1. ILLUSTRATION:ANNASIMMONS
I New Orleans
With the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina this year, New
Orleans remains as wild and changeable as it is resilient. Rich
with picture-perfect film locations, from its perfectly-painted
antebellum architecture to its shady after-hours bars, the Big
Easy refuses to be either sanitised or pigeon-holed
WORDS: Andrew Nelson. PHOTOGRAPHS: Kris Davidson
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2. L
ike Blanche DuBois in A Street Car
Named Desire, the city in which the
play is set has always depended on the
kindness of strangers; only these days they’re
moving in. Ten years after Hurricane Katrina
nearly drowned New Orleans, the South’s cultural
capital, with its lavish 19th-century architecture,
subtropical humidity and lush, louche landscape,
fizzes with change. Old haunts, like the French
Quarter and its grand St Louis Cathedral, remain
as unchanged as its doughnut-like beignets,
dished out next door at Café du Monde. Thanks
to tax breaks, film companies have turned the city
into Hollywood on the Bayou. It’s not uncommon
to ogle stars such as Beyoncé and Brad Pitt out
sampling New Orleans’ thriving restaurant scene.
Meanwhile, hipsters have transformed historic
neighbourhoods like Faubourg Marigny, Bywater
and Lower Garden District into bohemian
hangouts. Here you’ll find slow-drip java in coffee
houses such as Satsuma and HiVolt Coffee and
authentic voodoo mambos (priestesses) such as
Sallie Ann Glassman, a nice Jewish girl from
Maine, who’s opened the New Orleans Healing
Center, dedicated to alternative and holistic
health. Other new institutions underscore the
city’s obsession with food. On Oretha Castle
Haley Boulevard is the Southern Food and
Beverage Museum. It tells the history of a region’s
passion for flavour and booze. Across the street,
Café Reconcile instructs the city’s at-risk youth in
the art of cooking and hospitality management.
In the subtropical torpor, an afternoon
siesta is essential. Luckily, New Orleans sports
accommodation of all kinds. In the French
Quarter is boutique hotel Audubon Cottages,
named after naturalist and artist John James,
who stayed here in the 1820s, in Cottages 1
and 7. (Liz Taylor preferred Cottage 3.) More
modern lodgings include a new Le Meridian
and high-rise International House in the CBD
(Central Business District). Elsewhere, small
neighbourhood inns, like Bywater’s Maison de
Macarty and Uptown’s Terrell House Bed and
Breakfast, offer a more intimate view of how
locals live in their ‘Sliver by the River’.
Food glorious food
Creole and Cajun cuisine can be found
everywhere, but the Palace Café on Canal Street
has the best seafood gumbo (a soup with stock
and veg; although there’s a duck and alligator
version here, too). Coop’s Place, in the Quarter,
is where to sample jambalaya, a paella-like dish
of chicken, local sausage or shrimp, veg and rice.
Oysters? A half-dozen on the half shell, please, at
Quarter’s Felix’s Restaurant & Oyster Bar. Try the
fried chicken at Dookey Chase’s Restaurant, with a
side of mac and cheese or red beans and rice.
Encounter the city’s trademark po’ boy — a
French-bread sandwich stuffed with fried oysters,
shrimp or roast beef — at Parasol’s, in the Irish
Channel neighbourhood. An enormous muffuleta
— a round, Sicilian-style sandwich containing
meat, cheese and marinated olive spread — can
be taken away cold at Central Grocery or eaten
hot at Napoleon House, a Quarter house built to
welcome the French dictator. He never arrived,
but a series of celebrated new restaurants have.
At buzzy Johnny Sánchez, in the CBD, chefs John
Besh and Aaron Sánchez serve Mexican grub
amid kaleidoscopic decor. Besh’s Pizza Domenica,
in Uptown, serves pizza and sides of garlic knots
(doughy deliciousness dipped in a whipped, aged
provolone fonduta). Locals flock to the 2-5pm
happy hour, with most pies and drinks half-price.
After the Vietnam War ended in 1975,
thousands of Vietnamese turned up in Louisiana,
drawn to the French-inspired colonial culture
and familiar weather. Lilly’s Café and Ba Chi
Canteen are great places to taste the resultant
Mississippi–Mekong merger. Finally, for those
curious about sampling the Gulf Coast’s marine
bounty, head to Pêche Seafood Grill.
