Affichage des articles dont le libellé est new orleans. Afficher tous les articles
Affichage des articles dont le libellé est new orleans. Afficher tous les articles
samedi 10 décembre 2011
Katrina... Avoidable Tragedy
This is an episode of Cities of the Underworld on the History channel. It's a fascinating look at the effects of Hurricane Katrina on the city of New Orleans and the steps they're taking from an engineering standpoint to prevent another tragedy of this scale. I wish I'd have watched this before I visited last week as we saw many of the places they show, but this really answers a lot of questions I had. It's long (43 minutes) but well worth the time if you're into this sort of thing.... figured I'd share it.
vendredi 9 décembre 2011
New Orleans: Sightseeing
So I've told you of Lord Chaz's tour and various beer and food tales, now here's the rest of it. Well, most of it I guess. We had a long and wild 3 days so there's no way I can cover it all (actually I could... but you don't want to see that), but I took a lot of pics of various New Orleans sights and I'll just share some of them right here. Starting with the awesome crossing of Lake Pontchartrain Causeway on the way into town:
And our hotel which we stayed in. What I liked about it was that it was sort of in New Orleans style, with balconies all opening up to the inside and a beautiful courtyard with a nice fountain and swimming pool. Too bad it wasn't really swimming weather, but it was a very nice courtyard to sit and have a drink by the pool or just chill out and get out of the room.
The the rest of these are just various sites from around New Orleans, one of the most unique cities in America. We did one of the guided bus tours, so we got to see some of the very different cemeteries (since the ground is basically a swamp, they're buried above ground... sometimes whole families in a tomb), some of the gorgeous architecture in the French Quarter and Garden District, unbelievable old churches, some of the destruction caused by Hurricane Katrina in the lower 9th Ward (which was just unreal and gut-wrenching), celebrity homes (Nic Cage, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, Archie Manning, Anne Rice and others) and plenty of other sites. We also did a carriage tour around the Bourbon Street area pulled by a mule (too hot and humid for horses), which was pretty cool. Then of course, there are just some pics of Bourbon Street itself in all it's sinful glory. Enjoy.
And our hotel which we stayed in. What I liked about it was that it was sort of in New Orleans style, with balconies all opening up to the inside and a beautiful courtyard with a nice fountain and swimming pool. Too bad it wasn't really swimming weather, but it was a very nice courtyard to sit and have a drink by the pool or just chill out and get out of the room.
The the rest of these are just various sites from around New Orleans, one of the most unique cities in America. We did one of the guided bus tours, so we got to see some of the very different cemeteries (since the ground is basically a swamp, they're buried above ground... sometimes whole families in a tomb), some of the gorgeous architecture in the French Quarter and Garden District, unbelievable old churches, some of the destruction caused by Hurricane Katrina in the lower 9th Ward (which was just unreal and gut-wrenching), celebrity homes (Nic Cage, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, Archie Manning, Anne Rice and others) and plenty of other sites. We also did a carriage tour around the Bourbon Street area pulled by a mule (too hot and humid for horses), which was pretty cool. Then of course, there are just some pics of Bourbon Street itself in all it's sinful glory. Enjoy.
jeudi 8 décembre 2011
New Orleans: Beerin' & Munchin'
So when I travel, I always try to hit all the local watering holes and sample all the local brews. The New Orleans trip was no exception and in fact probably one of the best examples of it. Sure, I love the food and all the tourist sites and local flavor and such, but beer is a big part of it too. Here's a bit on the trip from the beer goggles view.
We stopped on the way down in Abita Springs, La, which is a little out of the way, but allows you to drive across the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway, which is a pretty cool 20 mile long bridge over the massive lake. Abita Springs in right next to Covington and the area seems like a really nice little suburban type place full of strip malls, restaurants and stores. The part of Abita Springs that the brewpub is in is an older, quainter part of town and it really adds to the charm of the place. There's a little neighborhood bar (Rosie's Tavern) and a grocery/deli right across the street with a park and bike trail sitting right next to it. The Abita Brew Pub actually used to be the Abita Brewery building itself until their production got too big. The brewery is now down the road a bit (we didn't visit it) but the pub is great, with a little white picket fence out front and huge old oak tree hanging over the front patio area. It's gorgeous and very inviting. The inside is just as nice with antique collectibles everywhere and cypress paneling.
