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Laissez les Bon Temps Rouler

Skip the madness of Mardi Gras and experience New Orleans like a local.

BY ANN WYCOFF

Mention New Orleans to anyone who’s been and watch their face light up. Perhaps it’s a memory of jazzy eve on Frenchmen’s Street, a sunset view along the mighty Mississippi, or the smoky flavor of charbroiled oysters paired with a French 75. There are so many reasons to love The Big Easy — a town committed to the holy trinity of music, food and booze — where artists are embraced as the soul of the city. It’s a melting pot of cultures, cuisines, and celebrations, where revelers unite and magic happens. Turn a street corner to find brass band in a spontaneous sidewalk show, follow a costumed krewe as they parade through the streets, or grab a bag of warm beignets doused in a pound of powdered sugar and wander the French Quarter. NOLA is calling.

WHEN TO GO IN 2023

Feb 4 Krewe du Vieux Features handmade muledrawn floats and adult themes.

Feb 11 Krewe of Pontchartrain Goes down some of the city's most famous streets before the Mardi Gras crowds arrive.

Mar 25 & 26 Tremé Creole Gumbo / Congo Square Rhythms Festival Free event with African music, jazz, funk, gospel + gumbo cook-offs.

Apr 13-16 French Quarter Festival Free fest with 12 live music stages and endless food vendors from top restaurants.

Apr 28-30; May 4-7 Jazz+ Heritage Festival Blues, gospel, cajun, zydeco, jazz, rock and food galore.

Aug 13 Red Dress Run Charity marathon with beer trucks, live music and a sea of runners.

Oct 20 Krewe of Boo The city’s official Halloween parade, Mardi Gras-style, with floats, costumed dancing krewes, bead throws, second lines and after parties.

Dec Celebration in the Oaks Stunning holiday-themed decorations illuminate the historic oaks of City Park. Food + Drink

Downtown

Folks line up early morning for the firstcome, first-serve Friday lunch seating at Galatoire’s. Inside the 117-year-old dining gem, you’ll find New Orleans gentry: bow-tied bespectacled lawyers and glitzed up socialites sporting funny hats, sparkling accessories, and boas, imbibing Old Fashioneds and Bloody Marys while tuxedo-cladded waiters swan through the high-octane crowd with plates of shrimp remoulade, seafood okra gumbo and etouffée. A local brass trio marches through the dining room sending everyone on their feet dancing. Often these booze-fueled lengthy lunches tip into dinner. Nearby Restaurant R’evolution feels like you’re guests in a magnificent Louisiana mansion as you enjoy Gilded Age cocktails, oldschool service and classic Cajun and Creole bayou cuisine like blue crab beignets or gulf shrimp-n-grits and reinventions like their Death by Gumbo with a whole quail stuffed with oysters and andouille on top.

Bywater

N7, a hip French restaurant in a secret garden, is a main draw of this boho arty neighborhood, where you’ll also find Bacchanal, a wine and cheese shop meets backyard party with jazz seven nights a

Mardi Gras

week. Tables are dotted with sweatin’ ice buckets, build your own cheeseboards under the strings of market lights.

Uptown

Set in a 1880s former drugstore, candlelit Lilette with its cozy banquettes is a perfect spot for pillow-y gnocchi or duck confit in a romantic setting. At Saba, you’ll find a medley of Israeli dishes with Louisiana twists from acclaimed chef Alon Shaya. Bouligny Tavern serves up late night burgers and epic craft cocktails. And, of course, you can’t leave town without a French bread stuffed po’boy — try the roast beef topped with crispy fried shrimp at beloved Domilise’s.

Bottoms Up This spirited town takes pride in its cocktail culture. Sip America’s first cocktail — the Sazerac — at the Art Deco Roosevelt Hotel, venture to Annaud’s for an elegant French 75 at its namesake bar, knock back an Old Fashioned at Barrel Proof where’ll you find over 200 different whiskeys, or kick start your day with a creamy Brandy Milk Punch at Brennan’s, the very place that invented brunch. As NOLA has open carry law, get a “geaux cup” at Mr. B’ Bistro on Royal Street (we recommend Pimms), then explore the French Quarter. Local luminary and French Quarter all-star for 18 years, Chris Hannah, was crowned Best US Bartender in 2022 by Tales of the Cocktail. His Jewel of the South, a 1830s Creole cottage, has a perfect patio for caviar and his revisionist takes on classic sippers. Uptown on Magazine Street, head to Vintage for bubbles and beignets or an on-trend espresso martini. Bower Bar shakes up progressive new wave drinks like 51 Problems, beet-infused mescal jazzed up with passionfruit, lime, demerara, and smoked salt.

Rest Your Head Set in a Victorian-style mansion on the posh St. Charles real estate corridor, The Chloe charms with its leafy front patio for a lunch or DJ pool parties out back. The 14 unique rooms have touches like four poster beds and turntables with vinyl from local music mecca Peaches. Hotel Saint Vincent has a stylish tropical pool scene and late night lounge in the property’s former chapel. Downtown’s most stylish hotel, the 67-room Maison de la Luz, is a designer dream with its vintage furniture, pictureperfect blue-and-white breakfast room, and a velvety red library bar with a secret bookcase revolving door.

Arts + Culture A stroll through City Park reveals a mind-bending collection of 90+ spectacular pieces in the Besthoff Sculpture Garden — think Claes Oldenburg, Robert Indiana, and Jaume Plensa just to name a few — in the company of moss draped Spanish oaks and reflecting lagoons. On Friday or Saturday wander into the Terrance Osbourne Gallery on Magazine to this meet the native artist whose radiant artwork relays tales of NOLA. His subjects don wild headdresses with iconic New Orleans images like front porch lanterns, beads and more. Myriad times, Osbourne’s artwork has graced the Official Jazz & Heritage Festival Posters, one of the most collected in the world.

FOUR SEASONS NOLA-STYLE

A $500 million renovation converted New Orleans’ World Trade Center into the swanky Four Seasons, a beauteous waterfront escape. The glistening Chandelier Bar anchors the grand lobby where the bubbles in your champagne glass mirror thousands of dangling crystals above. Mississippi morning sunrises color the view from river-facing guestrooms, replete with downy luxe beds, marble showers, and deep soaking tubs. The hotel has two restaurants — celebrated Chef Donald Link (Cochon, Pesci) helms Chemin à la Mer where you’ll find an eye-popping oyster bar, giant steaks and panoramic views of the Mississippi, while Miss River, a love letter to local cuisine by Chef Alon Shaya, showcases Southern fare like buttermilk-fried chicken carved tableside. The fifth floor poolside bar calls for a Hurricane, but when you’re ready to roam, the French Quarter is an easy walk away. fourseasons.com/neworleans

Four Seasons New Orleans

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