Friday, January 1, 2016. 11pm.
When we've done these New Year get-togethers in the past in Chicago we tend to hang around in the house all day because the weather is too shitty to want to venture out more than absolutely necessary. One of the reasons to try it in New Orleans this time around was to catch some better weather. Normal in Nola this time of year is about 60.
Today pretty much the whole crew set out on foot toward the French Quarter- or as it is known locally in French, the Vieux Carré (Old Square). Our plan was to start with a visit to the St. Louis Cathedral and see what developed from there.
Suddenly, Shopping
Along the way to the cathedral several in our group noticed the French Market, an open market stretching across a few city blocks. It has a variety of craft and food sellers. Half the group wanted lunch, half the group were interested in crafts, so we all went over.
I used the market as an opportunity to buy a scarf. Remember what I wrote above about avoiding Chicago's shitty weather? Well, it came south. Today was about as shitty as it gets in New Orleans (short of being submerged under water) with temperatures barely above 40, a light rain, and a cold breeze.
The folks eating took longer than expected but I enjoyed passing the time listening to a group of buskers play instruments from across the street. Having a scarf made the weather more tolerable, at least for a bit. Soon enough we were back en route to the cathedral.
God is Closed
The St. Louis Cathedral turned out to be a bust. The whole building was locked up tighther than a nun's knees. No visitors, no tours, not even any worshippers allowed.
Let's Get a Drink!
Next on the group's agenda was getting some drinks. Normally that wouldn't be hard on Bourbon Street. The place is basically an half-mile-long trough of booze. Normally the problem would be choosing which house of ill repute to spend time in. But today they were almost all bad choices. It's New Year's Day, and the Sugar Bowl is today. Ole Miss is playing. And because it's not a long trip for Mississippi fans, literally thousands of them are here. In the French Quarter. Jamming every bar to standing room only. Filling the streets. Hanging off of balconies.
We tried Pat O'Briens first. Ordinarily its piano bar is a great place to hear music and its outdoor gardens are a great place to chill with friends over drinks. But with the Ole Miss crowds, the garden was packed shoulder-to-shoulder, and the piano bar was so noisy the musicians may as well have been banging pots together. We communicated via hand signals that it was time to bail out.
Our next attempt was at Lafitte's, the oldest bar in New Orleans, thought to date to 1761. It, too, was slammed.
We wound up grabbing a round of drinks at one of Bourbon Street's many drinks-to-go places. They have rows of Slurpee machines filled with hurricanes, margaritas, etc., and yes, you can get them in Big Gulp sizes. Neck strap optional.
After this our group broke up. Half wanted to chillax someplace ritzy and preferably not standing room-only and headed off to the Roosevelt hotel across Canal Street. The rest of us wanted to... Well, I'm not sure what everyone else wanted to do, but Hawk and I felt like visiting some of the nice antiques and art shops in the Quarter. Noone else was interested so we went by ourselves.
Dinner!
Shopping was mostly a bust. Half or more of the stores were closed today. That wasn't terribly surprising given a) it's a holiday and b) the thousands of people in town today to get shit-faced watching a football game tend not to be the antiquing sort.
Soon enough it was dinner time. We walked around for a while trying to find a place that wasn't a) take-away food like pizza and burgers, b) a slammed watering hole that also serves food, or c) expensive high-end. Ironically the place we settled on was the Jackson Brewery, literally a watering hole, but it wasn't too crowded. We grabbed seats at the bar and ordered quickly.
For my meal I tried a "taste of New Orleans" sampler. It included a cup of seafood gumbo, a crawfish etouffe, and a jambalaya with deep-fried frog legs. Basically I couldn't decide which of those three local specialties I wanted so I picked the option that gave me a bit of each.
"Good news, bad news," the waiter announced as he brought our food. Bad news: the kitchen was out of the small bowls and plates my food was supposed to be served on. Good news: they served me with full sized bowls and plates but didn't want to look like cheapskates by filling each less than halfway, so they gave me a full portion of each dish.
"There's no way I'm going to eat all this," I said as I rearranged the dishes in front of me so I could reach them all. But the oversized portions turned out to be a good thing, as they allowed me to fill up on the dishes that tasted best.
The frog legs I took two bites of and stopped. The saying "tastes like chicken" applies. They taste like greasy, bland chicken.
On the other hand, the étouffée was amazing. The roux had a mild, slightly sweet flavor that balanced the crawfish beautifully. I finished the bowl and nibbled at the other dishes until I was full.
...Well, almost full. Because my platter included a slice of bread pudding for dessert. I know from going to grad school in the south that part of southern culture is, "It's impolite to refuse pecan pie." I believe a similar rule applies for bread pudding in New Orleans. Thankfully this came in only a small portion. It was warm and sweet and absurdly good. Hawk and I demolished it together.
Drinking, Games (and Drinking Games)
Back at
the firehouse we've been playing games this evening. And drinking. That was why our group broke apart after finding the bars downtown so crowded. "Hmm, where's a quiet place where we can drink together? Uhh, home!!"
I'm going to have to call it an early evening, though. My health has been worsening this evening. I have a sore throat and I'm going hoarse, possibly from being out in the chilly weather too much today. I'll see if I feel better tomorrow.