Ellen’s Trip to NOLA

Author:
ellen bennett
NEW ORLEANS!
Well that was amazing!!!
Does anyone really even know this place exists?! I have lived in the US my whole 26 year old life and never once did I realize that… 
THE NOLA PLUS POINTS
A. New Orleans in 3.5 hours away from LA
B. It’s beautiful, friendly, and doesn’t even feel like it’s in the US
C. It’s filled to the damn brim with awesome history
D. There’s enough good AND fried food to feed an army
That being said, NOLA conquered my little heart. 
I love adventures like a little kid loves happy meals. I am constantly trying to remind myself that no matter how tough life gets sometimes, if you get serious about it, it will only get harder.
As the artist and the creator of the company it’s important to be imagining and creating and coming up with new ideas, not worrying about whether or not the electricity bill gets paid. I am really fortunate to have an office and staff that can man the ship while I’m gone AND while I’m in town. 
Anyway, that little rampage was just to explain the ins the outs, and the real reason I make sure to go on apron adventures…. SO back to this NOLA adventure of mine.
 
I had a massive hit list of places I wanted to go to but only so much time. 
So I made sure to prioritize.
I had beignets at Cafe Du Monde! Ahhhh that was sooooo fun, we even had a powdered sugar fight.
Went to Revolution restaurant (only go there if you want to spend some $$$ and have a super fancy night)
Got to eat my little heart out at John Besh’s Restaurant August  
Had a po boy and a irish coffee milkshake at Erin Rose spent way too much time hanging out at this awesome little place with it’s awesome big bouncer—who told my boyfriend to take me to get me a slice of pizza that I wanted… or someone else would. 
EATING!!
So after running around the city and eating at every other establishment I could find, I have to admit, my favorite meal was the first meal I had in NOLA. Now I might be biased because I was in fact starving when I walked in there, had just got off a plane and had eaten WAY too many shitty airline snacks. 
The place was called Red Fish, it was jam packed with tons of people. Our waiter was so stinking nice, I wish we could import a few of those to LA!
In a hunger and frenzy we ordered this below and let me tell you, every damn bite was so freaking good!!!!!! We just kept oooing and mmming the entire time. My hands down, absolute utter and complete favorite was the BBQ blue crab claws, holy shit! Imagine a small pot with claws sticking out of it and then you dunk the claws into this sauce that they are sitting in which is a lemony creamy corn sauce and BELOW that is a corn bread biscuit situation thats getting soaked with corn sauce but not too soaked because it still is a little crunchy…. holy holy shit. 
What we ordered:
BBQ BLUE CRAB CLAWScheddar-scallion drop biscuits 
10.00 
BBQ OYSTERSflash fried, Crystal BBQ sauce, housemade blue cheese dressing 
11.25 (1/2 dozen) / 19.25 (dozen) 
BBQ GULF SHRIMP & GRITS andouille, sweet potato cheddar grits, and a lemon rosemary worcestershire sauce 
24.00 
JUMBO LUMP LOUISIANA CRAB CAKE creamy corn macque choux, grilled green onion tartar sauce, tomato relish 
28.75 
ALLIGATOR BOUDIN BALLS Abita Andygator three mustard sauce, seasonal peach pepper jelly 
9.50 
CRAWFISH & TASSO STUFFED ARTICHOKE cornbread stuffing and lemon beurre blanc 
10.00
It wasn’t expensive and it definitely wasn’t fancy I still feel like it was one of the tastiest, simplest and most NOLA-like meals of my whole trip. 
FRENCH QUARTER
The adventure continued the next day when we explored the french quarter, rented bikes and drove around the super mega old houses that you seriously wish you could just transplant right back to LA or even better, move to New Orleans and live there! Ahhh, what a concept!!! I don’t think I could do it. As ridiculous as it sounds I think I am a BIG city girl. 
I do think thats the best way to explore that city, by bike. Its cheap, its eco-friendly, you can pretty much get everywhere on a bike and since its flat, even better. DO NOT, I REPEAT, DO NOT RENT A CAR unless you want to go way out of the city but besides that, forget it. Just taxi into your hotel and then prepare to walk off the intense amount of fried food and oysters you are about to partake in!! Bon Appetite!
HISTORY TOUR
I will admit when I was told we were going on a history tour I internally rolled my eyes and felt like a 5 year old kid about to be dragged into a history movie. Ten minutes later I’m standing there in the middle of the French Quarter with my jaw dropped listening to the different stories about all the buildings and who lived there.
HOTEL

 

We stayed at this sweet place that is called Loft 523. It’s right outside the french quarter which I personally preferred because it was cleaner and quieter in the evening. On top of that, it had the biggest lima bean shaped bath tub, the kind that sit on the ground but doesn’t have a base to hold it. My best friend and I climbed in with our clothes on and sat in there just because it looked way too fun to do alone. 
I could rant on and on about this place but I think it’s better to not describe everything, that way you can discover some of the magic that NOLA has to offer and share your two cents of the amazing things this beautiful city has to offer.
Till my next adventure! Bon Voyage!