New Orleans Notes

Five things not to miss:

1) A walk down Magazine Street to browse antique and second-hand shops and soak in the flavor of the Lower Garden District, one of America's hippest neighborhoods.

2) Brunch at Mother's--downhome food for the soul (see dining entry)

3)The Garden District--take your time on a walking tour of this impossibly beautiful neighborhood

4)Dumaine Street--the heart of the supernatural French Quarter, with its magic shops and Voodoo Museum

5)World-class antique shops on historic Royal Street, French Quarter

Quick Tips:

If a party is what you're looking for, you can find it any day of the week in this town. The first night, go ahead and blow it out on Bourbon St. Have your hurricaine and your hangover (which will be tremendous). After all, pagan excess is part of what New Orleans is about--Bourbon St. is honkytonk festivity par excellance, and I don't like to dismiss it.

But don't miss out on the magnificent architecture, antiques, and unique neighborhoods New Olreans has to offer. This city is supremely rich in culture and atmosphere, and if you're too hungover to see it (or enjoy its cuisine), you're doing yourself and it a disservice. This is not Vegas. Nor is it Myrtle Beach. I get so disappointed with people that take it for that. Sometimes I think the drunk frat boys on Bourbon Street sense the eerie power of this city's feminine soul and drink themselves into oblivion to avoid the fear of being swallowed up in her embrace.

Do yourself a favor and avoid things set up near the convention center, such as the Riverwalk, unless generic cheese is your thing.

Best Way To Get Around:

You can get around in the Quarter by foot. To travel from the Quarter or downtown to uptown locations (such as the Garden District), take the St. Charles streetcar, from which you'll see the remaining grand old houses that once lined the street. At night, take a cab!

A tasteful, convenient representative of the upscale French chain. The Canal Street location is excellent for those who want to be able to walk to the French Quarter easily but have peace and quiet when they come home. Very comfortable (especially the beds) and dependable service. There''s a heated swimming pool and full service health club free to guests, but if you''re going to use these make sure you bring some appropriate clothing--wrap/shorts for the pool and exercise areas.

The concierge was very helpful--he made an excellent call for us to dine with the locals at Copelands before a Tipitina''s Uptown show--a good tip because we were going to be dressed very casually and didn''t want to have to change after dinner.

The Columns Hotel could only be in New Orleans. Built in 1883, this is one of the grand old mansions lining St. Charles Street that visitors eye longingly as they tour the Garden District. Its wide veranda, whirring fans, and antique furnishing make you feel as if you’ve stepped into another, more elegant era. The Columns has that sumptuous, timeworn ambience that lures you into a dreamy mood—the perfect attitude from which to appreciate one of America’s loveliest and most sensual cities. It’s no wonder Louis Malle chose to use it as the set for his visually stunning film Pretty Baby, starring a 12-year-old Brooke Shields as a young girl raised in a New Orleans brothel in the 1920s.

An imposing staircase leads to rooms that blessedly ignore the trend of generic blandness hotels so often succumb to. We were assigned Pretty Baby Suite, a charmingly idiosyncratic room that felt like a cozy attic hideaway. Its only real window is set in the ceiling and features a stained-glass representation of Brooke Shields as the young seductress. Getting the temperature of air and water just right sometimes took a bit of fiddling, but what the room lacked in creature comforts, it more than made up for in atmosphere, with an antique lover’s trove of ornate furniture. A dressing table alcove was a welcome amenity, as was a snug sitting area. Though the bar at street level is a hopping nightspot for a young New Orleans set, we were protected from noise by our third-floor location.

One of the best things about the Columns is the chance to sip a drink at tables set on the veranda as the streetcar glides by. Sunday’s jazz brunch, complete with champagne, is also recommended.

Yum, yummier, yummiest! Mother's is the ultimate brunch/lunch spot for hangovers or for any occasion when calories don't matter and you just need solid, tasty grub. Because this is New Orleans, solid, tasty grub can be a sublime experience. There will likely be a line when you stroll up at noon, including a few souls wearing dark sunglasses and already drinking hurricaines. But that's all right; it's a pleasure to chat with people--and a great chance to pick up tips on what to do in the evenings. The host guarding the door was an extremely pleasant fellow who told me all about his nephew making millions up in New York. Thanks. As a New York editor, I needed that!

Inside, the smell of gumbo and cured ham will make you even more famished than you are already. Now here's the only tricky part--the system takes a bit of getting used to. You order your food, and then you sort of hang out and wait for someone to holler at you that it's ready. Don't let this throw you off. Order the biscuits--they are works of art--melting in your mouth like no other biscuits you've ever encountered in a restaurant. Get ham on your biscuit if you like ham--it's sweet and perfectly tender. My cup of red beans and rice was also delicious, but heavy on the sausage, so if you aren't a carnivore, you won't like it. But then if you aren't a carnivore, what are you doing here anyway?