FOOD PICKS
The Palace Café:605 Canal St.
palacecafe.com
Coop’s Place:1109 Decatur St.
coopsplace.net
Felix’s Restaurant and Oyster
Bar:739IbervilleSt.felixs.com
Dooky Chase’s Restaurant:
2301 Orleans Ave.
dookychaserestaurant.com
Parasol’s Bar & Restaurant:
2533ConstanceSt.
parasolsbarandrestaurant.com
Central Grocery:T:001504523
1620.923DecaturSt.
Napoleon House:500Chartres
St.napoleonhouse.com
Johnny Sánchez:930Poydras
St.johnnysanchezrestaurant.com
Pizza Domenica:
4933 Magazine Street.
pizzadomenica.com
Lilly’s Cafe: 1,813 Magazine St.
Ba Chi Canteen:7,900 Maple St.
Pêche Seafood Grill:
800 Magazine St.
pecherestaurant.com
LIKE A LOCAL
54 National Geographic Traveller | May 2015

3. Clockwise from top left: Horse-drawn carriage tour of the
French Quarter; musicians and dancers, French Quarter;
drinks and tapas, Booty’s Street Food; Carly Turner, manager
of Electric Ladyland; traditional wet shave, Aidan Gill For Men
Pile of style
New Orleans flirts with the future, but loves the past.
Art and antiques stores are still found on the French
Quarter’s Royal Street, but they’re increasingly
migrating elsewhere as the area is taken over by
boozy groups of tourists (‘meanderthals’, as locals
call them). The city’s most serious galleries cluster
along Julia Street in the Warehouse District, close
to the Ogden Museum of Southern Art and the
Contemporary Arts Center New Orleans. Since
Katrina, Magazine Street has become the city’s main
street. It rolls past the Garden District’s mansions
and ends just beyond Audubon Park, the city’s
grandest green space; home to Audubon Zoo.
Antique stores occupy the shaded, antebellum
buildings lining the eastern reaches of Magazine
Street. Appartique sells furnishings that wouldn’t
look out of place in a grandiose plantation
house, while Aidan Gill For Men is the go-to for
haberdashery and grooming supplies. Gogo Jewelry
is a local favourite, as is the jewellery inspired by the
STYLE PICKS
Contemporary Arts Center
New Orleans:900 Camp St.
cacno.org
Appartique:2,032 Magazine St.
Aidan Gill For Men: Various
locations. aidangillformen.com
Gogo Jewelry:2036 Magazine
Street.ilovegogojewelry.com
Mignon Faget:3,801 Magazine
Street.mignonfaget.com
Trashy Diva:Various locations.
trashydiva.com
Rubensteins:102StCharles
Ave.rubensteinsneworleans.com
Fraques:821BaronneSt.
fraques.com
The Columns. 3,811StCharles
Ave.thecolumns.com
city’s natural and man-made landmarks at Mignon
Faget — the Tiffany & Co of New Orleans. As for
fashion, Trashy Diva promotes the New Orleans
‘look’ for ladies (one part Scarlett O’Hara, one part
Anne Rice), while Rubensteins and Fraques cater
to dapper Southern gents and male prepsters,
respectively.
Should you need a break while maxing out your
plastic, stop off at the Columns, a stately hotel with
a veranda filled with locals and out-of-towners
slowly braising in vodka and bonhomie. Should
you overindulge, and later forget where you are,
look down; street names are spelt out in blue-and-
white tiles cemented into sidewalks. These iconic
ceramics are on sale at Derby Pottery & Tile.
natgeotraveller.co.uk | National Geographic Traveller 55
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4. TOP 10
LOCAL TIPS
01 Brennan’s,onRoyal
Street,servesNewOrleans
classics,likeBananas
Foster(inventedhere).
brennansneworleans.com
02MarignyOperaHouse
hostsinnovativetheatre
andmusicperformances.
marignyoperahouse.org
03French-Creolefine
diningestablishment
Antoine’sRestaurant,
whichcelebratesits175th
anniversarythisyear,is
theoldestcontinuously
operatingrestaurantinthe
US.antoines.com
04Watchforpickpockets
andtakeataxiatnightif
strayingfrombusyareas.
