Exploring the New New Orleans

From Faubourg Treme to uptown, Travel + Leisure's November magazine issue discovers the eclectic characters, strange beauty, and authentic local experiences that only the Big Easy can deliver.

I love T+L's discription of Magazine Street

(where I work) :

"I set about exploring my immediate vicinity and came upon a truth that applies to the whole city: New Orleans is still the land of mom-and-pop stores. Magazine Street, around the corner from my house, is one long parade of the curious, the convenient, and the strange. Near where I live, on State Street, not far from the Whole Foods and the Pinkberry, you can find a specialized vinegar store, a chocolatier, a ballet school, a dry cleaner, several restaurants, three independently owned cafés, ..."

and about my Uptown neighborhood

(where I live) :

"A word about sno-balls: On their own, sno-balls are not remarkable—crushed ice and flavoring, sometimes with a dollop of condensed milk. But they are one of the great delicacies of New Orleans. They exist in concert with the environment. Whether you get yours at the Queen of the Ball, which at first glance seems like a wild beauty parlor crossed with a tea shop, or at Plum Street Snoballs, which is so tucked away (few blocks from my home) it feels illicit, the atmosphere is part of the experience. A couple of blocks away, the atmosphere is also part of the experience at the Oak Street Café, the place I go when I need to recalibrate my New Orleans compass. It looks innocuous enough—picture windows; green walls cluttered with framed artifacts and photographs; paintings—all askance, and each checked tablecloth adorned with salt and pepper and the ubiquitous and addictive Crystal hot sauce. Behind the piano in a corner sits Charles Farmer singing “The Sunny Side of the Street” or some other song you might not recognize. You can’t claim the Oak Street Café has the best music, and its cuisine is rudimentary: breakfast and lunch, a good omelette, decent gumbo. But it has a certain something, a sense of improvised grace and style, old green-and-white tiles on the floor and the feeling of time pooling. It’s a great spot to recover from a hangover, even if you don’t have one. "