Let’s see what to do this weekend? There is the Blues and Bar-B–Que Festival for the next three days with two stages, everything from steel national guitar Delta Blues music to the wailing of Tad Beniot. Did I mention that there are four different Bar-B-Que vendors, not to mention a multitude of other New Orleans edible treats, arts and beer and the weather is supposed to be sunny skies in the 70’s, or that the festival is free? Too much music for you? After all you went and saw Trombone Shorty for free who blew the roof off the park Wednesday night, so maybe something else. Hmm, how about the Latino Carnivale at the Zoo this weekend with dances and more music and food. Not in the mood? Well there is the Madisonville Wooden Boat Festival along the banks of the Tchefuncte River. This fabulous family-friendly event has old wooden boats on display and demonstrations of boat building techniques a quick and dirty boat building contest, races, food and music as well. Don’t want to drive across the Lake? O.K. how about hopping the ferry to Gretna and attending the St. Cletus Oyster Festival where you can gorge on oysters cooked every way possible (and possibly see the 2011 Oyster Queen). You could just go a little further down the road from Gretna to Bridge City and attend the Gumbo Festival and eat yourself a big bowl of gumbo and dance to the Cajun Fais do-do they have planned. Too hot for gumbo and would prefer cold beer in a nice frosted mug? I count three OcktoberFests going on around town. If that all seems too crowded and festive, what about the first annual Daiquiri Festival this weekend where you pay one price and a little shuttle takes you around to six different frozen daiquiri stores ending up at the Hi-Ho Lounge for a dance party. Too hedonistic? How about the New Orleans Film Festival which opened on Wednesday and has films playing in six different venues throughout the city accompanied by panels and discussion groups? Don’t want to go out? You could always stay home and garden and wait to watch the Saints on TV on Sunday and if none of that appeals to you- maybe you should go to a less cultural place, like Manhattan or San Francisco.
Archive for the ‘New Orleans Festivals’ Category
A New Orleans Weekend
October 14th, 2011 by Nancy Fournier
New Orleans Fall Offerings
October 3rd, 2011 by Nancy Fournier
The humidity has disappeared, there are no little swirly clouds in the tropical and the sky is Crayola blue. It is fall in New Orleans one of my favorite times of year! Fall is the best kept visitors secret in the city as there are many music festivals, all the restaurants are open, the shrimp season is in full swing and there are lots less tourist than in the spring. Hmm what to do in October? Art for Arts Sake was last weekend where all the art galleries open at night and there are bands and cocktails on the street. Think of it as a six mile long street party up magazine street (a little commerce gets going here in Uptown as many of the fabulous stores are open as well) and from block to block you may hear rhythm and blues band with a lone saxophone wailing a few blocks away and a few storefronts from there is a traditional jazz combo. All the galleries and most of the stores offer wine and yummy little treats to eat. This coming weekend is the Swing Dance Festival put on by nolajitterbugs. Get out your spats, find your twirliest skirt and come on down!
New Orleans’ Favorite Son
August 15th, 2011 by Nancy Fournier
While it was a week ago (it is hard to both enjoy all the city has to offer and find time to write about it!) memories of Satchmo Fest are still swirling in our head. It was a hot humid weekend and everything was dampened but our spirits and the beat of the music! Satchmo Fest is put on by the same folks who put together the Jazz and Heritage Festival so you know they know how to get fabulous musicians and incredible food to converge. The Festival is in honor of Louis Armstrong, old Satchmo whose birthday (according to the nest guess one can find) is August 4 1901. So we celebrated his 110th birthday last weekend with a two day long music festival including speakers, seminars and music all over town in the clubs at night and on two stages at the Old US Mint during the weekend. They had tents and misters for the first time (hard to believe it has taken so long to think of that!) and all types of music in which the coronet reigned supreme. On the 4th of August the radio was playing Louis all day long to get you in the mood. I baked two peach tortes and a savory leek custard for breakfast at the inn all to the sounds of “Sleepy Time Down South” and “They Can’t Take that Away From Me” and the most romantic song in the universe “A Kiss to Build a Dream On”. It just makes a girl want to find a dance floor and a skilled partner for a twirl or two. Luckily for me, despite the heat Guy was ready the following day when we went down to the mint and found larger than life statutes of Satchmo and dance floors inside the tents and Leon ‘Kid Chocolate’ Brown playing the tunes to make you swoon. Just another wonderful weekend in New Orleans. Who says the city slows down in August?
