If you are headed down to Mardi Gras, if you take nothing else with you, take this valuable tourism tidbit: No matter how long you stand in the line at Cafe Du Monde, no one is going to come and seat you. It's every man for himself.
I learned this last year from my Louisiana-native Mardi Gras hostess, who is just about the most genteel lady I know. She would never break in a legitimate line, like at Baja Burrito or at the port-a-lets at Steeplechase, but when she saw the queue snaking around the patio at the French Market CDM, she just laughed and said, "Don't these people know there's no line at Cafe Du Monde?" She then proceeded to walk ever so politely past them all and grab an open table for our posse of NOLA naifs.
I'm not sure I really believed her, but I was happy enough to take my seat and order up my chicory coffee and beignets, all the while averting the gaze of the furious queuers. So I recently called Cafe Du Monde to get to the bottom of things. According to the woman who answered the phone, my friend is indeed correct. "People don't seat you."
What about all those hungover tourists standing stupidly in line for hours on end, I asked. "I don't know," she laughed, though something in her voice seemed to imply that I could always let them know about this Darwinian seating custom, and if I chose not to, well, that was between me and my god.
