New Orleans March 2007

[Black Aces 518]

thx daver, love the local recs

i will have a car, we're driving from austin, just was hoping to stay harrah's or w/in walking for after the wife hits the hay

[feelixthegreek]

If you're going to make the trip to Liuzza's By The Track, you ought to go to the track itself. The Fair Grounds runs horses Th-Mon. Great red beans and rice there, and you can eat raw oysters right by the paddock.

[SomethingClever]

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I just stayed at the Ritz Carlton--a 10 minute walk away along Canal--for $160 a night on a weekend.

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How'd you get that rate?

[jbrent33]

I agree with the earlier poster about the Monteleone, one of my favorite places to stay. It has a neat history, Capote, Hemingway, Faulkner, Eudora Welty, and Tennesse Williams, all stayed there and wrote about it. I once had a drink with LL Cool J in the Carosel Bar. I've gotten really good deals on priceline in the past.

Right across the street is my favorite place to eat in NO, Mr. B's Bistro the brunch is one of the best I've ever had. Try the grillades and grits. It is owned by the Brennen family of Comander Place fame.

For proximity to the casino, the DoubleTree is literally right across the street. I've stayed there many times when I have gone mainly to play poker.

Unless you want a Lucky Dog there is not much to eat inside the casino, I highly reccomend Mother's for a quick lunch. Try the roast beef po' boy with debris.

I lived in Mobile and traveled to New Orleans several times a month for about 4 years, feel free to ask if you have any other questions.

[pmulry]

My wife's family still lives in New Orleans; we've been married almost 10 years so I've spent a lot of time down there including most of Feb. 2006 helping to clean up from Katrina. Here's a few recommendations (and I absolutely ditto the Mr. B's Bistro recommendation, the barbeque shrimp there is my wife's favorite meal in the entire city).

One good place to look for good hotel rates at boutique places in the Quarter and CBD is www.neworleansfinehotels.com. We stayed at the St. James a couple of years ago and it was a definite 4-star at a discount rate. There are probably 40 or 50 hotels within a 4-block radius of Harrah's.

The best place to eat in the city right now (and that's one hell of a high bar to clear) is Restaurant August, and it's literally right across Tchoupitoulas St. at Gravier. Chef John Besh received the James Beard Award last spring and Zagat's just named it the highest-rated restaurant in New Orleans a couple of weeks ago. We ate there over Christmas and it was unbelievably good. We try to hit one high-end eatery every trip we make down there and this was definitely at the top of the list over the years. Dinner will easily be well over $100 for two and that's with pretty moderate drinking, it could go well over $200 without even trying hard, but if you want to eat a meal you'll never forget, call for reservations now.

Emeril's Delmonico steakhouse was my favorite steakhouse in New Orleans before the hurricane, but we haven't been back since it reopened in October 2006. I would expect that they are back on their game by now. I've had plenty of great steaks living in Dallas, but I've never seen service as good as the times we've eaten at Delmonico. It's a high recommendation too. Personally, I've always liked Delmonico much better than Emeril's other 2 places in town, Emeril's and NOLA.

The St. James Hotel has a great restaurant on its ground floor, Cuvee. It's also a fine-dining place and is much like Restaurant August. We had a great dinner there a couple of years ago but I haven't been back since the hurricane.

A great, less-known place that's also nearby is the Bon Ton Cafe. Best turtle soup I've ever had. I know that they're open again but don't know if they've changed their operating hours since re-opening. Pre-Katrina they were only open for lunch and dinners on weeknights (and maybe lunch Sat.?) but were closed weekend nights. It's a great little place that only locals know about.

In terms of poker action, it can run hot and cold outside of Mardi Gras and non-weekends. I was there the night that Harrah's reopened last February and the action at the 4/8 tables was great, I got up about $350 in a 5-hour session that started around 9 p.m. that night. The following night was equally loose/profitable. Other nights since then have been more normal, but Fridays and Saturdays are typically juicier than other nights, which should be expected. I would love to fly down for the Mardi Gras action, after the parades it's just such easy money. Or at least it was last year.

Harrah's is definitely the place to play, don't get suckered into going out to the Boomtown riverboat, it's a junky room with about 8 or 10 tables crammed into a very small space. The room at Harrah's is very large and comfortable.

The Lucky Dog is right next to the poker room (the night that Harrah's reopened there were literally 60 people waiting in line -- for a hot dog!), but there's also a very good sushi bar that's just on the other side of the casino. I attribute some of my success at the Harrah's poker room to the Dragon Roll. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] So if you want something to eat, you can definitely roll over there too. There's also a buffet now and John Besh Steakhouse too. But if you're going to go for a great meal, then get over to Restaurant August. I'm not overstating the case when I say that the food there was staggeringly, phenomenally great.

Another fun place (and sort of a tradition) is Breakfast at Brennan's. It's overpriced, unfortunately, but the food is fantastic. My favorite is the Eggs Hussarde (Poached eggs atop Holland rusks, Canadian bacon and Marchand de Vin sauce, then topped with Hollandaise sauce) followed by Bananas Foster. Also, they make one hell of a mean milk punch which is the dean of pre-lunchtime cocktails if you need something easier on the stomach than a bloody mary. Yes, we eat well when in New Orleans.

If you're up for a little adventure, talk to your concierge about where to go to find a good local seafood market that you could hit on your way out of town. You'll never find fresh shrimp in Austin anywhere near the price you can get them every day at the local stands in New Orleans. I got 9-count (that's 9 shrimp per pound, also known as freaking enormous) shrimp at $3.75/pound when we drove down at Christmas and brought them back home. You'll need to have them on ice the whole way and then either freeze them or use them the next day. I think the last time I saw 9-count _frozen_ shrimp in Dallas they were close to $20/pound.

Ok, last thing. Always get a fried shrimp or roast beef po-boy sandwich while you're in town. It will probably be the best sandwich you've ever had and will make you crazy that you can't find a sandwich that good back home. Damn, my mouth's watering just thinking about it, and I don't usually like roast beef that much.

Have a great trip.

[The DaveR]

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I just stayed at the Ritz Carlton--a 10 minute walk away along Canal--for $160 a night on a weekend.

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How'd you get that rate?

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My gf called the hotel in Nov. <shrug>

[SomethingClever]

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[ QUOTE ]
I just stayed at the Ritz Carlton--a 10 minute walk away along Canal--for $160 a night on a weekend.

[/ QUOTE ]

How'd you get that rate?

[/ QUOTE ]

My gf called the hotel in Nov. <shrug>

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Huh. It's a lot more expensive now... at least on the website.

[The DaveR]

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I just stayed at the Ritz Carlton--a 10 minute walk away along Canal--for $160 a night on a weekend.

[/ QUOTE ]

How'd you get that rate?

[/ QUOTE ]

My gf called the hotel in Nov. <shrug>

[/ QUOTE ]

Huh. It's a lot more expensive now... at least on the website.

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I just checked for a weekend in March I'll be back and I was quoted $219. I think she might have booked through AMEX Travel, and it's possible there was some deal because it reopened shortly before we arrived.