We had the Andygator Crawfish Cake (with Turbodog Remoulade sauce) with some fried tomatoes to get started with an Abita Golden and an Abita Restoration Pale Ale, before following that up by splitting a huge Catfish Po-Boy and fries. Excellent food, good beer and good service make it a place I highly recommend. I grabbed a 12 pack mixer on the way out to take a bit home with me even. Yes, I paid for it.
In the days wandering the streets of New Orleans, we mainly stayed in the French Quarter District, with only 1 afternoon trip to the Garden District. Bars are definitely plentiful, but good beer wasn't really. I did find some places with Abita and NOLA brews though and since I was looking for these local products I was happy, but if you want a big craft beer selection I don't know where to tell you for the French Quarter. Most of the bars are more about partyin' and have much more of a drunken frat boy type crowd than craft beer lovers, so it's really not something they probably want to waste their time on. Why get a huge assortment of good craft taps when you can just shell out keg after keg of cheap stuff? Wouldn't be a good business move I guess.
While in the French Quarter we hit too many places to name probably, but some of my favorites among them were Johnny White's, Lafittes Blacksmith Shop, Three Legged Dog, Razzoo and Famous Door.
Now over in the Garden District I found a couple of good places for craft beers. First is The Avenue Pub. It's a cozy little neighborhood bar that has a killer beer selection. They've got 31 rotating taps and dozens of bottled brews and they know their beer. Myself, I had a NOLA Brewing Co. Hurricane Saison, NOLA Brewing Co. Hopitoulas IPA and a Mikkeller Single Hop Nelson Sauvin IPA as we watched the first game of the Final Four. It was heavenly. Also there's a place called The Bulldog which isn't too far away and has a pretty wide variety of craft beers but lacks the more "extreme" beers like The Avenue Pub. Also, it was extremely crowded so we ended up on the patio and were having to wade through people to get to the bar or bathroom and no chance to get food. We didn't stay long, but on a slow afternoon this might be a fun place. The only really good thing that came out of it for us was that we found a place nearby for dinner called The Rum House that was really good. Their specialty was a bunch of different kinds of tacos. Very good.
Our hotel bar had Abita beers and also Dixie Blackened Voodoo, a nice dunkel I'd had before and like:
For food, a place we found that we both really enjoyed was Cajun Cabin on Bourbon Street. It claims to be the French Quarter's only authentic Cajun restaurant. I'm not sure if that's true but it's the only we saw and it's the only one we needed as they had an excellent menu and were very reasonably priced. You could also sit on their balcony overlooking Bourbon Street and watch the "entertainment" stroll by. They've got an oyster bar so we started with some on the half-shell, followed by a sausage trio of alligator sausage w/ sauce piquant, boudin w/ Creole mustard sauce & crawfish andouille sausage w/ honey mustard. Oh my.... delicious. Goes well with the beer too I must say (Abita Mardi Gras Bock for me). If that wasn't enough (and trust me, it probably was) we also had their plate called "A Taste of New Orleans" which is a cup of red beans and rice, a cup of shrimp creole, jambalaya and shrimp remoulade. Let me tell you folks, if you like Cajun food and you leave this place hungry, you've got nobody to blame but you and your stupid diet. Pig out here. Typing this paragraph actually just made my mouth water.
Also, we were told that Acme Oyster House was THE place in the quarter to get chargrilled oysters, but we noticed every time we went by there was a huge line (a good sign, but I hate waiting). We found a local that told us we should try Deanie's Seafood Restaurant for chargrilled oysters and seafood. This turned out to be an excellent tip as we got a table right away, without a reservation, and had some delicious food which was reasonably priced. It's just off Bourbon Street on the corner of Dauphine and Iberville.
