historic | Cooking With Fire

We left Savannah, Georgia and drove Highway 10 and saw parts of Florida, Alabama and Mississippi on our way to New Orleans, Louisiana. We arrived at our hotel, the Prince Conti, in early evening and were delighted with our accommodation. An historic, privately owned hotel situated just a block off Bourbon Street, the Prince Conti was perfectly situated, authentically furnished, clean and close to everything we wanted to visit.

After checking in, we took a stroll around the French Quarter and stopped for dinner at a restaurant overlooking Bourbon Street and all the action. We shared a salad and we tasted our first crawfish etoufee with a lovely salad and glass of sauvignon blanc – delicious!

Ron visited New Orleans about fifteen years ago as his Dad, Jake, was born there, but this was my first visit. I had wanted to celebrate my fortieth birthday in New Orleans, but that didn’t happen and I hadn’t made it any other time since. I am so glad that my first visit here was with Ron – I absolutely believe that I was meant to wait to share it with him.

Our bellman at the hotel, Chad, recommended that we leave our car the next day and, instead, take the cablecars to explore. It was a great suggestion – for $3 each, we were able to travel all over the city (until 4:00 the next morning!), get on and off with no restrictions, and explore the city with total freedom. We had a fabulous day! Our first stop was the New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA) where we took in the Sculpture Gardens and then the actual museum itself. NOMA has a wonderful collection of art and we were able to view pieces from some great contemporary artists as well as some of the masters such as Degas, Renoire, Picasso, etc.

The restaurant at the NOMA is rated one of the top ten museums restaurants in America, so we decided to have lunch there (we shared some delicious gazpacho, salad and a Cubano sandwich with a glass of red wine) before heading out on our next streetcar adventure.

Our next stop was the Garden District, where we jumped off the streetcar and explored Audubon Park, then walked for miles back towards the center of the city to fully appreciate the beautiful homes and magnificent architecture. Our final streetcar adventure was the River District, from where we walked back through the French Quarter to our hotel, after getting foot reflexology at a little establishment en route. That foot rub felt SO good after so much walking!

After a quick shower at the hotel, we headed to Deanie’s for dinner and enjoyed a feast of charbroiled oysters, salad and crab stuffed flounder with a glass of sauvignon blanc. We grabbed a cab and headed to the Maple Leaf Bar to listen to some live jazz. Ron had been to this club on his last visit and it is ALL about the music – seven nights per week. The band that was playing that Tuesday night was the Rebirth Brass Band that is comprised of three trumpets, two trombones, one tuba, two saxophones, bass and snare drums and other percussion (including congas). The music was phenomenal! We picked up their CD entitled “Rebirth of New Orleans” to keep their music with us and remind of an evening of music that literally blew the roof off.

Our cab drivers both to and from the Maple Leaf Bar were a delight. On the way to the club we rode with Manuel, an author who wrote of his escape from Ethiopia over a decade ago. He wrote his book in his native language, which we should try to find for our beautiful Ethiopian friends, Liya Kebede and Winnie Schulman. Our cab driver for the return trip was Oscar, a New Orleans native who we hope will come to see us in Cabo with his wife and daughter.

One of the highlights of our trip to the Maple Leaf Bar was driving through the area that Tulane and Loyola Universities are situated in. The campuses of both universities are spectacular!

Just before we left the city, we walked around the corner of our hotel to Thomas Edison Square, where live jazz is playing all day and night long, to sample a traditional New Orleans beignet and it was absolutely delicious. Beignet – done that – and we can’t wait to return to New Orleans for more fabulous adventures and great memories.

After we left Washington and endured bumper-to-bumper traffic to Richmond, we stayed the night there so Ron could watch the baseball finals and we then headed for Charleston, SC the next morning.

The hotel we had made arrangements to stay in, the La Quinta in North Charleston, had no rooms ready to check into when we stopped by at 4:00 so we drove into Charleston to do some sightseeing and have dinner.

Ron as read most of the books that Pat Conroy has written and I recently read my first book of his, Beach Music, which I enjoyed tremendously. Pat Conroy is perhaps best known for Prince of Tides, but, as a graduate of The Citadel in Charleston, many of his books, like My Winning Season, Lords of Discipline, Broad Street and The Great Santini talk to experiences, both positive and negative, at The Citadel. We located The Citadel and drove and walked the campus and visited the basketball auditorium, tennis courts and other features of this famous military school. Reading Pat Conroy’s work will be more meaningful for me in future and Ron now has a vivid picture of the scenes and stories he’s already enjoyed.

We drove around Charleston, parked and walked along the waterfront to take in the beauty of the mansions situated there. The architecture and preservations of homes and historic buildings throughout the city is incredibly impressive.

We headed downtown and walked the main streets looking for a recommended restaurant named FIG (Food is Good). As impressive as their menu looked, they had a significant line-up, so we headed across the street and had some great food at Sticky Fingers BBQ. Definitely NOT for vegetarians, this restaurant turned out some fine southern barbecue, tremendous Sweet Potato Casserole and a fabulous homemade coleslaw. They’ve served their food to a massive list of celebrities and we can now appreciate why. The food and service were great. While at the restaurant, we called the hotel and our room STILL wasn’t ready and it was now 8:30 at night.

We had dropped by the historic Francis Marion Hotel to admire the architecture and to see if the musicians on the second floor (visible from the street) were perhaps playing some jazz that we could enjoy. An exceptional young man working at the hotel who had just moved from Vermont, Seanan Keleher, asked where we were staying and we told him that the hotel that we had booked earlier in the day through Expedia did not have our room ready when we dropped by at approximately 4:00 this afternoon, nor at 8:30 this evening when we called to check on it. He said that he had one room left and offered to work with the hotel we’d booked and with Expedia to have our money refunded and to arrange for us to stay at the Francis Marion Hotel instead. It took almost a half hour on the phone with various people, but he made it happen. We couldn’t have been more delighted. Seanan went above and beyond any normal expectations of service. It was a real pleasure to stay in this beautiful hotel, built in 1928, with such a magnificent view of this amazing city.

The next morning, we set off to take in as much of the city as we could possibly fit in and took a narrated carriage ride through historic Charleston. Before we left the city, we grabbed a quick lunch at a local Irish pub and enjoyed their version of an “Irish Quesadilla” – corned beef, sauerkraut and Swiss cheese cooked in a quesadilla with a side of sautéed spinach. Great idea to replicate for St. Patrick’s Day!

Tag Archives: historic

New Orleans, Louisiana

Charleston, South Carolina!