We’ve been talking about visiting this iconic city for over 6 years now. We have passed it numerous times in our travels but haven’t dipped down into New Orleans (NOLA) until now. We were in NOLA for less than 24 hours, but we packed quite a lot in!
The city has a long and rich history. Founded by the French in 1718, under Spanish rule for many years, then back under the French flag before the United States bought it as part of the Louisiana Purchase in 1813. Site of the last famous battle of the War of 1812. New Orleans is the larges southern port of the U.S. exporting cotton and other goods. It boasts an expansive and unique cultural and architectural heritage. Everyone knows of their famous Mardi Gras celebrations.
Lodging
We stayed right on the edge of the famous Vieux Carre, or French Quarter, at the Renaissance New Orleans Pére Marquette Hotel. Originally an office building designed by Scott Jay and William E. Spink after the Chicago Tribune Tower. It combines Tudor arches with Gothic pinnacles. It was built in 1924 and in 2001 it was renovated with marble floors, ceramic tiles, wood, and chrome to re-create that 1920’s ambiance.
The lobby is really cool with jazz decor, plenty of comfy seats, a coffee bar, wet bar, and all around elegance. Our room was spacious and comfy. The parking is valet, so give yourself a little extra time for dropping off or picking up. The staff was friendly and helpful. We could easily walk to everything we wanted to see and do in the French Quarter from here.
Food
Mothers
You can’t come to New Orleans and NOT eat 😉 We started at Mother’s on Poydras Street. It opened in 1938 between a thriving waterfront and the courthouse by Simon and Mary (Mother) Landry. Their original clientele were longshoreman and laborers, newspapermen and attorneys. Mary Landry became known for holding plates of food for workers delayed in coming in for dinner, earning her title “Mother” to all who came in. With five of the seven Landry children joined the Marines, Mother’s also earned the nickname “TUN Tavern New Orleans”. It changed hands in 1986, but proudly continues all the traditional recipes while adding Cajun and Creole dishes to the menu.
We had the seafood gumbo and the jambalaya. They were both tasty and it was very cool seeing that my homemade dishes were spot on for flavor to these traditional NOLA dishes! 🙂
Cafe du Monde
From Mother’s, we walked down Tchoupitoulas St, merging onto Decatur St. to hit up another NOLA classic, Cafe du Monde. It’s been in business at this exact location since 1862 as part of the French Market. Originally a traditional coffee shop, it served dark roasted coffee and chicory, beignets, white/chocolate milk, and fresh squeezed orange juice. You can get your coffee black or ‘au lait’, which means the half and half has hot milk in it. Beignets are square cut French doughnuts drowning in powdered sugar. I didn’t realize just how DROWNED they were in powdered sugar. We chose to do the walk up line, grabbed our beignets and a cafe au lait. You’ll get 3 beignets per order and maybe a quarter pound of powdered sugar. Quite messy to eat, just accept that 😉 Behind the building you can see part of the production line: sheeting the dough, a cylinder cutter, and baking sheets full of dough. There is a line fryer behind the cutting table.
Legacy Kitchen’s Tacklebox
After walking all around Jackson Square, the French Quarter, back to our hotel, we were hungry again 😉 So we made our way back to the Renaissance Hotel and sat down at the Legacy Kitchen’sTacklebox restaurant, located on the ground floor of the Renaissance Hotel.
I ordered the charbroiled oysters and hubby got the fried chicken salad. Very good food! Great staff! We had such a great experience, we had breakfast here before rolling out of NOLA. I have to be honest, the Tacklebox beignets were much better than the ones at Cafe du Monde. But seriously, they’re a very messy thing, hahahaha. You’ll notice I knocked off quite a bit of the powdered sugar when eating them.
After breakfast, we toured the WWII Museum. We love history and enjoyed the great overview at this location. Highly recommended!
We officially checked New Orleans off the bucket list with this visit. But I’m sure we will be back to grab more amazing food.