seen a scene about Friday Lunch on treme and so thought we had an idea of it, but reality is so much MORE. It's better, louder, more intense, more delicious and more boozy than I had imagined. We lunched with Ben, Mom, Gary, and Ben's childhood friend Ehren who was great. We drank champagne and they brought us plates of souffled potatoes with remoulade, shrimp, crab and fried oysters wrapped in bacon as well as a deceptively lovely bread. Then we each ordered an entree from the menu. I had drum with crab on top as well as cheesy cauliflower. After our three hour lunch we walked over by Jackson square for coffee and eventually to a really neat bar called Longway Tavern. We had lemon drop martinis there and plates of radishes and caviar on top of whipped butter and bread with lard/salt/butter. After visiting there for several more hours, we moved on to Frenchman and Bamboulas again for a quick dance before going out to the street for the Krewe Boheme. We got some lovely throws and had a great time. We met up with Tiff and Keith and Kade after and walked over to Bourbon street for a slice of pizza at Dante's before calling it a night. It had been a very fun, very full day!

Saturday morning we met up with Tiff, Keith and Kade and we all took the streetcar to the quarter. We shopped a bit down Royale and then Mom and Michael and I veered off for an amazing three course "light" lunch at Bayona. I had a the Bayona salad with a blue point reyes, lamb adobo tacos and finished with a duck, peanut butter sandwich with apple slaw. It was incredible! The whole meal went down well with a crisp white wine. The food was delicious, but strangely, the service was really slow. It was odd. After lunch we met back up with Tiff's gang at Fifi Mahoney's to buy new wigs! It was so fun to try them all on in the crowded, mardi gras excitement-filled, room. We each choose a wig and mom generously bought them all for us! Mom's was the very best as evidenced by photos above. People stopped us on the street over and over and over again to take her picture, compliment her, and point. We shopped some more for a while after Fifi's (wearing our wigs) and then we split up again so Mom and Michael and I could meet Mom's friend for coffee at Sucre. While at Sucre (my favorite chocolate store), we bought two king cakes and a box of chocolates to give to Sophie as a hostess gift later that evening. When we finished coffee, we walked over to Frenchman to meet back up with Tiff, Keith and Kade. We bought some wine and then went over to the balcony at Three Muses for a private party hosted by Sophie to watch the Krewe de Vieux parade! We put out our cake to share and handed over the chocolates and went out to the balcony to enjoy! We met so many neat people and ate lots of Zapp's chips and mom got interviewed by the local station. The parades were incredible with lots of amazing floats and GREAT people watching. We had a fabulous time! After the parade, we made our way back downstairs and tried to watch the band, but there was no room for us so we headed back to the condo for a good night's sleep!

Sunday morning was a very special time. We woke up and got ready and then walked over to Magazine to have brunch at Cavan with some very special people. YOu see, it turns out that I have a half brother that I never knew about. I know, this deserves a post of it's own and I will! In the meantime, I will tell you that he lives in Baton Rouge and his name is Kurt and he is wonderful and I got to meet his whole family on Sunday along with my whole family and I love all of them and we are completely, over-the-moon happy to know him and have him be part of our lives. The brunch went super well even thought I probably stuck my foot in my mouth eight million times. The food was good, but not completely amazing. We shared raw oysters with a strawberry mignonette, corn fritters, chips and queso, gumbo, and a duck prosciutto toast to start. Then I had shrimp and cheese grits for an entree which I didn't love, but tasted fine. Mostly, I was paying attention to the people! My sister had made cups for everyone that had our names and the phrase, "it's a family thing!". We handed them out and everyone seemed pleased. After brunch we all walked back to the condo and visted some more before they had to leave. When that was all over we took the street car back to the quarter for some more shopping! (Of course we did). We split up again and agreed to meet for dinner. Mom and Michael and I made our way to Arnaud's French 75 bar where we ordered French 75s and got a great little table and an order of the most amazing cheese biscuits I've ever had in my life. This is my new favorite bar and I intend to go there again. There is a great museum upstairs of Mardi Gras that is completely free! I loved it so much. Tiff and Keith and Kade met us there and then we went over to Arnaud's Jazz Bistro for dinner. They required a collar and Kade had to put on a loaner jacket with his shorts. It was pretty funny. The food was incredible at dinner, but it was so loud! We could barely hear each other, but we still had so much fun! We had bread served with our own pats of butter, shared appetizers of Shrimp Arnaud and Oysters Bienville, and then I had a sauteed drum with crabmeat on top with a side of okra and souffled potatoes. It was very delicious! We took taxi's home and went straight to bed. I was exhausted. The next morning we woke early to catch our plane home. It was a very momentous, very amazing trip!