Have you ever been? What did you like? Where did you go? Any crazy stories?

-- Anonymous, August 02, 1999

Answers

So sad, Pamie. I have been to New Orleans many times. I have been both at New Year's Eve and Mardi Gras and on other random dates. Each time I am there I feel like I am in the center of the world's debauchery and something dark and mysterious and sick might happen to me. It's a fine place!

The first time I went to Pat O's, I was 18 and a freshman in college at Alabama. I thought the Hurricane's were so tasty! Fruity, even! Say, I'll have another! Why not make it an even half-dozen?!

The next day, at the Alabama - LSU game in Baton Rouge, I fell asleep in Tiger Stadium: the confirmed Loudest Place on Earth.

I got back to school and called my parents. "Where'd you go?" my dad asks. "Oh, around," I hedge. "Just this place called Pat O'Brien's."

"Ah." he says, somewhat nostagically. "Pat O'Brien's was the first place I got really drunk, too. [how did he know?] Hurricanes. Alabama-LSU, 1962..."

What a sad legacy.

-- Anonymous, August 02, 1999

Mother's, 401 Poydras (just tell the cab driver Mother's, everyone knows it). Mother's is cajun soul food - all your basics: etouffee, jambalaya, gumbo, po boys (their specialty is the Ferdi, quite possibly the finest sandwich I've ever put in my mouth), and it's all good. And it is the kind of dining experience you'd expect from New Orleans, you go to the counter to place your order, which is taken by matronly women who ask things like "What you want, baby?" When your food's ready, they yell your name across the restaurant. The place is tiny, maybe 12 tables, and the food is so good you'll be craving it a year later. http://www.mothersrestaurant.com has info and a menu. If you don't want a sandwich and you don't want the standards, try the Debris - "all the beef that falls in the gravy while roasting."

There's a little nondescript place on Decatur (I think) in the Quarter called Frank's Italian. It's like Cajitalian, incredibly good food.

I go to Nola to soak up the atmosphere and eat, I've found that the trick to the nightlife is to take friends and make your own. So many of the quarter bars are tourist traps, so it's a case of Make Your Own Fun. It's hard to go wrong anywhere that has music, though.

Anyplace that serves crawfish out-of-season is probably serving you frozen. It's still good but not as good.

As far as accommodations, if you want something different and interesting, there's a hostel roughly between the quarter and the garden district on the residential part of Carondelet called Marquette House that has efficiency apartments. They don't have a phone or TV, but they're in a cool old house in a regular neighborhood. The apartments (or, at least the one I stayed in) have a queen-sized bed and a foldout couch, so it'll sleep 4 relatively comfortably, plus a kitchenette with a full-size fridge for your staying-in and drinking needs. The streetcar stops a block away on Jackson, and it's pretty cheap cab fare from the quarter.

-- Anonymous, August 02, 1999

my first time in new orleans was with my 12 year old brother so needless to say, debauchery did not abound. i was taking him to destin to stay with our grandma, so we only stayed one night (at the pontchetrain) and had a few hours to wander the french quarter. it was cool, but it smelled and he was complaining the_whole_time.

it was oh SO hot and my hair just poofed right up like a big ol' puffball but since seattle has had a horrendous year for rain, i was just happy to be warm!

we ate at the old dog new trick cafe - vegetarian/organic - and it had the best herbal iced tea i have EVER tasted! of course it took us forever to find exchange alley since smarty sister here forgot to bring her french-quarter map.

but i fell in love with the garden district. the trees! i've never seen trees like that! i have a bazzillion pictures of branches and greenery, just got them back yesterday (i like trees).

i was hoping to go for year 2000 mardi gras, but it's not going to happen :( but i'd like to go again and take a swamp tour and all that silly tourist stuff. i bought tons of beads and brought them back for co-workers, and my little brother got a voodoo doll. he really really didn't get voodoo, but he loved the idea.

-- Anonymous, August 02, 1999

Pamie,

I HATE coffee! I don't care if it's capped, frapped, steamed, creamed, whipped, drippped, moca, coca, latte, hottay (hey if Sandler can do it!), cino, or keen-o (Thanks Adam!) I HATE COFFEE!!!

All that said, if I lived in New Orleans, you would find me at Cafe Du Monde every day drinking coffee. They put crack in it. I'm serious. Cafe Do Crack. I still cannot get it out of my head. I have been to the Star Dave's of the world and the quaint little coffee houses where everyone has pierced everything, and the service is horrible (because the coffee is so damn good you'll get it when you get it and you'll like it slave) and the coffee is worse.

