Insiders Guide of things to do, eats and drinks in New Orleans

One of my favorite publications is Southern Living – it never disappoints! Each issue of the magazine seems to offer a topic that is totally new to me. In December 2019 an interview with JoAnn Clevenger, the owner of the Upperline restaurant in New Orleans caught my eye at once.

For Rathbone, I make a point of focusing on New Orleans or the Deep South when I choose a topic.  However, when I came across a fascinating article in National Geographic magazine, January 2020, titled “The Science of Annoyance” I decided that this was definitely a UNIVERSAL issue.

The subject of my senior thesis at Columbia was the famous author Mark Twain aka Samuel Clemens (1835-1910) and his views on organized religion – which were quite negative. Or, as he says, “All religions are alike in one respect: none can make a man happy when he’s out of luck.” That says it all so let’s move on and discuss the Mississippi River that Twain loved and wrote about many times.

Ages ago I became aware of Dolly Parton when I read that she said, “Listen, it takes a lot of time and money to look this cheap!” I practically fell on the floor laughing and, of course, loved her at once for having the nerve to poke fun at her much-talked-about image.

The month of April looks pretty busy. I always associate April with tax time – but that’s only part of the story. Let’s take a look at what’s shaking in NOLA this year.

In the Weekend Financial Times of 11/23-24 I came across a terrific piece about a new book that’s a lot of fun titled, Born to Party, Forced to Work by the party planner, Bronson van Wyck. If there ever were words that deserved a second look – those six were it. I checked out Amazon and saw that the book sold for $50. Nope, that’s not for me, I thought.

Mardi Gras is now over for the year 2020 so it’s time to bid farewell to the 1.4 million visitors who participated in the parades, festivities and masquerade balls in “The City That Care Forgot” and travel 80 miles north to Baton Rouge, the capitol of Louisiana.

Since we’re heading for the very popular Tennessee Williams Festival I thought I’d mention the once-and-only time I saw the famous playwright in New York. We were strolling up Third Avenue at 60th Street when he popped out of an Italian restaurant. No one recognized him – but I did and I was taken aback. He looked much smaller than I imagined him to be. I’ve had that reaction before: celebrities often look bigger or smaller than one pictures them. For example, Sofia Loren looked like a towering statue, well over six feet. Carlo Ponti barely came up to her shoulder – when we saw them near the Plaza.

This is the first time I’ve written about this subject – obviously I’ve avoided it because it’s so tragic. Recently I came across a write-up titled, “America’s Original Sin” in The Week magazine of 8/30/19 that presented an excellent picture of slavery and how it shaped this country.

The best quote that I’ve seen recently regarding these two supposedly wicked spots is this, “New Orleans has evolved into the sybaritic (fond of pleasure or self-indulgent), Dionysian (the Greek god of theatre, wine and overall lechery) capital of America, perhaps the world. Las Vegas performs in Amateur Hour by comparison.” I think these two sentences, which were written by Timothy O’Grady and appeared in the Condé Nast Traveler of November 2019 are a marvel of creativity and wit. Explanatory comments in brackets are mine.

We’re moving on from last week’s blog to talk about bringing children to New Orleans for Mardi Gras. You may not believe this, but Mardi Gras is a family celebration. The only place you should avoid with kids is the French Quarter (where no full-size parades pass – so you’re not missing anything). A better idea is to view parades where they begin on St. Charles near Napoleon. The Garden District portion of St. Charles is a family area where many folks stake out their parade watching position.

You’re in for a big treat: there are many events that happen well before Mardi Gras day itself. The CARNIVAL season always begins on January 6th, which is King’s Day (Feast of the Epiphany). Mardi Gras Day itself (or, as it’s also known, Fat Tuesday) is on a different day every year. This special day always takes place 47 days before Easter.

The first location that springs to mind when one talks about New Orleans is the French Quarter – which is great because everyone who visits wants to go there. Aside from being one of the most beautiful examples of preserved architecture in America, it’s also home to many of the city’s great restaurants, bars and music venues. This means that many tourists never leave the Quarter. That’s a little upsetting because there are many aspects of life in New Orleans that exist outside the French Quarter.

Atlanta, Georgia and New Orleans, Louisiana are only 400-plus miles apart.  Both places are great cities to visit and have a good time. In the past I’ve been to both and my overall impression was this: they had lots of wonderful things to see and do but Atlanta was a bit more reserved than New Orleans. Let’s take a look and get an overall picture.

For this blog I think I’ll quote from the September 2019 program guide for Channel 13 that I received in the mail. I enjoy this PBS station (Public Broadcasting Service) and support it with a monthly donation. In September an eight-part documentary series titled Country Music created by the celebrated filmmaker, Ken Burns was presented with great fanfare – and it was terrific. Take a look at the highlights of this exceptional series.

I believe we’ve all heard that old adage, “We all travel on our stomachs.” And it’s true. Years later most of us can remember favorite restaurants and foods that we experienced for the first time when we visited faraway spots.

New Orleans has always been known for its music so let’s start this blog by taking a look at its street musicians. One of my favorite groups is a nine-piece band named Tuba Skinny. They play classic jazz and blues riffs on Royal Street in the French Quarter every Monday and Friday.  CLICK HERE to hear Donde Estas Corazon.

When I received my copy in the mail of one of my favorite magazines titled, The Fall Style Issue – Southern Living I immediately sat down and flipped through it for a fast “first look.” What caught my eye at once was an interview with Oscar winner and author, Octavia Spencer who was born and raised in Alabama. Now, I’ve done over 500 interviews in the U.S. and India via phone, Skype and in-person but I have NEVER talked to anyone with these credentials. I was intrigued and noticed that the author of this piece, Allison Glock, had done a masterful job. Hence, my decision to break down this fascinating interview from four pages to 600-plus words for a Rathbone blog. Here goes:

So you’re coming to The Big Easy in December to celebrate December 25th and maybe New Year’s. Welcome! We’re very hospitable and welcoming here. So, in the spirit of the season, I’ve come up with seven spots that you may want to visit while you’re in NOLA. In other words, I’ve done the heavy lifting so you can have lots of fun – fair enough!

We’ll talk about greeting 2020 a little later. Right now I’m going to offer more ideas about spending Christmas in New Orleans and, as before, include things one can do for FREE. Everyone loves freebies – I’ll bet that even Jeff Bezos, the billionaire owner of Amazon loves it when he’s given a freebie gift bag at an event. That said it’s time to buckle down and give you lots of info. And don’t forget: take a gander at last week’s blog, too.