I recently made a quick trip to New Orleans for some logistical reasons and was reminded, in just a day, of how much I love our neighborhood and why.
C had stocked the fridge for me. Which was awesome since my flight ended up getting in at 2am. (FYI, most of the car rental places close at 1am. Hertz took care of me though.)
I saw some really cute kids, and some very interesting people, at the various government offices I visited. One guy left to general applause and laughter after shouting “Fuck the DMV!”
I decided to stop into the New Orleans Public Library to get a library card and use the bathroom. It was drastically different from the Boston library I visited the week before. The floors weren’t finished, the tables were mismatched wood and the stacks were not impressive. The bathroom was clean! And they do have digital books.
I stopped in to meet C and meet her puppies. She keeps our short term rental guests happy!
And then, with a day’s work done, I took a walk around the neighborhood and tried to capture why I love it. This would only be more complete with the pictures of all the people I ran into as well.
Notice the wind sock in the house that’s being repaired.
Tempted to explore buying this place near our house and fixing it up. Anybody interested?
During a recent trip to New Orleans, Frank and I decided to go see the famous Lower 9th Ward – the neighborhood devastated by Hurricane Katrina. We signed up for a bike tour with Confederacy of Cruises and had a very interesting, educational and fun day.
Many houses like this one can not be torn down as no one knows who the owner is. Ownership is not centrally recorded in New Orleans.
Our tour guide Derek is a native New Orleanian. When he was growing up, the Lower 9th Ward was one of those places you didn’t stop at, not even for gas. (Not that there were many gas stations nor grocery stores to mention.)
We got our bikes, got the very short safety spiel, decided to leave our helmets behind – it was hot – and set off. After a nice stroll through Marigny and Bywater, we crossed a bridge – probably the only “scary” part as far as biking went and entered the Lower 9th Ward.
Along the way we learned things like how emergency workers performed search and rescue after the flood and what the X meant on houses. They show that the house was searched, the date and what was found, including the number of alive and dead victims. Many home owners have preserved the mark.
An example of an X-Code on a house in New Orleans
After a stop for some awesome po’boys at Arabi’s, we headed to the river.. While we were there this man walking on top of the levee wall with a weight, stopped to talk to us. In a very musical voice, he started talking about crazy things like spy boys and Indians. I was wondering what was going on when I saw Derek discreetly motion to us that he would explain later.
My horrible picture of the Spy Boy. I didn’t know what was going on and if it would be polite to take a picture or not. (In retrospect, I think he would have been delighted to have his picture taken.)
Derek had a conversation with him and once he left he explained that the man was part of the local Mardi Gras Indian krewe.
A Mardi Gras costume. (Note that typically Mardi Gras Indians are from the African American neighborhoods.)
Most of us think of Mardi Gras parades as floats and beads and masks. But in the New Orleans neighborhoods, especially among black communities, Mardi Gras is about Mardi Gras Indians. They form krewes, led by a Big Chief, who decide the parade route on the day of Mardi Gras. The costumes and dancing are amazing. Later on the tour we stopped at Ronald Lewis’ house and museum the House of Dance and Feathers to learn a lot more.
After our our chat with the spy boy, Derek looked over and said, that’s a new brewery that’s opening, let’s go check it out! Turns out they had not even opened yet, but in between loading the truck for their opening party, they did give us a private tasting …
40 Arpent Brewery
After that we went to visit the area most devastated by the floods. The flood waters rose so quickly – something like 20 feet in 20 minutes – that many people ended up trapped in their attic as they climbed for safety and then couldn’t get high enough nor could they get out. It’s now recommended to keep an ax in your attic.
The roads in the Lower 9th Road were even worse than New Orleans’ roads in general. Something that I did not think was possible.
The neighborhood had a lot of empty lots and a lot of decrepit buildings. If you lived in the neighborhood before the flood, there is a program where you can buy a very cheap lot to build on.