So we also had one of their signature sandwiches, the muffuletta, a couple of different times from different places and enjoyed them. We also ate at several more places and drank at plenty more I'm sure, but these are some thoughts from the places we enjoyed more than others. One of the great things about this city and the French Quarter area in general is that I'm sure you could stay for a month or so and not eat at the same place twice, there's so much to choose from. A good excuse to go back and explore more I guess.
So I tried 10 beers that I haven't tried before and rated them on BeerReviewsOnline.com and here they are in order of ratings:
Mikkeller Single Hop Nelson Sauvin IPA (9/10)
NOLA Hopitoulas IPA (9/10)
Abita Strawberry Harvest Lager (8/10)
NOLA Blonde Ale (8/10)
NOLA Hurricane Saison (7/10)
Abita Satsuma Harvest Wit (7/10)
Abita Mardi Gras Bock (6/10)
Abita Restoration Pale Ale (6/10)
Abita Golden (5/10)
Abita Light (4/10)
The Mikkeller is the only one not from the area. You can see I like IPAs better just from this list if you didn't know already... and light beer the least. The most surprising for me was the Abita Strawberry, as I'm not a big fan of fruit beer usually and this was really tasty. I probably couldn't have more than a couple in a row though... too sweet for me. Overall, Abita has bumped up into my list of favorite breweries as I've got some memories to go with some of their beers now and they make plenty of very drinkable beers. Somewhere over the 3 days I worked in their Jockamo IPA and Turbo Dog as well. Looking back at the list, I'm not sure where or when. Not surprisingly actually.
We stopped on the way down in Abita Springs, La, which is a little out of the way, but allows you to drive across the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway, which is a pretty cool 20 mile long bridge over the massive lake. Abita Springs in right next to Covington and the area seems like a really nice little suburban type place full of strip malls, restaurants and stores. The part of Abita Springs that the brewpub is in is an older, quainter part of town and it really adds to the charm of the place. There's a little neighborhood bar (Rosie's Tavern) and a grocery/deli right across the street with a park and bike trail sitting right next to it. The Abita Brew Pub actually used to be the Abita Brewery building itself until their production got too big. The brewery is now down the road a bit (we didn't visit it) but the pub is great, with a little white picket fence out front and huge old oak tree hanging over the front patio area. It's gorgeous and very inviting. The inside is just as nice with antique collectibles everywhere and cypress paneling.
We had the Andygator Crawfish Cake (with Turbodog Remoulade sauce) with some fried tomatoes to get started with an Abita Golden and an Abita Restoration Pale Ale, before following that up by splitting a huge Catfish Po-Boy and fries. Excellent food, good beer and good service make it a place I highly recommend. I grabbed a 12 pack mixer on the way out to take a bit home with me even. Yes, I paid for it.
In the days wandering the streets of New Orleans, we mainly stayed in the French Quarter District, with only 1 afternoon trip to the Garden District. Bars are definitely plentiful, but good beer wasn't really. I did find some places with Abita and NOLA brews though and since I was looking for these local products I was happy, but if you want a big craft beer selection I don't know where to tell you for the French Quarter. Most of the bars are more about partyin' and have much more of a drunken frat boy type crowd than craft beer lovers, so it's really not something they probably want to waste their time on. Why get a huge assortment of good craft taps when you can just shell out keg after keg of cheap stuff? Wouldn't be a good business move I guess.
While in the French Quarter we hit too many places to name probably, but some of my favorites among them were Johnny White's, Lafittes Blacksmith Shop, Three Legged Dog, Razzoo and Famous Door.
