Louisiana History Lesson

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I woke up and was out of bed at 8:30 but we still got a late start. The morning plan of Café Du Monde and St. louis Cathedral in Jackson Square were put on hold. While Jerry was getting ready, I finished the blog from the day before. When we finally left the room, our first stop was the Gumbo Shop for lunch. This is a pretty popular place with both locals and tourists. There was a bit of line (actually the line was nonstop and still going strong when we were done with our lunch) but it moved quickly. Fortunately, we got a table inside because it was another hot and sticky day.

We had a pretty traditional Creole/Cajun meal. Probably more Creole than Cajun. We both had Ice Tea to cool off, and the day was just getting started. Babette our server was a true New Orleander (I am sure that is not what people here are referred too.) In any event she was friendly, had an actual southern accent and a veteran of the service industry. We both started with a cup of Gumbo (it is the Gumbo shop). Jerry had shrimp and okra gumbo and I had Chicken Andouille gumbo. Both were pretty good, but I wanted a bit more kick so I added a couple dashes of garlic hot sauce. It really kicked it up a notch.

Jerry then had the Shrimp Creole and I had the Creole plate (shrimp creole, jambalaya, and crawfish etouffee.) All of it was really good. For dessert we split our first and certainly not last slice of pecan pie with ice cream.

After lunch we continued on through Jackson Square. There were a couple of weddings happening one in the cathedral the other outside in the square. We walked around the square looking at the various art vendors and of course palm readers, mentalists and tarot card readers. We of course did not bite. The first site was the 1850 house that we were too late for the other day. The house is in one of two large buildings that line opposite sides of Jackson Square. They were designed by Baroness Pontalba of Spain, the richest woman in New Orleans at the time. The house we toured was restored to an originally dwelling of 1850’s that would have been occupied by rich merchants and their slaves. The house was three stories and had a large parlor, dining room, and three bedrooms. In addition, there were the servant (or slave quarters) a work space, interior court yard and a very small kitchen. I am not sure how anyone could have prepared a meal in the kitchen, even if they did start every day at 5:00 am. The dining room was on the second floor and the kitchen on the first, so the slaves had to carry all of the food up a flight of stairs to serve the masters of the house.

You will notice that I am not hiding the fact that New Orleans had a huge slave population, yes there were a few thousand free blacks, and slaves could actually purchase their freedom, but the fact remains that slaves were brought here from Africa and when the slave trade stopped there were slave auctions on a daily basis in the public squares.

The next stop was the Cabildo, next to the cathedral. This building is part of the Louisiana State Museum and it is also the building where the Louisiana Purchase was signed in 1803. We spent a good 90 minutes here and I simply can’t begin to do justice to the museum. Let’s just say it was a complete history of New Orleans from start to present. Native American history, French Colonization, Spanish rule, back to French, then within a month sold to the United States. It also did not shy away from slavery and the plight of slaves, blacks, and just about every other immigrant minority that lived in the area. It did however, not even mention the Cajuns, but did the Creole.

We basically, were in the museum until closing so our last stop The Gaillier House will be scheduled for another day.

After the museum we walked down Roya street also known as Calle Real (during the Spanish rule). This street is the street that runs parallel to Burbon. It is full of mostly antique shops and art galleries. There are a few bars and restaurants here and there but mostly dedicated to shopping. We went in to every antique store on this section of the street. Jerry is looking for two candle wall sconces for the dining room at home. Unfortunately, all they had were electric none of the candle era.

We idly walked through the street and shops until winding up back at the hotel. Tarragon was waiting for us at the door, what wasn’t waiting for us was a clean room. For the second day in a row we had to call down to have our room cleaned. I guess they are understaffed. Once the housekeeping was taken care of we relaxed and started getting ready for dinner.

Dinner at Upperline

Tonight’s dinner was a last-minute choice. We did not have reservations for Saturday on purpose so we could have the opportunity to just discover something totally on our own. Well it was sort of on our Own. When Jerry was looking at google maps for directions to La Petite Grocery he zoomed out to see what else was in the area and happened upon the Upperline. We then checked out the website and decided it was the place for dinner. I had made the reservation right after lunch at Petite Grocery, so we almost didn’t get a table.

