Category Archives: restaurants/food

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Hot and Fresh Comfort Food #1

I’m doing this a little out of order because I’ve actually been to the hot dog place a few times, but since this morning I found a new donut place in the Quarter, and its the weekend, I’m going to write about that first, and then hot dogs later in the week.
Juicy G’s Donuts in the 1000 block of Iberville (first block off Rampart) makes and serves cheap but good donuts and breakfast sandwiches. G (Gregory) is a professional kitchen guy, having spend the last almost 20 years working for Dickie Brennan’s at most if not all of his places. Now, he has his own shingle and passion and I urge you to stop by and taste his food.
The chocolate donut and the cake donut that i tried were both excellent. He was just about out of donut holes (A New Orleans tradition from MacKenzie days) but I’m sure they are just as good. The breakfast sandwich description was tempting and only 3 or 4 bucks so I’ll be back for those with such good prices. This is the way places used to be around town: someone did something well, they did it without spending hundreds of thousands on “ambience” and without artificially inflating prices and therefore demand. Since the recent huge success of Mr. Henry’s on St. Claude and his Buttermilk Drop on St. Bernard, more people are aware of the light touch with flour that many male New Orleanians have. Take the time to check out G’s as well.
Speaking of MacKenzie’s, this block used to have one, along with a shoe repair, locksmith, supermarket, card shop, pet store and post office among other things. Unfortunately, the owners seem to have let the buildings fall into disrepair, but a few are bravely rebuilding. (Well, the locksmith has never left so he really has hung in there! AND he knows his business and can make keys that ALWAYS work, unlike some of those stores that give their clerks 2 minutes of training on a key grinder…) Support these Iberville pioneers efforts by walking, biking or driving by and grabbing a few items and getting to know these guys.

Open 6 am til, 7 days a week. 504-428-2607

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“Egg on French please”

I enjoy going to the French Quarter around 7 a.m., so I can beat the groups and characters that wake up and crowd the streets by 11 a.m.
Recently, I started to catalogue the places that one could find decent cheap coffee and/or food before 9 am.

Here’s my partial list, destined to grow:
Cafe Envie
CC’s Coffeehouse, 2 locations
Croissant d’Or
Nelly Deli (Quartermaster Deli)
Matassa’s Grocery
Verti Marte (egg on French masters)
Royal Blend Coffeehouse
A&P (aka Rouse’s Grocery)

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Sylvain review

One of the good things about having friends working on Treme (the HBO show) is that they get out and experience the city in ways that non-Hollywood people sometimes forget to. Last night, after ‘tit Rәx and drinks at Cosimo’s, E and I went to see if we could squeeze in this newish place on Chartres (where the bakery La Marquise used to be, a few doors back of Le Petit Theater- or what’s left of the theater!) for dinner. Since she often goes there with her T coworkers, she got us in quickly and also could recommend items from the menu.
We started with drinks- me, a Moscow Mule (which is showing up on menus all over town all of a sudden) and she a French 75 (another favorite of mine) along with a fried eggplant appetizer (nice lemon tang) to start. Then to the shaved brussel sprout salad (good) and my entree, the duck confit with black-eyed peas and Maras farm sprouts (seemed odd to call them that- is Gerard still growing sprouts? I thought not…) and a nice bourbon mustard. E had the roasted beets on bruschetta which she thought had slightly overcooked bruschetta, so they agreeably toasted some new ones for her. We added another drink that was a pleasant gin based cocktail with orange slice (did not catch the name or the recipe) near the end. All very good, service was excellent and even though crowded, the place has a nice ambience and not overly smushed (even with people chatting up the Hollywood actor 2 tables down who was in for dinner.) So, a pleasant end to a pleasant day, and another restaurant to recommend in the Quarter and some duck for brunch today while Barkus rolls past.


Sylvain site

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Gumbo

A classic version found on the corner of St. Ann and Chartres (aka Jackson Square). Stanley’s gumbo has loads of meat and seafood amid a nice dark roux that’s not too thick. That they offer the added potato salad is nice: I have turned some heads in parts of the city that don’t believe in potato salad in the gumbo, but once in a while I like it. I learned about it at a demonstration at the old Wednesday Crescent City Farmers Market by Wayne Baquet, the Creole restauranteur of Lil Dizzy’s and Zachary’s fame even though he says in this interview with Sara Roahen that he doesn’t use it.

Southern Gumbo Trail oral interview

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To get to the city unfortunately, means going through our airport for most visitors. A more disappointing experience would be hard to imagine, since the food and leisure space there is pitiful. On top of that, the politics of the selection process for the concession contracts give us a constant reminder of the old boy corruption that we live with here.
I say the corporation that runs the airport should be advised by the entrepreneurs that run places in the French Quarter, who work constantly to serve the locals and tourists. Okay, maybe not the folks who run the French Market, but those little shops and restaurants that actually work to bring joy and pleasure to travelers and residents alike.

To get started, let’s get at least 1 place in each concourse that is open before 7 a.m. and serves a decent cup of coffee in a city that loves the stuff.

Concessions