How's it growing folks!? Well I just got back from The Big Easy, New Orleans!
I loved the city so much that I decided to write up a quick, cannabis-friendly travel guide for people who (like I was last week) new to America's most fun city.
The Airport
Louis Armstrong International Airport is located about 15 miles from Downtown New Orleans.
Unlike many other larger North American cities, there isn't any sort of rail line to the airport and bus transportation is prohibitively time consuming into New Orleans proper (budget at least an hour each way), so the best bet is to ride share or taxi too and from.
Unfortunately, a conservative estimate for a round-trip cost to do so is $90 before tips, taxes or fees. However, you should arrive at your destination in about a third of the time it takes to use the busses.
If you know someone in town, I'd recommend hitting them up for a pick-up, because getting to your accommodations otherwise will cost you, either in time or money.
Getting around
A streetcar on the St. Charles line stops in front of the Holy Name of Jesus Church on the Loyola University of New Orleans campus.
Conversely, once you arrive in the city, getting around The Big Easy is big easy. For the start of my trip, I stayed in the Carrollton neighborhood, about 5 miles west of the city center.
But since New Orleans is relatively small, there are neighborhoods all over the city full of things to do and places to eat/be entertained, so there really isn't a need to always be downtown or in the French Quarter (although hey, if you want to try to spend a week on Bourbon Street, be my guest).
The city sports an extensive (though very old, the oldest operating system of its kind in the world) streetcar system. Think Tucson's Streetcar, but with considerably more charm and range. It's augmented by very punctual busses that run into the city's core and out into the nearby 'burbs.
A City Park/Cemeteries Streetcar rolls down Canal Street in New Orleans, Louisiana. This streetcar line takes riders to the historic cemeteries district or the large urban City Park, which features a theme park, museum and botanical garden along with a branch of the world-famous Café du Monde.
It's easy to get everywhere you'll want to go relatively quickly and cheaply. The city also makes it easy to transfer among the forms of transportation, with affordable day and week-long passes, known as Jazzy Passes, for tourists and locals alike.
Plus, the best way to explore the neighborhood you'll be staying in is to walk around! Unlike Phoenix or Tucson, NOLA 'hoods are built around streets made for pedestrians and each neighborhood usually has a district filled with tons of local vendors, trinket and souvenir shops, a few bars and live music venues and at least one world-class restaurant.
A quick note: The St. Charles Streetcar line is probably my favorite single public transportation line of any kind that I've used in the United States.
It's not extremely fast so you won't get anywhere quicker than a regular car, but the ability to ride through the prettiest parts of the city with the wind in your face after a night out on Bourbon Street, without the worry of parking or driving impaired, can't be understated. Call it quaint, or pleasant, I call it the best way to get home after a night of drinking there is.
Neighborhoods
The Camellia Grill, located at 626 S Carrollton Ave. Famous for its omelets, burgers, roast beef po'boys and witty waiters, the grill is considered a neighborhood institution.
Here's where New Orleans really begins to shine. Everyone has heard of Bourbon Street and the French Quarter, and do not get me wrong, you could spend a year just learning about every building in the French Quarter or trying every bar down Bourbon.
But I'm here to tell you that you can enjoy yourself in just about any neighborhood across the city, because each one I visited had its own entertainment, food and drink to offer.
The historic Carrolton Courthouse
Let's start with Carrollton where I stayed (which includes the micro-neighborhoods of Leonidas, Pigeon Town, East Carrollton and Central Carrollton Association).
Start by checking out the restaurants and shops along Oak or Maple Streets, or just walk down Carrollton Avenue to enjoy the enormous houses, oak trees, street car crossings and shops that give the neighborhood a very suburban feel.
Established in 1990 and located on the corner of Oak & Carrollton (1140 S Carrollton Ave, New Orleans, LA) in an awesome historic bank building, Rue de la Course offers coffee, of course, but also some of the best bagel sandwiches I've run across outside New York City.
I started my days at either Rue de la Course, a coffee house making great breakfast bagel sandwiches in an old bank building, or the legendary Camellia Grill, which has served up diner classics with a unique twist for over 70 years. I also grabbed my first dinner (and maybe the best sandwich I've had in years) and po-boy in town at Ajun Cajun and experienced Creole Italian cuisine at Vincent's.
Other neighborhoods I visited worth exploring include: The Irish Channel (make sure to visit Parasol's for the best hot-shrimp po'boy in creation), Turo, Treme (where I ate at Willie Mae's Scotch House) Faubourg Marigny and Audubon Park.
Willie Mae's Scotch House, located at 2401 St Ann St. in New Orleans. Famous for it's James Bear-recognized fried chicken, the menu also features other soul food classics like mac and cheese, red beans and rice and green beans.
Night life
The Frenchman Street Art Bazaar, located at 619 Frenchmen St.
Few cities anywhere can match New Orleans when it comes to nightlife.
Bourbon Street may not be everyone's cup of tea. However, pound-for-pound, it's the best place in the United States to grab a Hurricane or Hand Grenade cocktail in an over-sized 64 oz. cup, smoke a joint and engage of nearly every one of the Seven Deadly Sins. No place I've ever been is as friendly to bar-hopping and street surfing with a beer or a blunt in your hand.