It's not just the coffee, it's the beignet too. Honey would ruin the experience, I'm telling you. I remember sitting in that place in February of 93 (yes it was 6 years ago!) during Mardi Gras, under the heat lamps in the open establishment, looking accross the street at Jackson Square. My old boss had actually talked me into going there, and I was like, "Look, you don't understand, I really HATE coffee!" and he looked me dead in the eye and said in a Deniro-esque sort of way, "No YOU don't understand! This is not like any other coffee on earth." Ok then. He wasn't kidding!

I have been hooked ever since. The other 2 times I have been in Nawlins, that is the only thing I do daily. Everytime I go it tastes the exact same way it did the first time.

When (if) you ever go back, you must go there.

-- Anonymous, August 02, 1999

Oh, Pamie, I wish I'd had time to send you that email I really really meant to send you last week about New Orleans before you left. I got too swamped at work. I grew up outside of New Orleans. First of all, the zoo is Uptown. It's nowhere near the Quarter. And second of all, I should have warned you about the hurricanes.

My advice to everyone I know who goes to New Orleans: Wear closed-toe shoes that you won't mind throwing away afterwards if necessary. That advice is particularly warranted during Mardi Gras and JazzFest.

-- Anonymous, August 02, 1999

Unfortunately, most of my memories of New Orleans are partial and hazy. I do remember playing the best game of pool in my life at a place called Mayfair (I think) while dancing with the owner, Gertie, a 76 year-old (she was only 74 at the time) firecracker. I guess my dancing was to her liking as my friends and I drank for free that night/morning. Anyway, I have no idea where it is except that it's not in the quarter. Thankfully, I wasn't driving.

-- Anonymous, August 03, 1999

Firstly, thanks to Omie for pointing me in this direction. :-)

My then-boyfriend (now fiance) went to New Orleans in October, and thanks to El Nino, it was a beautiful, beautiful trip. The weather couldn't have been more perfect. We got up at 5:30 every morning in time to see the Daily Hosing of the Vomit from Bourbon Street's sidewalks, but that meant we were bushed by 10 p.m., which is all right because we are not party people.

I thought the best place in the whole city was Jackson Square. If I lived in Nawlins, I'd go there all the time. I'd get Cafe du Monde coffee and beignets (hey, up here we call that Indian Fry Bread. French doughnuts, my butt!) and watch the fortune-tellers, artists performers and tourists in the Square. Our first night there we sat on the benches in front of St. Louis Cathedral, smooching and being all loving to each other, when the square's drunk guy came over and accused us at the top of his lungs of being in love. "You're in love, aincha?" he bellowed. "Yeah, you're in love. I can tell. Awwwww!" We encountered him every night, and each night he made the same volumous accusation.

New Orleans is beautiful. I'm certainly going back.

-- Anonymous, August 03, 1999

I'm from new orleans originally, i moved to dallas about 2 years ago. i got to visit home on july 24th. it's an eight hour drive but it was well worth it. a lot of things have changed since i moved from there, crime of course increased, the ohara's casino opened up downtown and they're almost finished with the new arena they are building right next to the superdome. i supposedly lived in the safe part of town when i lived there (lakeview, if you know new orleans well it's the area near the lake and around city park.) well now they have police officers patrolling the area daily. how horrible huh? just thinking i used to once lived and grew up in that neighborhood. i did visit the old home and the people who moved into it seem to not really care about taking care of the landscape. the grass was seriously about 2 inches high. it's just sucks to see you childhood home go down the drain like that. boy was it hot down there, i guess I'm not used to the bizarre humidity anymore. i did get to go down to the french quarter with a few friends and we just walked around and chatted, I'd love to recommend good restaurants down there or anywhere in new orleans.. if i haven't been to them, my parents have.

-- Anonymous, August 06, 1999

I was born in New Orleans and grew up in Baton Rouge... And I pretty much hate New Orleans. Dirty, dangerous (I say that having lived in DC and NYC), crowded, and very cliquey. I pretty much refuse to go there now.

Eat at Galatoire's. Spend the money. It's worth it.

Go to The Convent or The Dungeon. Wear black, wear protective boots.

And remember-- the NO police are as corrupt and dangerous as all the homeboy gangsta types.

-- Anonymous, August 21, 1999

I went to the University of New Orleans (on the lakefront) for 4 years. I didn't really care for NO because I wasn't a drinker or big party- guy, so I felt there wasn't much else for me to do. Now I kinda wish I'd seen more of it. I can't remember if I ever went to Pat O-Brien's or not. But I did like the Cafe Du Monde's beignets. I'd agree with the person just above me. It's icky.

-- Anonymous, January 17, 2000