new orleans trip. part I

There are so many memories that I want to document from our trip to New Orleans. The restaurants where we ate, the local cuisine that we experienced, the quaint shops that we found tucked between streets, the feeling of walking down Bourbon Street with friends (because you have to do that at least once in your life) and the captivating architecture of the French Quarter.

I am overwhelmed with the amount of photos I snapped while on our trip, but everywhere I looked seemed to be the perfect photo. I want to share those moments, for you and for myself, and keep them together here as a cluster of memories. Be warned, these next posts will be very photo heavy and I plan to space our trip out between several posts. I hope you enjoy them. We had an amazing trip and we are certainly looking forward to returning to good old New Orleans, perhaps next time with the kiddos.







































Upon our arrival on a late Thursday morning, we headed straight for Cochon for a filling lunch and Bloody Mary's. This restaurant ended up being a reoccurring location for our trip, and I would certainly recommend it for good food and a quick meal.

Afterwards, we grabbed coffee while in the French Quarter and lazily strolled the streets absorbing every small detail of the many street performers. We walked to Jackson Square, with our coffees and cameras in hand, and planned our night and following days. There are so many great shops in the area, but I didn't spend much time shopping. If you can't tell, I spent more time behind my camera!

On Thursday evening, we headed out to Restaurant R'evolution, a joint venture by noted chefs John Folse and Rick Tramonto. It lays in the heart of the French Quarter located inside the Royal Sonesta Hotel and is filled with a sense of richness and comfort. The atmosphere alone is calling for you to loose yourself in the evening over a fine meal and drinks shared with friends. It's the type of restaurant where you don't want your experience to end. Fortunately, we ended our night with a tour of the dining rooms, the immaculate wine cellar, which housed a 1923 Sauternes (trust me, we didn't order that) and the stellar kitchen that we could only dream to have one day in our restaurant. We certainly didn't hold back when ordering and indulged in the flavors of the raw vegetable salad, Black Truffle Beef Tartare, Crisp Sweetbreads, Brick Oven Roasted Bone Marrow and my entree of the Red Snapper and Pork Belly A La Plancha (amazing). In my book, the perfect ending to any meal is a cup of hot french press coffee and grapefruit and rosemary sorbet. Perfection at it's finest. Overall, this was an amazing dining experience and we will certainly return. Give it another five years and you may be able to compare Restaurant R'evolution to the Gramercy Tavern (NYC).

After a late night stroll down Bourbon Street with our Hopitoulas IPA's in hand and our bellies full, we caught some live music at a small local bar. Again, the perfect way to close our evening.

We found ourselves back in the French Quarter for brunch at The Royal House Oyster Bar, where I had hands down one of the best Bloody Mary's ever. The perfect combination of spice accented with pickled vegetables. Jon and our chef, Carl, worked part of the day to prepare for Saturday's big event and I had the opportunity to walk around the town and then work out. Which, let me tell you, was much needed after all the rich food I had been splurging on.

I have more to come! Friday night and the greet and meet with the chefs and football players, The Taste of the NFL, our Sunday in the French Quarter and the Super Bowl game.