Let me say right now that Janet kills me in shuffleboard. She's evil and uncanny in her ability to knock me out and deprive me of points. That being said, I am her Charlie Brown and will always endeavor to win, no matter how futile my chances. This infuriating skill of her's figures later on in our escapades on this particular day in New Orleans.
The day actually started well enough... we met Ally for a great breakfast as Camellia's grill on Chartres Street. It was a chance selection. We were opting for a place that was also on Chartres, but was no longer in business. Janet had seen this place while we waited for Ally and so we went for it. We got a place at the long, curving, amoeba-like counter that was all light and airy and glinting with polished chrome and the waiters scurried in white ill fitting tunics and sloshed dark strong coffee in our mugs. Eggs and sausages and grits and waffles and quick snippets of conversations with our waiter about everything and nothing and bottomless cups of coffee and every manner of woman, man and child sitting at the counter that meandered through the charming and thankfully inexpensive place. For about $20 not including the tip we had a good start on the day; our bellies filled and our spirits high.
The day actually started well enough... we met Ally for a great breakfast as Camellia's grill on Chartres Street. It was a chance selection. We were opting for a place that was also on Chartres, but was no longer in business. Janet had seen this place while we waited for Ally and so we went for it. We got a place at the long, curving, amoeba-like counter that was all light and airy and glinting with polished chrome and the waiters scurried in white ill fitting tunics and sloshed dark strong coffee in our mugs. Eggs and sausages and grits and waffles and quick snippets of conversations with our waiter about everything and nothing and bottomless cups of coffee and every manner of woman, man and child sitting at the counter that meandered through the charming and thankfully inexpensive place. For about $20 not including the tip we had a good start on the day; our bellies filled and our spirits high.
Life goes on even when others are on vacation and both Ally and her boyfriend had to work this day. My daughter was a beatific vision with her green eyes and long blonde tresses flitting in the soft breeze as we walked back after breakfast to her boutique shop in a mall near the river. The looks certainly skipped a generation in the family. At the shop we met one of her co-workers who was aglow about our coming to New Orleans and eating at Port of Call the night before. She said she was extremely though playfully jealous of our meal and she and I bantered back and forth about different places to eat. She told us of Adolfo's, an Italian/Creole restaurant she was especially fond of in the Faubroug Marigny section of town. That's just outside the French Quarter and the restuarant is on Frenchmen Street across the street from a tattoo palor and above a bar with live music. This section of town brims with that sort of lifestyle and caters more to locals who like to party in the streets, but avoid the frat-boy antics on Bourbon. Upon her enthusiastic recommendation we altered our plans for the evening right there. But, as Ally had to work we left her at the mall and made our way along Canal Street with the idea to explore the cemeteries of New Orleans.
We had done no research, aside from knowing that because the water table is so near the surface people are interred in crypts and mausoleums, but we had ignored the brochures for cemetery tours that are offered all around New Orleans. Had we latched onto one, we would have seen some decrepit and spooky graves, including a voodoo queen's final resting place. Cemeteries give me the willies already, so that would have too much. Instead we had seen a cluster of cemeteries along the far end of Canal Street on the map and decided to start out for there. At first we walked along Canal. We had to weave to avoid all manner of strange local characters and tourists. There were a lot of stout people who lumbered down the sidewalk without looking where they were going. One man with a cane sang aloud in a beautiful voice some gospel tune, fist punching appreciative listeners as he slowly ambled along the busy street walkway.
The book, "A Confederacy of Dunces," written by the tragic author John Kennedy Toole, came up as we dodged other pedestrians and we tried to remember his main character's name. The story takes place in the late 60's New Orleans. We had both read it and we struggled with remembering the name of the main character. Well, as if a stroke of luck from god or Mr. Toole himself, we were suddenly standing nose-to-nose with a statue portraying Ignatius J. Reilly, complete with floppy hat, along with a placard of the opening lines from the book on a nearby wall of the former department store. He was standing beneath the clock peering out onto the Canal Street, bemused as he looked for "offenses against taste and decency". Later we discovered that Mr. Toole is interred at the very Greenwood cemetery that we visited and had probably passed his grave, but never made the connection.
A block after meeting Mr. Reilly we decided the day was too hot and the distance too long to walk all the way to the cemeteries, so we hopped onto the Canal Street trolley. They're red and wooden and airy and rattle and clang and buzz. It costs $1.25 exact change to ride and this line ends with Canal Street at City Park Avenue. Cemeteries surrounded us and I guess because there was a huge BPOE Elks monument at Greenwood we decided to meander through that one. It was quiet and well kept and many family crypts had separate vases for different people interred there so one may leave flowers specifically for Mom or Dad, etc. The grass was trimmed nice and there was a serenity there in the hot sun that even the noise of traffic on nearby Route 10 could not invade. We walked around, snapped a few pictures and then left, but that was it for our cemetery carousing. Instead, we crossed the tree lined Canal Boulevard after leaving Greenwood to get a beer at the Bulldog. They offered a fine selection of draft beers at $5.00 and this being Wednesday we got to keep the glasses after we drank our beers. I had a beer from Baton Rouge while Janet drank a weisse beer from Germany. We were going to sit outside in the little garden they offer, but that's when we discovered the shuffleboard.
It was ugly. She's evil I tell you.... always hitting my pieces off the board, depriving me of points and my pride. Later on when we told my daughter and her boyfriend, who fancies himself as a shuffleboard pro as well, he said that Janet would never beat him... I rolled my eyes with the hubris displayed, but we never had the opportunity to see if his dignity would remain intact. I'm sure somewhere down the line WWIII will be played out on a shuffleboard between these two.