05Bestbargainintown:
$1.25(80p)toridetheold-
schoolStCharlesStreetcar,
pastenormousoaksand
aristocraticmansions.
06Secondbest:crossthe
MississippiontheAlgiers
Ferry,a$2(£1.30)journey
betweenhistoricAlgiers
PointandCanalStreet.
07Thirdbest:theNew
OrleansMuseumofArt’s
sculpturegarden,located
initsCityParkgrounds.
Admissionisfree.noma.org
08DegasHouse,on
EsplanadeAvenue:where
theFrenchImpressionist
stayedduringafive-month
citystay.degashouse.com
09Cyclingisagreat
waytoexplore.Twogood
rentalstoresareBicycle
Michael’sandAMusing
Bikes.bicyclemichaels.com
amusingbikes.com
10TheLouisianaState
Museum’sexhibitLiving
withHurricanes:Katrinaand
Beyond.crt.state.la.us
MORE INFO
Online:neworleansonline.com/followyournola
visitusa.org.uk
discoveramerica.com
Books:ConfederacyofDunces,byJohnKennedyToole.
RRP:£8.99(PenguinClassics)
InterviewwiththeVampire,byAnneRice.RRP:£8.99(Sphere)
AStreetcarNamedDesire,byTennesseeWilliams.RRP:£9.99
(PenguinClassics)
GeographiesofNewOrleans,byRichardCampanella.RRP:£32
(UniversityofLouisiana)
Tours:FriendsoftheCabildo.friendsofthecabildo.org
Music:WWOZ.Communityradiostation.wwoz.org
Party people
No other US city, besides New York or San
Francisco, has created such a cult around
cocktails as New Orleans. Head to Freret
Street’s Cure for a classic Sazerac — a
signature city drink made with rye whiskey,
absinthe and Peychaud’s Bitters — or saunter
up to Bar Tonique on Rampart Street, on the
Quarter’s northern border, to sip a French 75
(gin and Champagne). Beer lovers can choose
from the home-crafted pints at the Courtyard
Brewery, off Magazine Street, or head to the
Avenue Pub, on St Charles Avenue, for craft
lagers and ales.
Further up the avenue is the Delachaise,
where Uptown debs fortify themselves
with the wine bar’s trademark goose fat-
cooked French fries, washed down with a
good Cabernet.
Velvet-roped nightlife is not in the city’s
DNA. Instead, the nocturnal clubs are
flavoured with cigarette smoke and encoded
with the glories of its music — both past and
present. Bourbon Street and the Quarter, with
the exception of world-famous Preservation
Hall, is best left to the strippers and the touts.
Most of the music has moved to Frenchmen
NIGHTLIFE PICKS
Cure: 4905 Freret St.
curenola.com
Bar Tonique: 820 N Rampart
St. bartonique.com
The Courtyard Brewery:
courtyardbrewing.com
The Avenue Pub:1,732 St
Charles Ave.
theavenuepub.com
The Delachaise:3,442 St
Charles Ave. thedelachaise.com
The Spotted Cat Music
Club:623 Frenchmen St.
spottedcatmusicclub.com
Three Muses:536 Frenchmen
St. thethreemuses.com
Blue Nile: 532 Frenchmen St.
bluenilelive.com
Tipitina’s: 501 Napoleon Ave.
tipitinas.com
Maple Leaf Bar:
mapleleafbar.com
Siberia:2,227 St Claude Ave.
siberianola.com
Street. Located in neighbouring Faubourg
Marigny, notable live clubs here are the
Spotted Cat Music Club, Three Muses and
Blue Nile. You’ll find other musical beachheads
in Uptown, including Tipitina’s and Maple Leaf
Bar. There’s an edgier vibe to the art galleries
and bars on St Claude Avenue, such as Siberia
offering late-night pop-up performances,
including fire-eaters, stand-ups, alternative
rockers and burlesque artists.
Preservation Hall. Right: Frenchmen Street
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56 National Geographic Traveller | May 2015