Old threads were old, and I'll likely see more replies in chit chat.

I'm headed down to NO with the wife on New Year's Day and I'm looking for suggestions on places to hit up. I've already got a place to stay and a car rented. Looking for restaurants, cocktail bars, breweries, museums, tours, etc. suggestions.

12/18/2014 9:18:09 AM

McDonalds is pretty good.

12/18/2014 9:20:01 AM

For others who care: message_topic.aspx?topic=579430 had some good restaurant suggestions from Queti, NCSUWolfy, and Sleik

12/18/2014 9:21:19 AM

Well you'll def encounter the crazies since the Sugar Bowl is on that day. Have fun with Alabama & Ohio St. fans...they're both the worst.

12/18/2014 9:48:00 AM

fuuuuuuuu-

12/18/2014 10:01:07 AM

I've only been once but everything was good.

We had brunch at Court of Two Sisters which is buffet style and has a great atmosphere. http://www.courtoftwosisters.com/

12/18/2014 10:10:54 AM

New Orleans is one of my least favorite cities

(but I've only been in summer and I don't drink much)

12/18/2014 10:32:32 AM

I heard that they have good jabalaya, gumbo, and etoufée down therre.
I don't know though.

12/18/2014 10:37:18 AM

Quote :

"NO with the wife on New Year's Day"

because you are married, your enjoyment potential in New Orleans is reduced greatly


Accordingly, go to Cafe Du Monde, get a beignette and quietly cry yourself to sleep in your hotel room with your tear drops falling into the powdered sugar

Maybe tomorrow will be a new day.

12/18/2014 10:40:53 AM

12/18/2014 10:42:39 AM

I was there in March. Go eat at Jacques-Imo's.

12/18/2014 12:45:02 PM

It's fucking awful if there's a college football game. Cancel your trip. You failed at planning.

I'm serious. There will be NO room at any bars or restaurants and everyone will be wasted. You will not have a good time unless you and your wife want 0 romance and just plan on getting tanked and passing out.

Go AFTER Mardi Gras.

[Edited on December 18, 2014 at 1:59 PM. Reason : V]

12/18/2014 1:57:35 PM

vagina is the answer

12/18/2014 4:38:56 PM

heroin? when in hell do what mike williams does

I'm Krallum and I approved this message.

12/18/2014 5:17:37 PM

Surprised to see so many people hating on NOLA in this thread. I thought it was a Mecca for overindulgence and rednecks...

12/18/2014 7:48:21 PM

For an interesting story go to

12/18/2014 8:28:59 PM

"Love acts" is worryingly vague.

Trip's happening no matter what, so we'll just have to deal with crowds and such. Is there any less-obvious stuff I'm overlooking beyond cemetery and air-boat tours?

12/19/2014 9:32:58 AM

The Garden District is cool and I enjoyed Frenchmen St.

If you've got a car, you could drive out to Lafayette/Cajun country and maybe do a swamp tour.

12/19/2014 11:51:41 AM

That neon woman has weird boobs.

12/19/2014 11:56:48 AM

Quote :

"New Orleans is one of my least favorite cities"

Agreed. Been there twice. NOLA is a very good restaurant. Yo Momma's is a good dive burger joint/tequila bar (odd combination but it works)

12/19/2014 12:17:18 PM

What about the city is so off-putting?

12/19/2014 12:22:22 PM

The people it attracts, I suppose.

I enjoyed, but it's a lot like Vegas- at least crowd-wise.

12/19/2014 12:28:10 PM

Both times I was there for work and only there for a few days, so I'm sure there are some nice places in New Orleans area. But for the most part its filthy, it smells, the homeless population is overwhelming, and even the men stuck in groups because it didn't feel safe. The first time we went we did Bourbon Street on the first night. After that I don't think we even walked down it.

12/19/2014 12:29:24 PM

Quote :

"the homeless population is overwhelming"

This quote defines democracy.

I'm Krallum and I approved this message.

12/19/2014 12:39:37 PM

I dunno, in terms of homeless it's nowhere near as bad as SF, Waikiki, Seattle, LA, Chicago, DC, etc.
I've been to basically every major city in the US, and I don't think the homeless problem in New Orleans is all that troubling in the most visited/touristy parts.

I also don't find it that filthy either. Maybe compared to Raleigh, it can seem sketchy, but it's a pretty major city, so it's not going to be squeaky clean...

12/19/2014 2:39:24 PM

If you like craft beer and/or whiskey, check out the Avenue Pub (http://theavenuepub.com/). If you want a shitty-looking, hole-in-the-wall local restaurant with great food and an interesting menu, try Green Goddess (http://www.greengoddessrestaurant.com/). There is so much good live music in New Orleans on any night of the week; it's hard to go wrong, but The Spotted Cat, Blue Nile, and DBA are all within a block of each other and are all quality.

12/19/2014 6:54:03 PM

Do like me

stay at the Royal Sonesta


go to Penthouse


Bring your Wife

12/19/2014 7:11:41 PM

here's my recommendation

don't get the 151 floats in your drinks, no matter how cheap they are

refuse shot girls until midnight

otherwise you'll wind up going to take a "nap" before dinner and wake up at am the next day

12/19/2014 7:12:08 PM

I went for a bachelor party and we stayed at the end of bourbon street. Food was good, but I don't exactly remember the restaurants we went to. However, bourbon street was disgustingly dirty. The smell alone was wretched in some spots (since the city is below sea level I guess the gutters and sewers just don't drain well). The street itself was so filthy that I would not pick up a dollar if it fell on the street, seriously. It was also brutally hot, hotter than the hell of 10,000 suns (but it was also June). As was mentioned already in this thread, shot girls will try to force shots down your mouth, making you think they are free, and then they hit you up for $5, so don't let them near you. Be prepared to see mostly naked (and not A-level talent) people walking up and down bourbon street advertising the strip clubs. Don't wander off bourbon street late at night, shit is definitely sketchy.