It was a great find. It is owned by a woman named JoAnn Clevenger, she was quite the character, which I will explain later. The cuisine is upscale NOLA, with a hint of Creole. They are famous for the “12 Hour” Roast duck (evidently featured on the Food Network.) We were a bit early for the reservation as we had to take a cab instead of the street car. The line for the street car was long and we didn’t know how long it would be before the next one showed up so we hailed a cab and off we went. The cab ride was great as we went down Magazine street. The street was quite busy, lined with art galleries, restaurants and bars. It appeared to be open gallery night as they were all open and people were going from one to the next.

The cab driver really didn’t know where he was going and turned the AC off half way there, so we were pretty warm by the time we arrived at the Upperline. Since we were early we waited at the bar and looked over the menu.

We didn’t have to wait very long and were led to a nice small dining room. We got a nice table by the window with only one couple next to us. There were about 2 other tables in this section, but they were all very quiet. The couple next to us turned out to be a great treat. They were from South Carolina, about 10 years younger than us but traveled as much as we do. In fact, we have all been to so many of the same places it isn’t funny. Jerry and I got engaged in Venice, they spent their honeymoon there. They like Barcelona more than Madrid, just as we do, and we all love France. They have even eaten at many of our favorite restaurants in New York. We spent the entire dinner chatting with them. They are coming to New York in December, so who know perhaps we will have dinner one night, I did give them a card. I could go on for another 10 paragraphs about them and our conversation, but will cut it off here.

The Meal

The menu is designed to be a three-course dinner with the price based upon your entrée choice. They also have a Taste of New Orleans, 7 favorite menu items served in 3 courses. We choose the standard three courses but added a 4^th salad course. We of course started with the champagne and ordered a bottle of Chateau Nuef-du-Pape to go with the rest of the meal.

Jerry started with the Fried green tomato with shrimp remoulade (I think this maybe his new favorite sauce). The fried green tomatoes were better than what I had for lunch yesterday. I started with the Spicy Shrimp over Jalapeno Corn Bread and Garlic Aioli. A great hit of heat with this dish and the cornbread was perfect.

We both had a Watercress, mixed greens, stilton and pecan salad with a stilton vinaigrette. It was really good, it just could have used a stronger stilton, but for the masses it was perfect.

The main course was a very difficult choice as there were several things that looked tempting. I finally decided on the “12 Hour” roast duck breast. It was truly tasty and the garlic port sauce was incredible, only drawback was the duck was slightly over cooked. Jerry had Cane River County Shrimp Sauté, it was a really good version of Shrimp and Grits. It took Jerry for ever to finish his entrée as he was engrossed in conversation with Tanya from the table next to us. I also had a side of chees grits, ok I can’t help myself, I just love grits.

Everything up to this point had been way above expectation, it is true what they say, get out of the quarter. Finally, it was time for dessert. I went right for the bread pudding and Jerry went for round 2 of pecan pie. The bread pudding was a Creole Honey-Pecan Bread Pudding with Toffee Sauce. The star was clearly the toffee sauce. The pecan pie was better than lunch, at least for Jerry it was, I actually liked the pie at lunch better because they were not shy with the pecans.

During dinner it started to rain. We had originally planned on taking the streetcar back to the hotel, but with the rain and the very erratic schedule of the street car we had the we had our server call us a cab. The couple next to use had left about 15 minutes earlier, but when we went to wait for the cab they were still waiting for theirs. There were three sets of patrons waiting for a cab, we were the last. While we waited JoAnn explained the history of the restaurant and her art collection that hung on the wall. She has lived a very interesting life, once designed costumes for a Broadway show, and didn’t even know how to do it in the first place. She opened the restraint about 30 years ago with a vision, her son as the chef and her husband mortgage the house. 30 years later she has one of the best restaurants in NOLA.

It was a treat to talk with her while we waited for the cab. She is also someone I don’t think you want to cross. The couple we had dinner conversation with was the first in line cab. However, 4 obnoxious ill-dressed entitle men decided the cab was for them and proceeded to get in. When the couple left to get in the cab the four men were already seated, well JoAnn would not have this and flew out the door and told them to get out it wasn’t there cab they needed to wait their turn. We were inside so I didn’t see their reaction but I am sure they were pretty taken aback.

When our cab did arrive the it had started to pour and it was very steamy, my glasses fogged up it was so humid.

On tap for tomorrow Brunch and more of the shops on Royal Street. It was to be a Garden District tour but with the rain and the fact we will be dressed up, we opted not to walk in the humidity.

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Photos

1850 House
Dining Room

1850 House
Kitchen

Spicy Shrimp and Jalapeno cornbread
The only dinner picture that turned out