New Orleans Cooks
August 3rd, 2011 by Nancy Fournier
It was one of those mornings when all the guests were up and on their way by 9 a.m. so once the dishes were cleared I took myself down to my favorite restaurant supply company to see if I could find little egg warmers. I love the place we go, it is in Mid-City, a fabulous New Orleans neighborhood where gorgeous homes are interspersed with shotgun cottages and industrial warehouses. You can find that special piece of architectural salvage next to a place with classroom supplies and another with a zillion types of brick. Tucked back by the railroad tracks is Claires. You could lose yourself for hours with whisks, popover tins and frothers (or at least I could!) Strolling the aisles I ran into the chef from Katie’s and the sou chef from Coquettes which is our most favorite restaurant. Great fun to share kitchen tips with those who make this city such an incredible dining town. It is a cosmopolitan place but still a small town where you get to know the person who is cooking your meal and pouring your wine. We talked some about the quiet pace of New Orleans in August when it is hot but less crowed and the vibe continues even though the tourist are less numerous. First week of August it is pretty quite but the Satchmo Fest honoring Louis Armstrong and White Linen Night, a ten block stroll through the arts district with street bands and roving bartenders is slated for this weekend. I did not find my egg cups but left happy to be a part of the hospitality community.
A Spirited Dinner in New Orleans
July 22nd, 2011 by Nancy Fournier
Wine pairings for dinner are so routine they are almost passe. Here in New Orleans during the Tales of the Cocktail one of the special events are custom designed dinners at one of twenty different world class eateries paired with cocktails. The chefs and mixologists work for weeks to perfect a blend of tastes in food and libations. We went with friends last night to A Mano’s cock tail pairing where the chef and New York bartender duos the Tippling Brothers created a favorable and unique take on Italian Creole. Our delicious menu is below. I must admit I did not recognize half of what I was drinking, but loved every course. The risotto was a standout although the pairing had a bit more fire than I am used to. Favorite drink was the rum and bittertruth sloeberry with some file . Not your basic gin and tonic! The crowd was festive and appreciative. We went for more toady hoping to spend time in their tasting room but the event has gotten so popular that there were long lines so we bailed, had an oyster poorboy and came home to wait for our guests to arrive. Like so many wonders in this city what started as a local diversion has become a popular destination event. If you enjoy your imbibing you need to mark your calenders for the 2012 event which entails lectures, tasting of every spirit you can image, a speakeasy, luncheons and of course the Spirited Dinners. See you there!