The best thing we did was a swamp boat tour. It was cool seeing "the bayou" and holding an alligator.

I wrote 2 blog posts about the trip, one about NOLA (http://mikeallover.travellerspoint.com/71/) and one about the swamp boat tour (http://mikeallover.travellerspoint.com/72/)

12/20/2014 7:58:10 AM

The New Orleans Bowl woooo!

12/20/2014 10:58:37 AM

If you drink from one of the shot glasses the shot girls are carrying around you may end up with a meningococcal e coli infection. Also this is generally true for any small kiosk style bar serving plastic drink cups.

Also you will probably get robbed and die if you go into the wrong part of town. Bourbon St is generally pretty safe though, they have the mobile command centers, etc. always set up.

But one time I was wandering around at 4 AM and I felt like it was War of the Worlds or something.

Definitely set limits on your time, money, and drinking. The authorities (still) don't necessarily have the populace under control down there.

12/20/2014 11:26:50 AM

y'all..this is New Orleans, not Baghdad

12/20/2014 11:40:45 AM

^ do not listen to this looter

12/20/2014 12:06:31 PM

one of the best food cities in America. The beer is great as well. If you are there for only a limited time then I would avoid the tourist traps and find two or three great places to eat and hang out at.

The only restaurant that I remeber by name was EAT, and it was delicious.

http://www.yelp.de/biz/eat-new-orleans

12/20/2014 12:39:04 PM

C'mon guys, we are in our twenties thirties. Don't go to Bourbon Street. There's an entire amazing city in New Orleans; there's even a lot more than just French Quarter and CBD. Some of you are acting like everyone is still looting on a daily basis, nine years after Katrina.

12/22/2014 12:23:22 AM

As far as things to drink in New Orleans, I drank vodka out of a stripper's scabby navel.

It was peer pressure. Body shots woot

12/22/2014 12:25:28 AM

however, I don't generally recommend body shots off NOLA strippers

(the next day)

12/22/2014 1:21:24 AM

Don't do what I did 4 weeks before I got married.

The soon-to-be wife and I were down in NOLA for a wedding. I was in rare form... very Leaving Las Vegas-like. I was getting all my shit out before I got hitched that next month.

I snuck out of the hotel room around 12:30am (we had a 7am flight back home so I could watch the final round of the Masters at a buddy's house). I decided to go the casino by myself and managed to blow about $600 in an hour on 3 card poker.

My old lady texted me and was like "WTF- where are you?" I responded, "went to get some ice down the hallway"... around 4am she texted again. "What's going on w/ you? Where are you and why are you doing this?"

I took my brand new DSLR camera and went down Bourbon street taking pictures (while smoking and drinking)... trying to get pics of chicks showing tits for beads... almost got my ass kicked by some dudes.

Then I started taking pics of some old insane crippled black man with a shit bag and a wheel chair. I told him I worked for National Geographic (WTF?). He was homeless and I was trying to get a shot of him in the middle of Bourbon Street while chaos was all around him.

He was not down with that one bit. I offered him a cigarette and he just stared and said nothing.

I kept drinking and stumbled in the hotel room around 5am and my wife to be was packed and ready to go. She didn't say a word. We got in the cab and I cracked open beer... at 5:45am.

Downed by the time we got to MSY and I lit a final smoke before we went to go through security.

On top of that, I took two Klonopins (for flying). Next thing you know we already landed in Charlotte and she couldn't wake me up. We were one of the last people to deboard.

I got home, laid down for about 2 hours, then got a buddy to pick me up and I went to watch the final round of the Masters and drank and smoked all day.

I told this story to my friends and their wives/SO's... They all were like "dude, you need to go home and fix this."...

She picked me up, took me home. We went to bed. That next night after work, she calmly sat down and told me she's seriously considering canceling the wedding... our destination wedding to the Bahamas with 85+ guests. She said she was worried I'm a raging alcoholic and being that she's from Louisiana, she's seen this train wreck many times and it never ends well.

I was shocked. I told that I was getting it out of my system. Even her best friend, who's on the straight and narrow told her I was OK, just a little wild.

Everything blew over. But about a year later we brought it up and she said I had no clue how close she was about to cut bait.

That's a distant memory now. We have two kids and I still like to drink, but I don't drop ninja smoke bombs anymore and disappear.

Well, that's not 100% true... she took me to another casino for my birthday last year in BFE Louisiana, and I disappeared again... but I was at the 3 card poker table for 5 hours.

This time I blamed her. "Would you take a crackhead to Wilkenson Blvd????" "Then why take your husband who loves to gamble to a casino????".

So our rule now is we don't go to casinos for vacation. She said it's too much.

12/22/2014 2:10:34 AM

don't feel bad. Odds are she is doing shit behind your back that you have no idea about.

12/23/2014 5:54:07 AM

Nah. I'm a cuckold.

I film it.

12/23/2014 12:49:27 PM

^^ very good read

very Jordan Belfort-esque like Wolf of Wallstreet in the prose...


my bitch never threatens to leave me though. I will never understand women who issue ultimatums. I am like bitch please.

But valid points for the OP's inquiry about traveling to NOLA with his spouse - beware of the plethora of vice in NOLA and the marital strain it may induce

[Edited on December 23, 2014 at 12:57 PM. Reason : \/ exactly...you never want this crystalized "event" she can hold over you..bitch please]

12/23/2014 12:54:39 PM

congrats for marrying a woman too dumb not to dump you for that

[Edited on December 23, 2014 at 12:55 PM. Reason : .]

12/23/2014 12:55:13 PM