Imagine a soulful TGI Friday's where the food is actually good. All right, I know that's a tough one. But this is Copeland's--a local favorite and a great pick if you're going to see a show at Tipitina's uptown. The crawfish bread appetizer is a rich, bubbly delight that you had better share or else you could be done before you've ever started. There is an emphasis on butter and grease in this place that's almost frightening--and unless you have a large capacity for it, be careful. The stuffed Cajun fish comes served with a golfball of butter on top. You may want to share an entree and just get a salad to start. I didn't get the steak but I saw some pretty amazing looking cuts getting delivered to nearby tables.

An undeniably inviting spot across from the French Market on Decatur Street that looks like it's been there since time began. Redolent of spices, the shelves are stocked with tempting local specialty items like pickled okra and firey pepper sauces. What you really want though, is a mufaletta--a celestial sandwich experience comprised of thinly sliced salami, mortadella and ham, a layer of provolone cheese, and a helping of their out-of-this world Sicilian olive salad on a round, sesame seed roll. CG serves the best example in town of this culinary wonder, which is delcious with a bag of chips and a soda. Unless you're very hungry get half a sandwich--they're monstrously huge. Then sit down at the old-school lunch counter, make yourself a placemat with the wax paper and dig in.

Central Grocery is the perfect spot for lunch if you're exploring Decatur Street. Don't get taken in by those outdoor jazz dining spots in the Market--you'll pay outrageous prices and the food won't be memorable. Central Grocery is a must. Don't miss it.

Mr. B's is less formal and less touristy than many of the fine restaurants in the Quarter. The location on Royal St. makes it a perfect choice for a first night in New Orleans. Royal is one of the most beautiful streets in the country--lined with historic buildings and world-class antique shops--the grown up and refined sister to nearby rowdy Bourbon St.. Give yourself time for a stroll before dinner.

The food is superb contemporary Creole with an emphasis on seafood. Mr. B's most famous dish is the BBQ Shrimp, which comes in the shell in an exquisite peppery sauce. This is some of the best shrimp you'll ever taste, but you'll work for it--the shelling gets rather messy and you'll be wearing a bib. I've also had the Hickory Grilled Fish, which comes with a delicate lemon-butter sauce--simple but very good.

I've dined at Mr. B's on a Friday night, and my only complaint is that the service feels a bit rushed. The waiters are all running around frantically dropping fresh bags of warm bread on the table (very tasty), and you begin to feel as if you should eat faster to keep up with their frenetic activity. To tell the truth, though, weekend nights are tough everywhere in a town where eating is practically the favorite pasttime. I want to try Mr. B's on a weekday sometime, and would suggest that if you can, you do the same.

What makes this restaurant such a special find is the atmosphere. Specializing in Creole fare, Belle Forché is located off the beaten path on the far end of Decatur Street as it crosses Esplanade, where hipsters enjoy a funky, eclectic vibe far away from the drunken crowds on Bourbon Street. The waitstaff is welcoming in a very genuine sort of way, and make you feel like you’re hanging out in a friend’s living room. The restaurant itself is spacious and just dark enough to feel romantic, with a horseshoe shaped wooden bar and murals of frolicking mermaids adorning the walls.

Our food ranged from spectacular to solid. Topped with truffles for a rich, earthy accent, the flash-fired, cornmeal-battered oysters "In Tuxedo" are outstanding. I also recommend the fried green tomatoes with creamy remoulade dipping sauce for a fun down-home starter. As a main course, the crawfish etouffee was a perfectly acceptable rendition of the New Orleans classic featuring seafood sautéed with green peppers and onions over rice. I would have enjoyed a bit more seasoning, but this dish often tends toward blandness. My dining companion had the crawfish ravioli, which had more zip with its peppery tomato sauce. Belle Forché may not blow your taste buds away, but it certainly pleases consistently.

When you’re tired of feeling like a tourist and want some peace and quiet in a place that locals obviously treasure, this spot fits the bill. After dinner, you might wander down Decatur a bit toward Canal Street and stop by Palm Court for some live Dixieland jazz.

Late night diners will want to know that Belle Forché is open till 2:30 a.m. Thursday through Saturday.

When a restaurant is so venerated and closely associated with a city, it falls in danger of becoming a tourist trap and a parody of itself. Tavern on the Green in New York City is a case in point: tourists flock there in droves, but no self-respecting New Yorker would be caught dead within its overdecorated walls, consigned to the disappoinment of its mediocre, overpriced food.

