New Orleans Musical Food Trail
Five in the afternoon , entering New Orleans after passing through the swampy areas where they live the beasts of the southern wild , everything that Hurricane Katrina mercilessly swept away more than 10 years ago. Today, luckily, there are few traces left of that desolation in the city, only some of the marks they wrote on the houses to indicate if there were victims inside, they remain as a reminder of their survival, not of the disaster.
The city, today, in spring mode, at 30 degrees humid , breathe a sigh of relief and continue the party. The Jazz Fest (from April 22 to May 1) is one of the best times to visit it, because not only is there jazz in its streets, bars and parks, there is music of all kinds (from Snoop Dog to Stevie Wonder, going through Pearl Jam), and people, and smell of gumbo and fried crawfish. All mixed in an environment less wild than Mardi Grass.
Don't leave New Orleans without tasting the gumbo
At 5:30 p.m., check-in at the newest hotel in the city, the Ace Hotel, the latest addition to the millennial renovation of the Arts Warehouse District , in whose lobby and bar, as is tradition in the original Portland chain, some of the best parties and after-parties are set up during the festival –or the rest of the year–. To regain strength from the trip, a drink with views on its rooftop with pool , on the highest floor of this 1928 art deco building from where you can see the entire Downtown.
At seven in the evening, after a stroll through the galleries of the Warehouse District , seeing things as beautiful and instagrammable as The Grove Street Press, dinner at what is now an essential classic at the new Nawlins in this neighborhood, Cochon. No matter how hungry you are, you should eat pork in whatever form it is currently offered on the menu. These days, it's louisiana pork with rinds, cabbage and pickled turnip . a delight And for starters, oysters with a touch of the grill or debut with a very southern food, the fried alligator.
Fried oysters: the perfect starter
Lower the pig, strolling up the french quarter , the nerve center of New Orleans. The epicenter of its colonial past, where the streets have Gallic names, a translation of its past that is even more Spanish. The famous Bourbon Street , was of course the Bourbon Street . You have to go through there fast, unless you like to wear colorful necklaces and drink from giant plastic cups, to enter directly to Irvin's Mayfield Jazz Playhouse, the bar of the Royal Sonesta hotel, where Irvin Mayfield plays every Wednesday, and the rest of the nights there is a luxury jazz program.
Fade to black. next tomorrow . Prepare for a day filled with music, fueling up with one of the best New Orleans breakfasts since 1946. At Brennan's. Eggs Benedict that will go straight to your Top 3. With coffee and sugar cured pork, muffins made there, and a wine sauce to go with the hollandaise, “just the way patriarch and founder Owen Brennan, Sr. liked it.”
The perfect brunch starts with some benedict
11.30. Rebreakfast. Because if. And because you are in New Orleans and it is a crime to leave there without trying, each time, the beignets of the Cafe du Monde. Despite their tails. Although if you buy them to go, it will always be much faster.
The re-breakfast... and lunch and dinner...
Loaded with beignets , coated with icing sugar, go through Bywater and Marigny, Frenchmen Street and Esplanade, where the tourists do not dare to arrive, and the colors of the houses soar. If you get hungry, retrace your steps, and in the Decantur Street try the original muffuletta at Central Grocery , they invented in 1903 this sandwich of three meats, provolone and olive paste.
Follow the jazz stalls you find on the street, and end up in Treme , the neighborhood portrayed by David Simon in his HBO series, the center of the city's Afro-American and Creole culture. Between April and June, if you pass by on a Thursday, run to the louis armstrong park, where the **Jazz in the Park** festival is held, and there's music all afternoon to listen to with beer and a bowl of gumbo on the other.
louis armstrong park
19.30. Last supper of the day, and of the trip. A tribute at ** MeauxBar **. Spectacular cocktails. And an impeccable French menu from the chef Kristen Essig to remember a little, again, the past of the city updating it in this southern environment. Preferable to book for dinner and always leave room for her chocolate cake.
8:45 p.m. Return to the hotel, on one last walk through the French Quarter . Another obligatory musical stop, no matter how touristy it may seem to you: the Preservation Hall . A jazz institution since 1961 in a tiny old place where the lights better never come on. They give three shows every night (at 8, 9 and 10), you have to arrive a little before each one to stand in line, pay 15 dollars to enter and sweat a little inside.
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