Until I married a native New Orleanian 10 years ago, I’d only been to the Big Easy once. This was way back in the 1970s, when passenger trains still ran from Union Station in downtown Nashville to New Orleans. I went with my high school French club on a weekend field trip that was pretty much confined to outwitting our chaperones so we could gawk in underage wonder at the forbidden pleasures of Bourbon Street. My other most vivid memory is of dining at Antoine’s and ordering pompano en papillote and peche melba. The meal set me back $6.60. I still have the menu to prove such prices once existed.
These days I visit New Orleans at least once a year—often two or three times if I can manage it. After all, it’s only a 90-minute flight via Southwest Airlines, and the cost can be as low as $85 round-trip if you get in on a promotional fare. Having a hometown guide like my husband is added incentive to visit regularly, though he would be the first to admit that this is a city that no one, not even a native, ever knows fully. There is so much history here and so many interesting attractions and great restaurants, we seem to find something new each time we visit.
To do this, I admit, we usually steer clear of the French Quarter—except for three stops. We always have beignets and café au lait at the Café du Monde on Jackson Square one morning and grab a muffuletta and Barq’s root beer at the Central Grocery for lunch. Then we browse the fresh produce and trinkets at the French Market and buy the best pralines in the city at Loretta’s.
Mostly, though, we stay, shop, dine, and play away from the Quarter, basing ourselves in either the Central Business District (CBD) or the Warehouse Arts District. Both areas are within walking distance or short cab rides of the Quarter, but both also have plenty of hotel, dining, and entertainment options of their own. These are the areas where, in recent years, attractions like the National D-Day Museum, Harrah’s casino, and the Aquarium of the Americas have sprung up. The city’s restaurant scene has also expanded to include the CBD and Warehouse Arts District. The newest hotels are here as well, and most are located in renovated older buildings that have as much charm as their older counterparts in the Quarter.
The city’s newest luxury hotel, the Ritz-Carlton New Orleans, for example, sits proudly on Canal Street within two architectural landmarks, the Maison Blanche and Kress buildings. Other cities might have let a hotel developer level these 100-year-old beauties and put up a bland skyscraper. Instead, Ritz-Carlton spent over $200 million to create a 452-room hotel inside these historic structures. The posh new hotel, which includes upscale dining and shopping venues plus the city’s first hotel day spa, offers deluxe rooms from about $265 a night, club rooms from $365, and suites for about $500 and up. For information or reservations, call (800) 241-3333 or go to www.ritzcarlton.com.
A more economical, but no less charming, option is the St. James Hotel, 330 Magazine St. When we treated my mother and father to their first-ever trip to New Orleans last December, we picked the St. James for value and location. It’s near several good restaurants and a few blocks from the National D-Day Museum, our main objective on this short weekend visit. Along with excellent location and prices—our December special of $149 for two nights was also offered throughout January—the St. James also boasts spacious, comfortable rooms. Our own fourth-floor rooms also had large private terraces overlooking a secluded courtyard. The decor is pure New Orleans with a dash of West Indies chic—teak, pine, and wrought-iron furniture, exposed wooden beams in the ceilings, tropical linens on the beds, and original art on the walls. The in-room coffee makers, terry robes, and hair dryers are also welcome touches.
Like almost everything in New Orleans, the St. James has an interesting past: The original grand hotel, built on the site in 1859, was converted to a military hospital when Union troops occupied the city during the Civil War, and legend has it that this was the St. James Infirmary of New Orleans’ blues fame. Though that St. James Hotel was partially demolished because of structural damage in 1967, the current 86-room hotel retains all the old ambiance and style—plus it overlooks the fountain courtyard of the historic Board of Trade building. For reservations or information, call (800) 273-1889 or go to http://www.nolacollection.com/stjames.
The hotel is right across the street from Bon Ton Café, a great eatery with some of the best seafood gumbo and crawfish étouffée in the city, and Mother’s, whose roast beef and oyster po’boys and blueplate specials also rate among the city’s best. Cuvee, one of the city’s hottest new restaurants, opened adjacent to the St. James last June. The intimate 85-seat eatery has already been named Best New Restaurant for 2000 by New Orleans magazine, which also dubbed its chef, Richard “Bingo” Starr, as Best New Chef.
Cuvee’s menu features traditional Louisiana ingredients and dishes with some delicious twists. Appetizers range from smoked salmon tasso on a potato galette, with sweet onion-pepper marmalade and a drizzling of Creole mustard crème, to crispy mirliton and spicy shrimp Napoleon with tomato remoulade and a touch of cayenne pepper. For the main course, try the Gulf fish of the day, crowned with fresh greens and Creole mustard butter and paired with the traditional side dish found at almost any dinner table in New Orleans, potatoes Lyonnaise made with Yukon gold potatoes. Another twist on Louisiana home cooking is a sugar cane-smoked duck breast and crispy confit leg served with Hudson Valley foie gras and Roquefort-pecan risotto. Desserts are homemade and hometown too, with lemon meringue cake with Louisiana strawberries and tropical upside-down cake with rum sabayon among the standouts. The restaurant also features a changing selection of 20 wines by the glass.
The St. James and Cuvee are in the heart of the CBD and just a block from the edge of the Warehouse Arts District, an area that lies between Poydras and Howard streets and the Mississippi River and Lee Circle. While the city’s top contemporary art galleries have been located here along Julia Street for years, it’s only been recently that limited-service chain hotels like Embassy Suites and Hampton Inn, music clubs like Mulatte’s and Praline Connection, and attractions like the National D-Day Museum have joined the mix.
Another welcome addition to the arts district is the Crescent City Farmers Market on Magazine Street. Housed inside an old warehouse in the colder months and held outside in the adjacent parking lot the rest of the year, the Saturday-morning market is a cooperative project of Loyola University and area farmers and gourmet food vendors. It’s just the place to pick up a caramel-pecan brioche and cup of coffee for breakfast or sample handmade pasta and other gourmet treats. New Orleans chefs also do cooking demonstrations, and you can buy produce, herbs, home-baked pastries, and more at the informal collection of booths and tables that make up the market. For more information on the market and its Tuesday-morning cousin held uptown, go to http://www.loyno.edu/ccfm.
Besides the National D-Day Museum, which opened in June and is a must for anyone visiting the city, the arts district is also home to the Contemporary Arts Center, the Louisiana Children’s Museum, and the Confederate Museum. Coming soon is Louisiana ArtWorks, set to open in July, which will showcase works by Louisiana artists in a working artist studio environment, and the Ogden Museum of Southern Art, opening in September, which will house the largest collection of visual arts relating to the American South in the country.
—Angela Wibking
For information on visiting New Orleans, call (800) 672-6124 or go to http://www.neworleanscvb.com. Another great Web site offering more of an insider’s view on the city is http://www.insideneworleans.com.
