Oopsy, it happened again. Another year when we were definitely taking a break from the New Orleans Jazzfest only to be unable to resist at the last minute. We had so much fun with Denny and Anne in New York that we booked flights to New Orleans sitting at the airport for our flight home on Sunday afternoon.
The visit started on Wednesday afternoon with the girls making their regular happy hour visit to Pascal’s Manale for oysters and bubbly. This restaurant has been open for over 100 years and is the originator of barbecue shrimp. I heard the comedian Amy Shumer interviewed recently and when asked about her favorite place to eat she said that if she ever had a couple of days free she flew to New Orleans and had barbecue shrimp and bread pudding at Pascal’s.
Meanwhile, the boys dropped off kids for soccer practice and then visited a new place for me, Vessel NOLA. This is an old church converted into a beautiful restaurant and cocktail bar. A very nicely done place with great drinks afforded me the perfect opportunity to catch up with Denny, Thom and Alex.
After our respective Happy Hours we met up at Marjie’s for dinner. We had tried to visit once before on a strong recommendation from the New York Times food critic and Denny but hadn’t made it. Thom and Alex joined the foursome and we sat on the patio to share wonderful smoked meat dishes. Marjie’s combines smoked meats with Southeast Asian flavors for great results. We enjoyed cornmeal crusted yardbird and charred pork shoulder steak among other treats.
The evening concluded with some good story telling at Dos Jefes cigar bar on Tchoupitoulas Street (I double checked to make sure I spelled that correctly).
Thursday began with a visit to the new car wash that Denny and Anne are opening in Algiers. It’s the prettiest of the empire so far and we enjoyed exploring and taking pictures while Denny conducted some business.
After the car wash excitement we picked up Denny’s Mum, Diane, and had a lovely lunch at the Red Maple in Gretna. This was an old school New Orleans restaurant with delicious pecan crusted catfish. It was a treat to catch up with Diane whose social calendar has been too packed to squeeze us in on the last couple of visits.
Effervescence, a new “bubble and bites” restaurant on Rampart Street was our destination for Happy Hour. Denny and Diana both ordered tasting flights of bubbles from the menu of over 40 choices by the glass and we sampled some superb small plates. Anne joined us in time to enjoy a glass of the champagne that Denny had selected for her from his samples. We sat in the courtyard and agreed that this was McD heaven.
It was a pleasant saunter through the French Quarter on Ursuline Street from Effervescence to our dinner destination, Trinity on Decatur Street. This was another new place for us that Denny and Anne had really enjoyed on a recent visit. The food, decor, open kitchen and service were all outstanding. I can’t wait to return.
Can you tell we all loved our meals?
From Trinity Denny led us to Gasa Gasa music club on Freret Street to listen to the Rayo Brothers band. I really enjoyed this club – great sound and space. The band was a cross between the Avett Brothers and the Band of Heathens and we all enjoyed them very much. They play at Jazzfest next weekend.
Some very creative art on the Gasa Gasa patio wall:
Friday was Jazzfest day and we got a nice early start to get set up at the Gentilly stage for the day. The stage has a new logo on top since this is Fats Domino year. After an opening set from The Deslondes, a local Americana band, we enjoyed a strong set from Eric Lindell. The initial 30 minutes were a bit sleepy but picked up with a cover of Cinnamon Girl and several more strong songs.
The musical highlight of the day came next – Jon Cleary with a great set of New Orleans piano and funk. He really irritated me by playing some great guitar in addition to his normal outstanding piano – some people are just too multi-talented. Here he is with a great Meters cover (Just Kissed My Baby). At some point around here Alex and Thom and Libby showed up to join the party.
After Jon Cleary, Diana and I went for a wander around the festival grounds. We got our usual frozen cafe au laits and sauntered through the art and jewelry tents. The most interesting to me were custom made turntables with beautiful wood bases:
The Rythmporium where they sell LPs and CDs had a great sign celebrating New Orleans’ 300th anniversary and an interesting stage.
I heard some great music coming from a small tent that I hadn’t been in before and went to investigate – turned out it was the kids tent where the next generation was doing a great job:
As we continued round the racetrack we came across great performances from the New Orleans Nightcrawlers on the Jazz and Heritage stage and an emotional dirge for Charles Neville by the Dixie Dozen Brass Band on the Congo Square stage. Neville died the day before the festival started. He was the saxophone player with the Neville Brothers and well loved throughout the New Orleans and world music communities.
We returned to Gentilly to see Lukas Nelson (Willie’s son) and the Promise of the Real band. I was anticipating this to be a highlight of the day but was underwhelmed – the music was fine but just didn’t interest me as much as I’d hoped. My spirits were lifted when Denny returned with a meat pie for me.
The day finished out with Sturgill Simpson who entertained the crowd with a set that spanned many musical genres – straight ahead country, Americana, blues and some jam band influence. He won everybody over by having the 610 stompers (a local group of men who do silly dances in the Mardi Gras and other parades) take the stage to start the show.
We had hoped for a full brass section similar to the one that joined him for his Saturday Night Live performances but had to settle for a much smaller one – great show nonetheless.
We waited for the crowd to clear out and watched the sun set on another amazing Jazzfest day.
Denny had to drive the boys to a soccer tournament on Saturday early. The rest of us got to sleep in and then enjoy a great brunch at the Canal Street Bistro. The lobster crepe and particularly the sauce was delicious.
From there we Ubered down to the French Quarter for an afternoon ramble that started on Frenchman Street with a visit to the Louisiana Music Factory to check out the latest music releases.
From there we wandered down Royal Street with a stop at Amelie which has 
a beautiful courtyard and at the Michalopoulos (checked the spelling on that one too) gallery to see if there were any new paintings that D had to have. We finished up at a new place named Curio which had delicious small bar snacks. Now it was time to head back to Webster Street to relax before heading to the airport for our flight back home. I got this picture of the sun setting over the Mississippi which seemed like an appropriate closing picture for another amazing New Orleans visit.
Sunday was spent relaxing and assembling a new patio rocking chair. While we were enjoying New Orleans Will was with his friends in Bali. I haven’t heard much of an update but did get some interesting photos.
Diana just alerted me to a new Marcia Ball album and I’ve been listening while writing this update. Here’s a great new song.
I’m closing with this tribute to Charles Neville which features some of his signature sax work.