If it weren’t for the spectacular cuisine, Commander’s Palace would be on its way to joining this unfortunate category of restaurant relics. This would be a terrible shame, but if the restaurant doesn’t tone down the references to its Las Vegas incarnation (shouting at you from the walls and the menu), overhaul the décor and try to work on the cheese-factor in the service, annoying aspects of the dining experience may come to overshadow the pleasures of its justifiably famous cooking. The colored balloons shooting up from the tables seem to convey forced jocularity rather than genuine festivity, and it’s simply embarrassing (rather than charmingly kitschy) to have a French waiter dropping phrases like ooh-la-la every time he passes by your table.

What saves the Palace from becoming a place you would only take your aging parents is the food, which is admittedly excellent. The addictive garlic-parmesan bread which kept appearing at our table during the fabled Commander’s jazz brunch was the perfect companion to the rich, thick gumbo I had as a starter—as good a rendition of the New Orleans classic as I’ve ever tasted. Complementing the soothing tones of the jazz trio who played charmingly but didn’t drown conversation were delectable Bloody Marys, brought to the table in virgin form, where the waiter topped them off with ice-cold vodka. My main course was an iron skillet seared gulf fish (in this case mahi-mahi) with a peppery outer crust served over a succotash of limas, corn, tomatoes, black-eye peas and earthy chanterelles. The cuisine is obviously prepared with a sure, experienced hand, and I left feeling as if I had some of the best gourmet Creole the city has to offer. But with such a range of magnificent dining choices in a place like New Orleans, I’m not sure I would return for dinner, unless someone else was picking up the gargantuan tab.

Not a Breeze, nor a Squall. The drink to have at Pat O'Brien's is its very own Hurricane, the dark rum and fruit juice concoction that has resulted in more Bourbon Street vomiting than possibly any other.

Dating back to speakeasy days, Pat O'Brien's is a festive, albeit very touristy spot--a good place to finish off that first Friday night in the Quarter after you've had a couple. You can sing all those songs you know the words to, like 'Cheeseburger in Paradise' or maybe your college fight song, while a couple of piano players accompany you and a large room full of people. Occasionally there is an antediluvian gentleman in dark glasses who plays, with the aid of some sort of metal claws attached to his fingers, a serving tray.

In the 1820's, the Garden District became the fashionable address for wealthy upstart Americans tired of getting snubbed by Creole aristocrats in the Quarter and along Esplanade. Today it is one of the most beautiful neighborhood's in the country, on the planet, and in the entire universe. You must not miss it.

You might start a walking tour by heading down First Street at its intersection with St. Charles. Proceed down to Chesnut and check out the lavender house on the corner. That's the abode of pulp horror goddess Anne Rice, and if you see a black limo outside, the Goth Queen is in residence. Then walk back up two blocks to Prytania Street (site of some of the neighborhood's most spectacular houses) and take a left, heading toward Washington, where you'll find Anne's bookstore and a cafe where you can stop and have a cup of tea. Then, take in Lafayette Cemetery on Washington, returning to the street to notice the Commander's Palace restaurant at 1403. Follow Washington all the way down to Magazine Street (now you're in the Lower Garden District) and indulge yourself in antique shopping and browsing second-hand stores.

For all you Streetcar Named Desire fans, here's your chance to ride the longest running streetcar in America. Funky, clunky, and cruising past some of the most beautiful buildings in the city, the St. Charles is a must for getting around. Make sure you have exact change: $1.25, although people are so friendly someone usually spots you a quarter if you don't have one handy. The streetcar is especially useful for transport between the Garden District or Tulane area (Uptown) and the French Quarter.

Schedules are available fat the Regional Transit Authority office at 2817 Canal Street, 248-3900.

A fun way to get a good overview of notable figures from New Orleans history. Meet President Andrew Jackson, pirate Jean Lafitte, the voodoo queen Marie Laveau, jazz legend Louis Armstrong and many more Louisiana legends, all looking eerily lifelike as wax models. Includes a haunted dungeon and scenes of famous moments in New Orleans history, such as the signing of the Louisianna Purchase and the Battle of New Orleans.

Guided tours, 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. Wed-Sat. Open daily, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Dripping with personality, Lafitte's fulfilled my fantasies of what an ancient, dimly-lit pub in the French Quarter should be. Located on the deep end of Bourbon Street, thankfully removed from the tacky tee-shirt shops and noisly discos, Lafitte's offers a quiet, dignified, and ridiculously romantic setting with its flickering candles and cozy atmosphere. My Bloody Mary was simply as good as it gets--extra-spicey and garnished with lemon, olives, and a delicious pickled string bean.

According to legend, naughty pirate Jean Lafitte once used the location to run his shady business. Lafitte's is also perhaps the oldest structure in the country still used as a bar. Needless to say, this place should not be missed.