Now over in the Garden District I found a couple of good places for craft beers. First is The Avenue Pub. It's a cozy little neighborhood bar that has a killer beer selection. They've got 31 rotating taps and dozens of bottled brews and they know their beer. Myself, I had a NOLA Brewing Co. Hurricane Saison, NOLA Brewing Co. Hopitoulas IPA and a Mikkeller Single Hop Nelson Sauvin IPA as we watched the first game of the Final Four. It was heavenly. Also there's a place called The Bulldog which isn't too far away and has a pretty wide variety of craft beers but lacks the more "extreme" beers like The Avenue Pub. Also, it was extremely crowded so we ended up on the patio and were having to wade through people to get to the bar or bathroom and no chance to get food. We didn't stay long, but on a slow afternoon this might be a fun place. The only really good thing that came out of it for us was that we found a place nearby for dinner called The Rum House that was really good. Their specialty was a bunch of different kinds of tacos. Very good.Our hotel bar had Abita beers and also Dixie Blackened Voodoo, a nice dunkel I'd had before and like:
For food, a place we found that we both really enjoyed was Cajun Cabin on Bourbon Street. It claims to be the French Quarter's only authentic Cajun restaurant. I'm not sure if that's true but it's the only we saw and it's the only one we needed as they had an excellent menu and were very reasonably priced. You could also sit on their balcony overlooking Bourbon Street and watch the "entertainment" stroll by. They've got an oyster bar so we started with some on the half-shell, followed by a sausage trio of alligator sausage w/ sauce piquant, boudin w/ Creole mustard sauce & crawfish andouille sausage w/ honey mustard. Oh my.... delicious. Goes well with the beer too I must say (Abita Mardi Gras Bock for me). If that wasn't enough (and trust me, it probably was) we also had their plate called "A Taste of New Orleans" which is a cup of red beans and rice, a cup of shrimp creole, jambalaya and shrimp remoulade. Let me tell you folks, if you like Cajun food and you leave this place hungry, you've got nobody to blame but you and your stupid diet. Pig out here. Typing this paragraph actually just made my mouth water.
Also, we were told that Acme Oyster House was THE place in the quarter to get chargrilled oysters, but we noticed every time we went by there was a huge line (a good sign, but I hate waiting). We found a local that told us we should try Deanie's Seafood Restaurant for chargrilled oysters and seafood. This turned out to be an excellent tip as we got a table right away, without a reservation, and had some delicious food which was reasonably priced. It's just off Bourbon Street on the corner of Dauphine and Iberville.
So we also had one of their signature sandwiches, the muffuletta, a couple of different times from different places and enjoyed them. We also ate at several more places and drank at plenty more I'm sure, but these are some thoughts from the places we enjoyed more than others. One of the great things about this city and the French Quarter area in general is that I'm sure you could stay for a month or so and not eat at the same place twice, there's so much to choose from. A good excuse to go back and explore more I guess.
So I tried 10 beers that I haven't tried before and rated them on BeerReviewsOnline.com and here they are in order of ratings:
Mikkeller Single Hop Nelson Sauvin IPA (9/10)
NOLA Hopitoulas IPA (9/10)
Abita Strawberry Harvest Lager (8/10)
NOLA Blonde Ale (8/10)
NOLA Hurricane Saison (7/10)
Abita Satsuma Harvest Wit (7/10)
Abita Mardi Gras Bock (6/10)
Abita Restoration Pale Ale (6/10)
Abita Golden (5/10)
Abita Light (4/10)
The Mikkeller is the only one not from the area. You can see I like IPAs better just from this list if you didn't know already... and light beer the least. The most surprising for me was the Abita Strawberry, as I'm not a big fan of fruit beer usually and this was really tasty. I probably couldn't have more than a couple in a row though... too sweet for me. Overall, Abita has bumped up into my list of favorite breweries as I've got some memories to go with some of their beers now and they make plenty of very drinkable beers. Somewhere over the 3 days I worked in their Jockamo IPA and Turbo Dog as well. Looking back at the list, I'm not sure where or when. Not surprisingly actually.
mercredi 7 décembre 2011
New Orleans: Lord Chaz
The creepy looking cat below is known as Lord Chaz (in the middle, that's me on the right jerks) and we went on his guided ghost/vampire tour one night while we were in New Orleans. I thought it was very entertaining. We were just sitting in Johnny White's on Bourbon and saw him setting up with a sign outside so we thought we'd check it out and for a mere $20 a piece we had a great time for a couple of hours visiting several "haunted" sites and hearing tales of the goings-on.