Brad Pitt’s Make It Right Foundation has also built a number of homes in the area to promote growth. They are supposed to be environmentally friendly and more flood proof. There was a lot of mixed feelings about them. But they did all seem to be occupied and that part of the neighborhood seemed to be prospering more than the rest.
Home designed by Brad Pitt’s Make It Right Foundation
After that we started our ride home. At this point we started losing one guy a lot, supposedly to take pictures. Frank had heard that couple arguing earlier about whose great idea it was to take such a long bike ride.
We thought the ride was a good mix of biking and breaks. We don’t bike much but we didn’t have much trouble with it, although Frank did say his butt was sore!
On a trip to New Orleans, Frank and I got there a couple of days earlier than our friends. Wandering around, we saw a new bar on Frenchmen Street, Dat Dog. Or rather another location for an existing bar. It didn’t seem like it fit on Frenchmen Street to me. It’s got a lot of plastic and it serves hot dogs but Frank wanted to check it out, so we went in. The place did serve hot dogs and did look much more modern than your typical Frenchmen jazz bar. But the wait staff was awesome.
I had a Canebrake at Dat Dog’s. Good thing I took a picture because I was saying it all wrong and nobody understood what I wanted at the next bar.
Our waiter was named Dan and upon hearing that we were looking for something to do for the day, he went over the register and pulled off a sheet of paper and proceeded to make a list. His own personal list of favorite bars in the Marigny and Bywater neighborhoods.
Dan from Dat Dog’s list of bars
So we went to Marie’s. As Coloradoans used to non-smoking restaurants, we found Marie’s to be a bit smokey but the bartender was super friendly. Dan had told us who was working at Marie’s but it was someone else. She was quite interested in our list. She picked up a pen and added a few more bars that she said were missing. We ended up talking to her about smoking and Airbnb. She had a place that she owned in Marigny that she rented out through Airbnb or VRBO. One of the things that I like about New Orleans is that everyone seems pretty scrappy and self employed. Many of the tours we have taken were put together by the person giving the tour.
The taps at Markey’s
From there we went to Mimi’s and then Markey’s Bar. At Mimi’s the bartender added a few more bars to the list. Don’t worry, we didn’t end up visiting them all in one day! This bar crawl ended up being an entire week’s affair and we still didn’t make it to all of them.
We liked both Mimi’s and Markey’s. (We visited them both twice. Turns out they are good stopping points when you are walking from the French Quarter to Bywater.) Mimi’s is a corner bar with lots of windows and old wood. And dogs. Every time we’ve been in there there have been a lot of dogs in there – like the barking, pet dog type of dogs, not the hot dogs at Dat Dog. We were told they serve pretty good food but even though we went there twice over the weekend, we didn’t seem to ever hit it when we were hungry.
This is a typical Bloody Mary to go in New Orleans. I believe this one is from Marigny Brasserie.
Markey’s is a long wooden bar that is always full of people with a huge amount of beers on tap and a large group of locals that hung out there. I over heard some entertaining – or maybe just interesting? – conversations there. One between two women who looked to be about 30 years different in age were discussing a guy that I think they were both dating. There were lots of tears and hugs involved.
3 legged dog in a bar. This bar was very nice and let us bring our bikes inside when they saw we were having trouble.
Bacchanal’s is a great place to end up. It’s a wine shop with a huge outdoor seating area with live music and great food. You buy your bottle of wine, go outside with it, order you food at the counter and then find a good place to sit back and listen to music and enjoy a glass of wine.
The complete list of bar tended recommended bars ended up being:
Dat Dog
Marie’s
Mimi’s
B.J.’s
Vaughns
Bacchanal’s
Faubourg Wines
Delachaise
Lost Love
Rusty Nail
Markey’s Bar
Our favorites were Mimi’s, Markey’s and Bacchanal’s.
Taking a break from the pub crawl in the Bywater
I wish I could show you the final list of bars, but I can’t. I shoved it in my pocket with all my receipts and ripped it up at the end of the night like I do all my receipts.
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