On weekends and big holidays it's basically car free in the densest, most highly trafficked section. It's what people think the Las Vegas Strip is, until they find discover it's impossible to cross Las Vegas Boulevard. Also like Vegas, it isn't for the faint of heart or for kids past 7 p.m.
I'd suggest grabbing a beer or traditional cocktail near Canal Street to steady your nerves and wet your palette, walking through the craziness on Bourbon just to experience it, then hitting the oldest bar (supposedly, I'm suspect on this claim) in America: Jean Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop Bar. Grab one of the grape "Purple Drank" daiquiris and send yourself back to a time when Dimatapp cough syrup was still offered over-the-counter.
You'll probably only need one to get you really going.
Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop and Bar, located at 941 Bourbon St. The bar claims to be the oldest in the United States, with the building it's located in dating back to the early 1700s.
Just one block south of Bourbon is it's slightly quieter, more refined brother: Royal Street. If Bourbon is pound-for-pound the best for debauchery, Royal is the best spot to start your vacation in the country. Royal features all the late-night shenanigans offered on Bourbon, along with better restaurants, hipper cocktail bars and just as much live music and debauchery as anywhere else in the city. If I could afford it, I'd stay here on every subsequent trip back.
Visit the historic and endlessly classy Hotel Monteleone, one of the oldest family-owned hotels in the country, and hit its two lobby bars. The first is the world-famous Carousel Bar and Lounge, a replica rotating carousel that completes a revolution every 15 minutes. The other bar, which should be world famous because of how sexy it is, is known as just the lobby bar.
A sazerac pictured at The Carousel Bar & Lounge, located inside the lobby of the Hotel Monteleone, located at 214 Royal St.
I would also say that wonders of all kind can be found throughout the French Quarter's historic streets, not just on Bourbon or Royal. My first night I just wandered around hitting random bars and listening to great music.
Of course, if you really want to hear live music, walk just past the French Quarter to Frenchman Street. There you'll hear bands of every shape, size and persuasion playing genres of all kinds, from bosa nova to American country.
In case you can't tell, I thoroughly enjoyed every night out in New Orleans. Unreservedly, I would rank the city as the best I've visited for nightlife. Better than Chicago, LA, Las Vegas and even New York.
If you enjoy great cocktails, an unmatched music scene, walkable streets and a permissive attitude towards drinking and cannabis consumption, you have to spend at least one night in New Orleans.
Food
Music is great. Visiting the cemeteries and tombs was unique. But I came to NOLA to eat all of it's food, and on that count, I succeeded best.
Let me just start by saying that while I recommend all of these restaurants or dishes, I also recommend you try whatever restaurants, cafes or small grocery stores are near where you'll be staying.
If New Orleans taught me anything, it's that you can't discount any restaurant within its water-bound borders, because even the most unassuming shack could have the best fried chicken you've ever had.
In lieu of listing every place I dined and rating them, I've just included five of my favorite meals and their photos below. I offer a little review of what I ate in each one, so enjoy!
The Firecracker Shrimp Po'boy from Parasol's, located at 2533 Constance St.
I eat at least three sandwiches a week. This might be the best one I've ever had (there's a top three I'll get into in a later piece).
The bread is perfect and holds the shrimp, which are expertly fried and tossed in a Crystal-based hot sauce along with some sort of garlicky alchemy that I can still taste today. It's all dressed with onions, shredded lettuce and tomatoes and is perfect as is, but i saw some locals giving it a dip into a special house sauce you can request at the counter. Oh, and the place has $3 dollar canned beers. A true foodie find.
Willie Mae's Scotch House Restaurant, which has been operating since 1952, is located at 2401 St Ann St., New Orleans, LA.
Famous for it's fried chicken and red beans and rice, I tried both and let me tell you, the place is famous for a reason. The chicken (I got dark meat) was hot, juicy and most importantly extremely well season. Although not a "Nashville Hot" chicken, it did posses a bite that was much appreciated.
The red beans and rice (the first I'd ever had) were even better, and were not at all like the beans and rice we serve out here in Arizona.
Although the muffuletta sandwich was born at the Central Grocery and Deli just down the street, I grabbed an extra-spicy version at the 24/7 market Verti Marte (located at 1201 Royal St, New Orleans, LA). Also, Central Grocery is closed for renovations.
Honestly, I didn't know what to expect from the sandwich and ended up walking away thinking it was the best prepared version of an Italian sub/hoagie/grinder I've ever had.
The monster of a half-sandwich I ordered was made on a special sort of bread that's somewhere between French bread and American white bread with sesame seeds to boot. It's made up of mortadella, a spicy salami, ham and a liberal amount of spicy giardiniera and an olive salad that definitely contained onions, celery and some more spiciness.
I had no idea that the best Italian food in America is in New Orleans, not New York or New Jersey!
That may be a bold claim, but Vincent's, located at 7839 St Charles Ave. offers bold flavor.
Take the St. Charles Streetcar lunch special, a tower of veal, crab meat and shrimp all covered by a Portobello mushroom and cream sherry beurre blanc sauce.
A note on the sauce: get some extra bread sent to your table to sop it up. Either that or just take your finger through it like I did, because you won't want to waste a drop of it.