He starts with the real history of the location, then tell the supernatural stories. The guy was fantastic with his story telling and actions. He had Deanna scared out of her mind (he picked on her the whole tour) as he had her check his pulse... then apparently made it stop as she was checking. He also "cut himself" with his long nails at the end of the tour enough to draw blood, then healed it before our very eyes. Of note... he never blinks. Great guy, highly recommended tour, money well spent if you feel like being entertained by something different for a few hours.
Here's a bit of what his MySpace site says:
I am Lord Chaz. First and foremost, I am an entertainer. I am an actor, musician, illusionist and storyteller. I am most well known for being the creator and host of Vampire Street Theatre, the original nightly Ghost and Vampire Tour in New Orleans. We call it "street theatre" for a reason; it is far more than a typical tour.
I host and entertain brave souls on journeys through the darker streets of the French Quarter and share stories of murder, suicide, vampirism, and other tragedies that make up some of the city's most macabre history. These are the tales that have inspired famous authors such as Anne Rice, Poppy Z. Brite, and Robert Lynn Asprin. Come walk with me and ponder the timeless questions; What is a ghost? What is a haunting? What is the difference? Do vampires really exist? I will let you come to your own conclusion regarding that final question.
He also claims that over 100 people have fainted during his tour, and 1 guy had a heart attack.
The only strange thing that happened during our tour actually occurred during the break. We stopped at LaFitte's Blacksmith Shop for a potty break and of course some drinks mid-tour and a couple that was with us was snapping a few pics of a pretty fountain and something really strange turned up on only 1 of the pics... sort of a floating mist. It was really odd. Add that to the fact that LaFitte's is actually over 200 years old and supposedly haunted and we all had a blast with it. The couple said they were going to send the pic to Lord Chaz, so I'm watching his site to see if he posts them and I'll share them sometime. We'd actually been in LaFitte's already the night before for a few brews and I had a weird sort of feeling myself when I went back to the dark, creepy bathroom area as the place wasn't very populated that night. Fun stuff!
Lord Chaz Official MySpace Site
He starts with the real history of the location, then tell the supernatural stories. The guy was fantastic with his story telling and actions. He had Deanna scared out of her mind (he picked on her the whole tour) as he had her check his pulse... then apparently made it stop as she was checking. He also "cut himself" with his long nails at the end of the tour enough to draw blood, then healed it before our very eyes. Of note... he never blinks. Great guy, highly recommended tour, money well spent if you feel like being entertained by something different for a few hours.
Here's a bit of what his MySpace site says:
I am Lord Chaz. First and foremost, I am an entertainer. I am an actor, musician, illusionist and storyteller. I am most well known for being the creator and host of Vampire Street Theatre, the original nightly Ghost and Vampire Tour in New Orleans. We call it "street theatre" for a reason; it is far more than a typical tour.
I host and entertain brave souls on journeys through the darker streets of the French Quarter and share stories of murder, suicide, vampirism, and other tragedies that make up some of the city's most macabre history. These are the tales that have inspired famous authors such as Anne Rice, Poppy Z. Brite, and Robert Lynn Asprin. Come walk with me and ponder the timeless questions; What is a ghost? What is a haunting? What is the difference? Do vampires really exist? I will let you come to your own conclusion regarding that final question.
He also claims that over 100 people have fainted during his tour, and 1 guy had a heart attack.
The only strange thing that happened during our tour actually occurred during the break. We stopped at LaFitte's Blacksmith Shop for a potty break and of course some drinks mid-tour and a couple that was with us was snapping a few pics of a pretty fountain and something really strange turned up on only 1 of the pics... sort of a floating mist. It was really odd. Add that to the fact that LaFitte's is actually over 200 years old and supposedly haunted and we all had a blast with it. The couple said they were going to send the pic to Lord Chaz, so I'm watching his site to see if he posts them and I'll share them sometime. We'd actually been in LaFitte's already the night before for a few brews and I had a weird sort of feeling myself when I went back to the dark, creepy bathroom area as the place wasn't very populated that night. Fun stuff!
Lord Chaz Official MySpace Site
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