I tell you... Janet's ability is uncanny...
Anyway, Bulldogs is worth the visit... http://www.bulldog.draftfreak.com/
Later that evening we ate at Adolfo's. There is a bar next door that was open to the street. The door to the restaurant had cheap stickers spelling out the name, but there were no other markings. You had to know it was there. The door also opened to the bar, so the band is right there as you walk up the listing stairs to the run down Adolfo's. Remember the old adage though, "Judge a book by its cover and you get a paper cut." The food was exceptional! We had an order or mussels in white wine for starters. The kids got pastas and shrimp while Janet had amberjack and I had grouper. Both were prepared with Adolfo's "ocean sauce". It was a white sauce with a creole kick and white shrimp and crawfish. It was very delicious. The waiter was a squirrelly little guy with a unibrow that kept sneaking peeks of Janet's cleavage, but he was pleasant and entertaining and we enjoyed our dinner and the music from downstairs though always heard never interrupted our conversations. Dinner for the four of us with just two drinks; Janet had to tell them how to make a Sea Breeze; was just $107, tip not included. They do not have a website, but they make up for it with the food!
We said our good-byes after dinner and opted to walk back to the hotel while the kids drove back to Meterie. Janet and I strolled arm-in-arm through the quiet sections of the French Quarter and even avoided Bourbon by walking along Dauphine to reach our hotel.
Thanks for reading....
greg
We had done no research, aside from knowing that because the water table is so near the surface people are interred in crypts and mausoleums, but we had ignored the brochures for cemetery tours that are offered all around New Orleans. Had we latched onto one, we would have seen some decrepit and spooky graves, including a voodoo queen's final resting place. Cemeteries give me the willies already, so that would have too much. Instead we had seen a cluster of cemeteries along the far end of Canal Street on the map and decided to start out for there. At first we walked along Canal. We had to weave to avoid all manner of strange local characters and tourists. There were a lot of stout people who lumbered down the sidewalk without looking where they were going. One man with a cane sang aloud in a beautiful voice some gospel tune, fist punching appreciative listeners as he slowly ambled along the busy street walkway.
The book, "A Confederacy of Dunces," written by the tragic author John Kennedy Toole, came up as we dodged other pedestrians and we tried to remember his main character's name. The story takes place in the late 60's New Orleans. We had both read it and we struggled with remembering the name of the main character. Well, as if a stroke of luck from god or Mr. Toole himself, we were suddenly standing nose-to-nose with a statue portraying Ignatius J. Reilly, complete with floppy hat, along with a placard of the opening lines from the book on a nearby wall of the former department store. He was standing beneath the clock peering out onto the Canal Street, bemused as he looked for "offenses against taste and decency". Later we discovered that Mr. Toole is interred at the very Greenwood cemetery that we visited and had probably passed his grave, but never made the connection.
A block after meeting Mr. Reilly we decided the day was too hot and the distance too long to walk all the way to the cemeteries, so we hopped onto the Canal Street trolley. They're red and wooden and airy and rattle and clang and buzz. It costs $1.25 exact change to ride and this line ends with Canal Street at City Park Avenue. Cemeteries surrounded us and I guess because there was a huge BPOE Elks monument at Greenwood we decided to meander through that one. It was quiet and well kept and many family crypts had separate vases for different people interred there so one may leave flowers specifically for Mom or Dad, etc. The grass was trimmed nice and there was a serenity there in the hot sun that even the noise of traffic on nearby Route 10 could not invade. We walked around, snapped a few pictures and then left, but that was it for our cemetery carousing. Instead, we crossed the tree lined Canal Boulevard after leaving Greenwood to get a beer at the Bulldog. They offered a fine selection of draft beers at $5.00 and this being Wednesday we got to keep the glasses after we drank our beers. I had a beer from Baton Rouge while Janet drank a weisse beer from Germany. We were going to sit outside in the little garden they offer, but that's when we discovered the shuffleboard.
It was ugly. She's evil I tell you.... always hitting my pieces off the board, depriving me of points and my pride. Later on when we told my daughter and her boyfriend, who fancies himself as a shuffleboard pro as well, he said that Janet would never beat him... I rolled my eyes with the hubris displayed, but we never had the opportunity to see if his dignity would remain intact. I'm sure somewhere down the line WWIII will be played out on a shuffleboard between these two.
I tell you... Janet's ability is uncanny...
Anyway, Bulldogs is worth the visit... http://www.bulldog.draftfreak.com/
Later that evening we ate at Adolfo's. There is a bar next door that was open to the street. The door to the restaurant had cheap stickers spelling out the name, but there were no other markings. You had to know it was there. The door also opened to the bar, so the band is right there as you walk up the listing stairs to the run down Adolfo's. Remember the old adage though, "Judge a book by its cover and you get a paper cut." The food was exceptional! We had an order or mussels in white wine for starters. The kids got pastas and shrimp while Janet had amberjack and I had grouper. Both were prepared with Adolfo's "ocean sauce". It was a white sauce with a creole kick and white shrimp and crawfish. It was very delicious. The waiter was a squirrelly little guy with a unibrow that kept sneaking peeks of Janet's cleavage, but he was pleasant and entertaining and we enjoyed our dinner and the music from downstairs though always heard never interrupted our conversations. Dinner for the four of us with just two drinks; Janet had to tell them how to make a Sea Breeze; was just $107, tip not included. They do not have a website, but they make up for it with the food!
We said our good-byes after dinner and opted to walk back to the hotel while the kids drove back to Meterie. Janet and I strolled arm-in-arm through the quiet sections of the French Quarter and even avoided Bourbon by walking along Dauphine to reach our hotel.
Thanks for reading....
greg
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