one time in New Orleans: week one

After a 10pm Saturday arrival and restless sleep in a new place, we put on shorts and walked in the balmy morning to Bywater Bakery | Breakfast, Lunch, Cakes, Coffee & More! | Restaurant for coffee and a heavenly apple fritter. This was stock-up day, so we trudged to the Dollar Store for soap and supplies, and to Robert’s for fairly expensive groceries. The Saints game was on the TV over the liquor department, and when Minnesota scored in the 4^th quarter, the entire store seemed to erupt in yells.

On our way back we again walked past the Bywater Bakery where a jazz duo was playing and singing, so we lingered on the corner to listen.

Later in the day we walked through the French Quarter and Bourbon Street. Even though it was barely four p.m. the day was festive, with a few day drinkers already overcome, and lots of tour groups and looky-lous.

Monday was also a shop and stock day, with another trip to the dollar store and one to Walgreen’s so I could buy calamine lotion for my legs which had broken out in an ugly red rash. Heat? I wondered. No more pants or shaving my legs for now. I talked to the volunteer coordinator at a local museum about volunteering there once a week. Around 4.30pm we wandered over to the Bywater Brew Pub - Brewery, Restaurant & Bar | New Orleans for happy hour at a pleasant sidewalk table, enjoying locally brewed pilsener and Marzen, fried pickles, cheesy fries and a tofu banh mi. The waiter said the cook had been in Portland for awhile but she was back to cook Vietnamese food.

Tuesday: back to work for me, unfortunately. A quiet day of cooking at home, getting to know the neighborhood and working. And, buying a fan, because: heat.

Wednesday: after I finished work we hotfooted it across the FQ to Home - The Bombay Club - The Bombay Club (bombayclubneworleans.com); I had a Manhattan and my partner had a martini, along with Bombay chips. A jazz pianist and a vocalist entertained at 8pm. Then we tried to go to Café Istanbul to see Kid Merv but like squares we got there too early and walked home.

Thursday: a jaunt to Rouse’s Grocery for coffee and vegetables, then a pit stop at the Spotted Cat to sit on the patio with overpriced Dos Equis beers and listen to a vigorous jazz quartet and chat with some retired folks and pet one man’s dog.

Friday: I took the day off, fed up with the bad Wi-Fi. After coffee and a sitdown at the park with my partner’s guitar, we walked ourselves to Magazine Street to stock up on a few thrift store items. It was a hot hot day and around 2.30pm we made a pit stop at San Antonio for 2-for-1 margaritas, chips and salsa and black beans, and bean nachos for me (including a luscious queso). We managed to squeeze aboard a very crowded street car to get back to the FQ, and slowly trudged our way to Port of Call - New Orleans' Best Hamburger (portofcallnola.com) for a beverage.

Saturday: my legs were worse so I got up early to make an urgent care appointment. The PA thinks it’s dermatitis (probably not scabies or ringworm, he said, comfortingly). ☹ A pal was in town so after I did some writing and a few errands we met the pal and his girlfriend at J&J’s nearby, for Abita beers and some good old west coast catch up time. Then we parted ways so I could pick up my prescriptions and then my partner and I could hop the 55 or 57 bus up Elysian Fields to Gentilly Fest (neworleans.com), where Big Sam's Funky Nation (bigsamsfunkynation.com was to play at 7pm. A man at the bus stop saw us running to make the bus and gave us a day pass; we rode in air conditioned luxury about 30 minutes north of the Bywater, to find ourselves at a bustling festival with vendor tents, a host of food options and excellent music. One man, Michael, stopped us near a booth selling bejeweled sunglasses. How did you find this? He asked, after we said we were from Seattle. He shook our hands and wished us well. The Big Sam show was amazing, so confident and soul pleasing. We nearly missed our bus back, confused by a road closed sign and absolutely no sidewalk. A merciful bus driver waited a few seconds so we could climb aboard and ride a nearly empty coach back to EF and St. Claude.

Sunday: up and out to see a klezmer band that was part of NOLAxNOLA (neworleans.com) at Bywater Bakery. A crush of people who left when they figured out what klezmer music is. We had coffee and an oatmeal cookie and enjoyed the weirdness. Then at 2pm I had reservations at StudioBE to see Brandan "BMIKE" Odums art, which was enormous in scale and ambition and impact. Then a jaywalk across town to try and buy bus passes (fail: the machine was broken), a pit stop for fresh hot beignets, a meltdown on my part when we missed the street car, then realization dawning as the streets immediately clogged with fans exiting the Super Dome post-Saints/Seahawks game. We started to walk towards our final Nola x Nola event at The Jazz Market — The New Orleans Jazz Orchestra / NOJO (thenojo.com), dodging cars stuck in traffic, passing the also-stuck street car, huge tailgate parties with smokers and grills and loudspeakers, one heckling the slowly moving cars; and then we were there, 30 minutes late but also right on time, as the band started about 10 minutes after we arrived. We were 2 of 5 attendees and it was intellectual, precise, heady jazz, in a deeply chilled perfect-acoustics auditorium. I sipped ice water and enjoyed. Afterward we still couldn’t find the street car and the neighborhood went from ok to burned-out-car very quickly, so we hurried back under the overpass and into the FQ. For dinner we wanted po boys, but Daisy Dukes was closed and Siberia no longer serves food; so SNEAKY PICKLE + BAR BRINE (yousneakypickle.com) it was, for a delightful dinner: martinis with garnish adventure, fried green tomatoes, okra seared and tossed in gochujang, fries in a tangy vegan ranch sauce, the most amazing pillowy gnocchi in a peanut sauce, and then a Snickers pie for dessert. AMAZING. 

Monday: Another week is already starting and neither of us slept well, so we took ourselves the six blocks to Home - Elizabeths Restaurant Nola for an 8am breakfast outside. As we sipped our first coffees, two men rolled up, bleary and laughing, just off work at a karaoke bar. They ordered breakfast-rita’s and full breakfasts and laughed it up with us for a bit. My partner enjoyed a duck hash/sweet potato waffle, while I had a classic eggs and hash brown brekkie, with a fluffy buttery biscuit and a bowl of the creamiest grits. The servers were kind and friendly. It was the only way to start the week.