Wick's Weblog

So it has come to our last full day in the New Orleans. The ole lady and I woke up with breakfast on our minds and no one else in the group seemed to even want to go eat. So we got dress and decided that Petunia’s was on our agenda for breakfast. Yes, this was suppose to be one of those places that you go eat and tell everyone that you’ve eaten there. So we take a stroll on down to St. Peters and walking up to it, it looked all vacant. Hmmmm, as we walk up to the door there was a piece of paper taped to it and told us that Petunia’s was closed and that the chef has opened up another restaurant called the Ole Nawlin’s Cookery on Conti. (Side note– after doing some searching on the internet, Petunia’s permanently closed their doors on June 1, 2009. Wow, was so close. Will someone every try to reopen? What happened? I will try to find out more.) Well, we were ravenous at that point so we just well, lets just try it anyways. So as we are walking those few blocks down to it we get hit up by people trying to pull ya into their restaurant to eat. We simply ignored the guy and came in the Cookery. As we were seated we saw the guy from outside doing the pulling of customers. Well we were rightfully confused. It so happens that this place has three names it goes by, Oceana Grill, Petunia’s and the Ole Nawlin’s Cookery. So the menu was set down in front of us and boom there ya have it, Petunia’s was the name on the menu. Was this Petunia’s menu? I don’t know, but after talking with some people, no it wasn’t. But it had some good ole cajun breakfast items to choose from. The ole lady tried to tell me she was getting the country breakfast and I promptly told her that wasn’t on the menu and no need into coming to New Orleans and ordering something we can make at home. She tells me she was kidding, but I do not believe that! But anyways the first thing that caught my eye was this omelet with alligator and andoullie sausage, but then there was the kicker. Topped with a crawfish and mushroom sauce. Stupid shellfish allergy. Well, my second choice was the Cajun Omelet that has tasso and ham. Yessir it was mouth watering good. See for yourself in the pics!

Well, the omelets were so big, we didn’t finish them and plus we had gotten text messages about them wanting some food, so we didn’t finish the omelets, and so we took them back to the room, after a few stops of course. Ha! So on the way to back to the room, we came across a store that we wanted to check out. It was the New Orleans School of Cooking and General Store. Come to find out, they do a cooking demo and then you get to eat it! Woah! I wish I new about this before hand, I woulda came here for lunch! But hind sight, ya know and we were leaving the next day so we couldn’t handle doing that then hitting the road. So it is on the list for the next trip. So then we venture back to the room and give the peeps the omelets. I dunno if they liked them or not, but ya know what, they were just good and we enjoy them.

So we all rested a bit and then decided to go hit up the Creole Tomato festival again. I got in touch with my friend that lived there and she was gonna walk from her place to the festival and our room was on her way so we met up with her. So we roamed on down to the French Market, taking a detour down Royal to take in some more sites. Well, we were about hungry again because it was around lunch time. So I hit up a booth that had alligator sausage on a stick. The ole lady tried a shrimp remoulade stuffed tomato. Mmm. That sounded so good, I wanted someone to try it so they could tell me how it was. Curse the shellfish allergy! Then there were other parts of the festival we didn’t see from Saturday. We were so thirsty we needed something to drink, so I stopped at one of these homemade lemonade stands. It was refreshing and hit the spot. Good stuff! Then we came across a cooking demo and the people doing it weren’t keeping my attention away from being so HOT. So I got up and checked out the other booths. Fresh creole tomatoes galore! Then I came across a basil and tomato crepe! And ya know what it was the longest line, but it was well worth it and I got to see how they made them and yes, I’ll recreate them soon.

So part of the group wanted to hit up the Crescent City Brewhouse, but I wasn’t done trying some of the local foods. So we went towards the back of the festival and then hit up GW Fins to try their bananas foster. Yes, bananas foster, created by the chef at Brennen’s (the original) restaurant. It was my first stab at a bananas foster and I must say it was mighty tasty that I am sitting here thinking that I want some more. Well, my local friend needed to get going, she was wanting to see a play called Shotgun, which it was about race relations and hurricane Katrina. I do believe that is what she told me. Well, we met up with the rest of the traveling crew at the Crescent City Brewhouse. We walked up to the bar with everyone else and I was talked into trying their beer sampler. Quick evaluation. The pilsner is pretty much like any domestic beer. The red stallion was really hoppy, but was a good amber beer. The black forrest was ok. I’m not much of a dark beer drinker. It was very malty. The Weiss beer is their wheat beer. I have been found of a wheat beer. So I must say it was my favorite as it had a smooth and sweet finish. I can’t really remember the special. It wasn’t my favorite so I’ll just say, go try it. Well, we head on back to the room to scoop up my dad who was studying since he has gone back to school. We all agree on a place to eat for dinner and also we decide to ride the street car down to the end of the French Market as this is where the restaurant was. Coops Place was a small little restaurant/bar. Only had a couple people in there working and to say we scooped up the last table which made us think this was a good place. My friend recommended it, so I took her word for it. After studying the menu as much as I could, I went with the Rabbit and Sausage Jambalaya. Oooh this was a mighty tasty dish. So tasty that the ole lady googled to find the recipe. Yessir! Will try to recreate as best as I can, but with probably a chicken as I don’t think I can pick up rabbit at my local grocer.

Well we met up with a friend of a person of the group, she came to dinner with us at Coop’s and then took us to a bar that locals go to. Well, if you were a tourist and came across this bar, you would probably not go in there AND its right off of Bourbon St. Well, next time I’m in the NOLA area I’ll be going to Johnny White’s as it was just a quaint little bar for the chillin experience. It was wasn’t over the top expensive or anything, very reasonable. We all really enjoyed ourselves there. So it will be a destination once again.

This is the end of the trip. We came in around 1 AM, caught some shut eye and then woke up to start our adventure back home. We were back in the StarkVegas around 3:30. So it was a very enjoyable trip and I had fun. I would like to go back soon, because my list of things to do in New Orleans just got bigger.