Our Final Day

One thing I never mentioned over the course of this blog was the effect of daylight savings on our trip. Setting the clocks back right before leaving coupled with a visit to the central time-zone played tricks on our mind resulting in evenings ending at 10pm and mornings beginning at 5am. When we woke up at 5:30am on Thursday, we decided it was time to go (rather than wait for everyone to open at 10) so we hopped on the morning flight back to NYC leaving behind an awesome experience with the knowledge that we'll some day return to visit the Garden District, enjoy some fried chicken at Willie Mae's, and truly experience all that Bourbon Street has to offer.

We'll be looking for some travel mates soon.

Bourbon Street

After a quick rest at the hotel, Leigh Anne and I headed out for "the evening" and one last night in New Orleans.

We started with a visit to Felix's (since we had already been to Acme). Leigh Anne enjoyed 2 dozen oysters while I played it safe with a much-needed basket of fries.

1 dozen raw oysters

From there, we headed to Pat O'Brien's for a World Famous Hurricane

And after a stop at Bourbon Street Blues Company we capped off the evening with our second fancy dinner of the week at Krystal.

#2 (think White Castle)

A Visit to Mother's

Wednesday morning Leigh Anne and I decided to stay close to the hotel and visit Mother's Restaurant ("I Like Ham"). Although not the best meal of our week, we did sit next to Gina Gershon.

Eggs and Debris with Grits

Ham and eggs with grits

After breakfast we took a walk around Lafayette Square and it's surrounding area before taking a little rest at the hotel.

August in November

The one meal Leigh Anne and I were really looking forward to was at John Besh's Restaurant August. It was our "fancy" choice for the week so we put on our best and headed out for a night on the town. The W invited us to a preferred guest reception so we kicked off the night with a free cocktail before heading to Rande Gerber's Whiskey Bar for a not-so-free cocktail.


With 2 glasses of wine in our system we headed down the street to Restaurant August for our 8pm reservation. 


We felt the restaurant was too classy for iPhone pictures of our food so you'll have to deal with the not-so-descriptive descriptions below.

The restaurant serves an egg custard (in an eggshell) with caviar as a "Thank You for Dining with Us" to open the meal. Quite interesting, but not exactly my style. Leigh Anne, of course, was already in culinary heaven.


We started with a salad of heirloom beets, crab meat, cherry wood bacon, mizuna, and quail eggs with black-eyed pea croutons. Amazing!


Leigh Anne then had a Shrimp Bisque while I tried the famous hand-made potato gnocchi tossed with blue crab and perigold truffle. We first saw the gnocchi on Food Network's "Best Thing I Ever Ate" and I'll be honest, it was pretty close. Little pillows of potato pasta melting in my mouth.


Leigh and I each ended up ordering the prime filet of beef with oxtail marmalade, porcini mushrooms and smoked marrow for our entree. The marmalade was outstanding and the smoked marrow was housed inside a fo-bone made of potato (quite genius).


To cap off our evening Leigh Anne tasted the napoleon of nougatine with Valhrona chocolate bavarois and salted toffee ice-cream and I enjoyed the chocolate and peanut butter crunch with brown sugar ice cream. Not too sweet, not too salty, just about right on each dish. 


Our plan was to head to the casino after dinner, but after a 2-hour dining experience and 3 glasses of wine we went right to room 1825 and directly to sleep.


I'm sure Leigh will add to this later, but I wanted to get up what I could remember. Definitely a memorable day of eating though.

The Greatest Eating Experience of My Life

On Tuesday morning we took the W Hotel Acura (Whatever, Whenever) outside of typical New Orleans to visit Elizabeth's for breakfast. Thankfully the Acura only drops-off since the 2.5 mile walk back to the French Quarter was much needed after this meal.

A colorful and relaxed eating atmosphere

Appetizer - Praline Bacon

Mike's Breakfast Sandwich

Leigh's Old Fashioned Callas

And the best Biscuit with Sausage Gravy EVER!!!

If you're in New Orleans I HIGHLY recommend a stop here.

Exploring NOLA on a Monday

One of the disadvantages of arriving in NOLA on a Monday is that a lot of restaurants are closed. We also quickly realized that it was probably a slow week as many hotels and restaurants were undergoing renovations and exterior cleanings.


Nevertheless, we started our morning with a walk down St. Peter's Street until we reached our first stop, Cafe Du Monde. 2 orders of beignets and 2 hot chocolates would start this trip off right.


Tip of the day: Don't wear dark clothing to Cafe Du Monde.

After a quick walk through the Farmer's and Flea Market Leigh Anne set off for her first journey down Bourbon Street. Bourbon Street is strangely quiet on a Monday morning, but we stopped into some storefronts and pointed out some attractions before deciding to beat the crowd at Acme Oyster Bar.

Red Beans and Rice

Shrimp Po'Boy

Soft Shell Crab Po'Boy

And a half dozen Chargrilled Oysters for Leigh Anne

After heading back to the hotel for check-in and a quick nap we headed back out to the French Quarter for dinner. With no set plans we eventually settled on Arnaud's off Bourbon. Outside of the live Jazz Trio there is no reason to visit this restaurant. A little stuffy, a little over-priced, and the food just wasn't great. We'll make up for it tomorrow.

Our Arrival in NOLA

After an early morning wake-up (5:00am) we headed off to JFK for our flight to NOLA. As a special wedding present, the Jets plane was parked next to ours (not really, but a man can dream).

We arrived at the W New Orleans too early to check-in, but immediately realized we made the right choice to stay at this beautiful hotel on Poydras St., across from Harrah's Casino and Mother's Restaurant (more on that later).

Hotel Management was nice enough to warn you of the pool's liquidity.

From there, our eating adventure began...