New Orleans, a Wedding and the Second Line

We left Washington mid-morning Friday for a quick trip to the Big Easy for our friend Cameron's wedding to her fiancé Alex.  What a wonderful reason to come to this example of America's diversified cityscapes.

US Air did its normal best to speed us here with irritating pseudo-efficiency.  Seats apart, $25 for bag checks, charges for anything but a sweetened soda.  At least everything went on time.  Air travel remains as uncomfy as ever.  Nonetheless we were in town by mid-afternoon and staying at an apartment hotel about three blocks from Jackson Square with a bevy of beauties doing shoots of today's casual fashions for women.   The hotel, The St. Philip's Apartment Hotel, is a collection of ordinary apartments with sporadic hot water and threats to charge cleaning fees if your garbage is not taken downstairs before you leave.  It has no particular glamor, but it has an interesting courtyard of Mardi Gras memorabilia and a very strong air conditioner.  A small kitchen cuts out the need for expensive breakfasts.

After cappuccino at Community Coffee, shortly after arrival, our next stop was a quick evening party, the rehearsal dinner, around a swimming pool at a local hotel, followed by a visit to the bride's dad's favorite watering hole, the Cosimo bar on Burgundy Street.  John, the dad, John's old friend since 1954, lives on the street and uses the bar as his TV den.  His own home is a wonder of old Vieux Carré architecture, decoration and landscape, recently finished and honored by the VC Society.  It makes his wife, Jon, and him both beam at all the work they've completed for the recognition, since it was a termite-infested relic, unused for decades, when they bought about five years ago.  The house was built in 1810 or so.  It has two buildings and two courtyards.

Saturday after a quick breakfast we headed out to the French Market, Jackson Square, the Holocaust Memorial and a ferry ride to Algiers and back.  The ferry ride is one of New Orleans' must-sees, and it is free.  Crossing the Mississippi takes but a few minutes, but when the barge and cargo traffic is heavy, the ferry has to wait for a clear run.  In our case we sat at the dock in Algiers for nearly 15 minutes as huge barges of coal and oil gear passed through the main river channel.

The views from the river give you a different angle on the city.  The old architecture, like the St. Louis Cathedral and the buildings around Jackson Square take on a time-warp back to the 18th century, but modern New Orleans vies with Auckland, New Zealand, for totally nondescript 20th century skyscrapers and convention buildings.

We lunched with our friend Elaine, the bride's aunt, at a small alley restaurant, the Green Goddess, on local shrimp and crawfish with arugula and avocado, and a couple of dreadful beers, Kolsch, which leaves a nasty aftertaste.

Then a nap and getting dressed for the wedding in Louis Armstrong Park.  Despite the nearly 90F (34C) heat, it was a jacket and tie evening and we looked grand.

The site is in a park dedicated to the jazz great, from New Orleans.  Under trees, Alex and Cameron exchanged their vows simply backed up by flute and harp, as a Treme band awaited us to lead our second line procession back to the reception at her dad and his wife's home.  Second lines are parades of celebrants, either from funerals or weddings with a band, bouncing umbrellas.

Walking, dancing, waving hankies, through the streets of the French Quarter is a real trip. Tourists whipped out their cameras and gawked, and the locals with drinks in hand stood on their front steps waving us on.

It was even better to enjoy a reception in an 1810 home, surrounded by banana fronds, orchid trees and jasmine, nibbling on grilled oysters, champagne in hand.  Dancing to another band on the patio.  Lots of fun.

Sunday, we headed out to Buffa's on Esplanade for brunch and jazz.  The group, Some Like It Hot, had played for Jon's son's engagement party, and is a regular at Buffa's.  Seated with the family and friends, enjoying a biscuit with our omelets, and of course, the obligatory New Orleans drink in a plastic cup, to be carried on departure with the city's open container drinking law, was quite unique.

Tonight before leaving tomorrow we ventured to a local restaurant, Sylvain, on Chartres near Jackson Square.   We sat on the patio at the back, and ordered food that was all Southern.  We started with bruschetta with roast beets on top instead of tomatoes, and a platter of local antipasti.  This included Tommes de Thomasville, Georgia, soppressata from a local maker, rabbit and duck pâté, pickled chilli peppers and okra, hummus of sweet potatoes, and sprouts from Maraus, also in Georgia.   We ordered a côtes de Rhone to go with the meal, which then went on to a shellfish stew of littlenecks and shrimp, mixed with chorizo in tomato fennel broth for John, and grouper, on a bed of stewed cherry tomatoes and woodland mushrooms, and angel hair cooked in ham broth.  Lovely Southern style meal.   The waitress had studied in Providence, and the bartender had gone to Moses Brown School in Rhode Island.   Lots of Rhode Island links this weekend.

The Atlas Room: Dinner on H Street

It appears we are making the seven block walk north to the Atlas District on H Street NE with some regularity.   Not only did I bike up there late last week to pick up a rhubarb pie at Dangerously Delicious Pies, but we dined at a new-ish fine dining establishment, which we loved:   The Atlas Room.

We made a 7 pm reservation and were seated immediately in a room that was not too loud to hear each other.   We started with two separate wines by the glass:  a chenin blanc for John and a sauvignon blanc for Ben as we perused the menu.  The menu does have a group of fascinating cocktails, including a sazarac, but we were more in the mood for wine.

The menu has three different sizes of dishes:   the taste, which is really a starter size, the small plate, which is big enough to be half a course, and the full size meal.  They are arranged as three different sizes of three different substances, by type of basic material, such as fish, mean, vegetable, etc.

Ben began with the signature beef ravioli, which were superb while John had a pulled dark-meat chicken on pan bread with arugula and parmesan.  The main courses were a cobia fish for Ben, which he thoroughly enjoyed and stuffed red capsicum pepper with quinoa inside for John.   We had a Napa valley Charbono from Tofanelli Winery in Napa, a rich dark red that went well with the substantial fish for Ben and John's red pepper.

Dessert was an excellent cake, sans chocolate.  The bill was not outrageous for the quality and the uniqueness of the wine.   The wine list is short but has a variety of wineries seldom if ever seen in Washington (which has no shortage of wines).  

We give the restaurant our top ranking and will go there again.