Welcome Cocktail
Averna Amaro, orgeat, guava, prosecco, cucumber
Antipasti
Tuna crudo, watermelon, herb salad
Shrimp, giardinara, Creole tomato diavolo
Grilled peach, lardo, sprouts, saba
G’Vine Floraison gin, Esprit de June, lemon, basil
Primi
Seafood Risotto-saffron
Barsol Pisco, fino sherry, red pepper, orange, Tabasco air
Secondi
Duck conservata, orange, fennel-legs, fennel pollen
Rhum JM VSOP, Bitter Truth Sloeberry, filé syrup, Bitter Truth Creole and Chocolate bitters
Dolci
Lavender panna cotta, honey, sea salt
Excellia Reposado tequila, Averna Agrumi Sambuca, pink grapefruit, black pepper, honey
Count Down to Jazz Fest
April 26th, 2011 by Nancy Fournier
Remember when you were young and your birthday fell on a weekend and you had decided every element of your party down to the type of icing on your cake and all you had to do is get through the days between now and then? That is sort of how the whole town feels the beginning of the week of the first weekend of Jazz Fest. The weekly newspapers are twice their size with advertisements for Fest Dresses , Fest Hats and music club acts. All the hanging baskets adorning porches throughout the city are overflowing with brightly colored annuals and every restaurant is advertising a Fest special (although all the good places pretty much have all their tables reserved by now ). Even the weather is putting on its Fest best with sunny skies slight breeze and no hint of the wrap around humidity which is right around the corner (maybe Sunday??)The Fest puts out their music schedule of the seven days in which the times are blocked out on a grid and these are affectionately called Fest Cubes which visitors and locals alike study closely trying to map out their time on the Fairgrounds in between the incredible food, second line and Mardi Gras Indian parades which wind their way through the paths between the stages. Out in the coffee shops people are studying the cubes like an Ouija Board. As I bolt around town doing the errands all good innkeepers do I can see New Orleans the way the thousand of visitors who are about to descend see it with its Caribbean colors, intoxicating mix of Palm Trees and live oaks, the faint sound of a trumpet in the background the clop clop of a mule drawn carriage in the foreground against this unique light which makes the sides of buildings look as if they are lit from within and even the blighted wooden shotgun with the faded sign offering hot lunches and p’orboys painted on the side looks magical. And this time of year there is a smell of crawfish cooking mingling with the scent of the confederate jasmine blooming in riotous abandon along every fence. I must admit as much as we love our visitors we do not put this joy for the sense just for you, it is our back drop everyday and we cannot wait to share it with you over the next ten days. Let the Festing begin!
Festival Saturday in New Orleans
April 4th, 2011 by Nancy Fournier
Now I know I am supposed to be a regular blogger, how else do I keep my loyal readers and build up my fan base? But how can a girl both live her life and find time to write about? Delayed recap is the best I think I will be able to do while New Orleans is in full tilt festival mode and the Sully Mansion bed and Breakfast is hopping with guests! This last weekend there was five different festivals to chose from, one in Algiers across the river offering up good eats and gospel music, another at City Park celebrating all flora and fauna of the area culminating with Arts in Bloom in which there are sculptures made of flowers and plants, there was the Jammin’ on Julia down in the Warehouse District where art galleries open at night accompanied by is music and cocktails in the street, or the two we decided to go to, the Fete Francaise which was a fund- raiser for Ecole Bilingue de la Nouvelle-Orléans. It celebrated all things French complete with can-can girls berets galore and delicious food. The photo of the French poodle was taken there. Many French restaurants were offering their bests frites and moules as well as crepes, champagne and fantastic cheeses. The music was an eclectic mix, my favorite was Sunpie Barnes doing a full Cajun set in French. We then moved on to the Feret Street Festiuval which was a one day huge block party with three stages of music, food which spanned the usual po’boys to cucumber and dill smoothies. I had some cerviche which was incredible and flavorful as my friend lam kebob. While the music and art were great what was most exciting was the nine block stretch was with new stores and commerce in a neighborhood which was decimated after Katrina. There are corner doughnut shops, art galleries, dog grooming places and interesting bars and a vibrancy I do remember just four years ago. Some say that Ferret Street may blossom into a vibrant corridor like Magazine Street in a few more years. Yes French Quarter Fest is next week and the Jazz and Heritage Festival in two weeks after that, but it is the smaller little jewel festivals which makes this city so special, so much fun and so hard to find the time to write a blog.
The Jasmine is in Bloom in New Orleans
March 18th, 2011 by Nancy Fournier
It is time to put away the socks and sweaters boys and girls as it is spring in New Orleans and everywhere you walk your olfactory glands are in overload with the scents of jasmine, sweet olive and wisteria. Walking around the Garden District every block brings a different delight, while Gracie goes wild sniffing the sidewalk her trusted walker is following the scent from the vines which wrap around the wrought iron fences and stucco walls. Everything is in bloom from the azaleas to the pansies to the crepe myrtle and the fragrant vines are starting the first of their three blooms from now till August. The sky is robin egg blue and gentle sunshine is everywhere glittering off the Mardi Gras beads dangling from trees left by an exuberant float rider. There is zero humidity and suddenly everyone is out on their porches and sitting in parks, along café tables on Magazine street. There is no better time or place to be than New Orleans in the spring (unless it is New Orleans in the fall!). And did I mention it is the beginning of festival season? Every weekend if it is eating crawfish, watching Tennessee Williams plays, dancing to salsa or listening to Haitian drum circles, or good old N’awlins jazz -there is a festival for that. While most of the country is still looking at that last bit of frozen tundra the March weather has not erased, we are digging out our flip flops all set and ready for fun.
