Southern Networking

We had been in NOLA for about 24 hours and had managed to have Bloody Marys at Igors on St Charles for breakfast. In the event we would have needed them, Igors had a washer and dryer in the backroom with the pool table. A sign near by read “naked people drink free”. Cool place, good bloodies.

We had tried the bloodies at Parkway Bakery and Tavern. We had a couple po boys with these drinks, fried shrimp and one oyster. These people have a huge menu and I bet there is some good stuff on it, but the po boys were just okay.

We also spent three hours parading with the Mardi Gras Indians. You can read about that a few post down.

We had also hooked up with some friends from Mobile. They had parked their car and were on their bikes. They caught up with us at the Indian parade and then again for dinner. These guys know the downtown area pretty well and they took us to a little neighborhood just outside the French Quarter. We had dinner at a tiny little place named Adolfo’s. It’s in a cool little hood called Marigny. All kinds of bars, restaurants and street life. The restaurant reminded of a small place in the west village, in NYC. The food was pretty good and we just happen to get the last table of the night.

So the next morning I called my dad to wish him happy St. Paddy day. We get to talking and I tell him where I am and he starts telling me about some restaurants he just read about in his current New Orleans magazine. He tells me about Il Posto, he tells me about Gautreau’s and he tells me about the St. James Cheese Co.

Il Posto is an Italian cafe on Dryades st. Stacey and I were looking for a lunch spot and decided to find Il Posto. We found it, no problem except it was closed on Mondays. So we were just kind driving around and found ourselves in front of the St. James Cheese co. I wasn’t thinking lunch there but Stacey thought we should have a look. We went in and there were these two people behind the counter tasting cheese. I watched them for a moment as they cut a piece of cheese, would smell it, then taste it and then let their eyes roll back in their head in pure ecstasy. We knew we were in a good cheese shop and decided to eat lunch there.

We had a Charcuterie board. It has cured meats, pate, cheese, a chutney we were told was colonial style and olives. It was great, the cured meats came from the restaurant Cochon (see previous post). We also had a salad, it had arugula, almonds, pears and a quince vinaigrette dressing with grated Manchego cheese on top. It was the perfect lunch and I wish I could have something like this for lunch more often, but ya just can’t get this in my neighborhood in Atlanta. I can get all this, don’t get me wrong, I just got to get in the car to go get it.

At this point we had been in NOLA for just over 24 hours and I was quite proud of our activities so far.