Be an Eight year old for Mardi Gras
March 3rd, 2011 by Nancy Fournier
The parades for Carnival season have started, not the mega ones with the flambeaux and two story floats but the mid size ones with their masked kings throwing dublooms and riders throwing beads. The big ones start this evening with the Krewes of Chaos, Babylon and Muses, they start at 6 and should be rolling by our corner starting around 6:30 and going through most of the evening. Even though I have bags and bags of beads in the attic (and not the plain ones made in china either but the ones of Elvis in various stages of his career, or dolphins strung between turquoise beads or my personal favorite of monkey heads with banana beads ) and I have no use for the stuffed animals they throw as our dog Gracie reverts back to the behavior she has seen on Animal Kingdom and destroys the cute little thing in three seconds flat and the stuffing gets all over the floor, and it is a huge mess with the little eyes rolling under table. As I said I have no need of any of this but the parade float gets nearer, the crowd moves closer to the street and everyone’s hands go up and we actually do yell “THROW ME SOMETHING MISTER” and all bets of off, you wait to time it correctly, make eye contact with the masked rider on the float and get that one handed catch of beads, or the savior grab as you see a clump of beads heading for some unsuspecting spectator who took their eye off the float to grab a quick sip of beer and you deflect them into your own hands, or you and the stranger next to you both catch the beads mid air, you both tug towards your own bodies, there is a small moment of tension between you and this stranger, you wrestle the beads away, victory! and then, in true Mardi Gras fashion, turn to the stranger with whom you have been tugging against a few nanoseconds ago and hand them the beads and wish them (as we do to you ) Happy Mardi Gras.
Carnival Season Begins in New Orleans
January 8th, 2011 by Nancy Fournier
For those of you not living in New Orleans , you may not have known that this past Thursday the 6th of January was 12th night and official beginning of the Carnival season which will culminate
with Mardi Gras on March 8th. There king cakes throughout every office, a small parade for Joan of Arc, the mayor held his kickoff breakfast with king cake and gumbo and you see all the purple green and gold bunting for sale. It feels a little early to start decorating seeing as we just took our tree down and revelers from the Sugar Bowl just left town but at the Sully Mansion this year’s Twelfth Night had a special meaning as January 6 2006 was the day we took over operations of the inn.
As it was Twelfth Night and Fifth year anniversary all at once we had to commemorate the day. We got all gussied up and had a fabulous night of dining and dancing at the Ritz Carlton. We ate at the M Bistro and listen to Jeremy Davenport and even took a spin or two on the dance floor. A long five years, when we arrive the Sully as serving as a FEMA hotel and we had displaced New Orleans around our dinign room table and everything they owned in bags in the guest rooms. The traffic lights did niot work along St. Charles Avenue, there was no street car and for most of the city simple things like street signs and water pressure were a longed for hope. We remember both the resilience of the people to try to create some sense of normal when everything was sodden, the Army Corps of Engineers was saying everyone had to elevate their houses four feet and it looked like the corner would never be turned. From them to now has been a long hard road but we have never been prouder to be a part of the re0borth of this amazing city. Yes the challenges of blight and crime are daunting and the continual assaults on the fragile coastline make the later part of hurricane season full of white knuckle moments, but as we often tell our guests- there are many things which make it hard to live here but many more which make it impossible to live anywhere else- here’s to another five years and happy carnival to all.
2012 Carnival Season Has Offically Started
Music Offering in New Orleans
Christmas Holiday Home Tour
