For the second year in a row, we got a bonus day in New Orleans because United has apparently figured out that a lot of people want to fly to New Orleans for Jazz Fest, so the airfare was hundreds of dollars more if we would fly today, plus we couldn't use miles. That was way more than an extra night at the hotel and a meal would cost, so it really was a no-brainer. A good way to unwind and much less stressful than getting up and preparing to travel so soon after the end of Jazz Fest.
We grabbed some quick food before the Staybridge buffet closed down, then Laurie got caught up on some business at home while I took a walk along the river and over to Jackson Square. It was a beautiful morning, sunny with big, puffy white clouds. The temperature in the upper 70s heading up to an afternoon high of 82 with fairly low humidity and a bit of breeze. That's about as good as it gets down here.
I love morning walks along the Mississippi River, the heart and soul of New Orleans.
We met Rachel around noon and walked a couple of into the French Quarter to the new Ruby Slipper Cafe on Decatur Street in the same block as the House of Blues.
True confessions. There is a Ruby Slipper in the business district, on Magazine Street between Poydras and Canal Streets. We pass it often on our way to the Sheraton to catch the shuttle to Jazz Fest. There's always a crowd waiting to get in and at outdoor tables that crowd the sidewalk. Plus their garbage on the sidewalk is gross. We tend to avoid "popular" places and have always admittedly looked down on it for that reason. Well, on a business trip to New Orleans last August, I went to this new Ruby Slipper with a group of co-workers, and I must say ... we were wrong. The food was really good, and the place was fun, too.
Ruby Slipper is open for breakfast and lunch, and brings a unique New Orleans touch to everything on the menu, with creative twists on brunch classics and eye-opening cocktails. It was founded in post-Katrina New Orleans by Jennifer and Erich Weishaupt, who revitalized a blighted corner store into a cozy restaurant with the hope that it would help draw people back to the community. Hence the name, taken from the Wizard of Oz and the wish that "there's no place like home." The number of Ruby Slipper restaurants has grown, but the same powerful sense of homecoming is still present in each location.
We started with French Truck coffee (Rachel had tea). Rachel and I had Ruby Slipper mimosas, the traditional sparkling wine and orange juice but with an added ruby red dash of pomegrante juice for flavor and color.
To eat, Laurie had a Louisianan omelette with Gulf shrimp and cheddar, which came with fresh fruit and a biscuit that was the biggest biscuit I think I have ever seen. Rachel had a Bam Bam Biscuit, two scrambled eggs with pepper jack cheese, pig-candy bacon, and a fried green tomato on a buttermilk biscuit. I had the Three Little Pigs omelette, which had applewood-smoked bacon, ham, and sausage with swiss cheese. We ordered a cinnamon-swirl pancake for the table, too. That's a huge pancake with a cinnamon and sugar swirl and cream-cheese icing. Everything was fantastic. I can see why the places are always crowded.
After lunch, Rachel had to get ready to fly back to the UK. She has been a delightful addition to this trip any time we have spent time with her. I think it's safe to say she thoroughly enjoyed New Orleans and Jazz Fest. After an hour or so we walked down to the Old No. 77 Hotel to say goodbye. It was merely coincidence that we were in hotels that were literally steps apart on Tchoupitoulas Street, but that turned out to be really nice.
By now the afternoon was dwindling away into evening, so we took a final, sunset walk along the river, all the way down to the French Market area and back on a simply beautiful evening. No complaints about the weather on this trip. Sure there was some rain, but that is to be expected, and the temperatures and humidity were tolerable throughout the trip.
Later tonight we had a reservation at a restaurant we had been wanting to try for quite a few years but never had been able to get a reservation at a time when we wanted to go. This year the stars aligned, so we finally got to try Chef Donald Link's newest, Pêche, at the corner of Julia and Magazine Streets in the Warehouse District.
Focused on working with local fishermen and farmers who harvest sustainably, Pêche serves fresh oysters and simply prepared contemporary dishes using Gulf fish, rustic creations cooked on an open hearth over roaring coals made from oak and pecan logs.
Inspired by the Cajun and Southern cooking of his grandparents, Louisiana native Link began his professional cooking career at 15 years old. Recognized as one of the best chefs in the city, Link has peppered the streets of the Warehouse District with several restaurants over the course of the past 15 years. Herbsaint, a contemporary take on the French-American "bistro" was the first. Cochon is where Link offers true Cajun and Southern cooking featuring the foods and cooking techniques he grew up preparing and eating. Cochon Butcher is a tribute to Old World butcher and charcuterie shops that also serves a bar menu, sandwiches, wine, and creative cocktails. La Boulangerie, Link’s neighborhood bakery and café, features handcrafted pastries and breads, and there's also Gianna, an Italian restaurant.
The restaurant is in an industrial building from the middle 1800s, said to be a carriage house, and is furnished with miscellaneous tables and chairs. Incompletely stripped wood furnishings complete a rustic picture. Although the exterior renovation gave a handsome lift to the neighborhood, the interior still is unambiguously industrial, with exposed concrete all over the place. This makes for very lively acoustics, as in it's pretty noisy. However, we can't say that this is the only place in New Orleans that suffers from that particular problem.
Our drinks were, for me, Jucifer IPA from the Gnarley Barley brewery in Hammond, Louisiana, and for Laurie, something with Buffalo Trace bourbon from Frankfort, Kentucky, perhaps just soda.
Foodwise, we had some Alabama oysters to start. Laurie had two small plates: smoked drum with turnip greens, dill, horseradish, chili, and toasted farro and then crawfish and jalapeno with house-made capellini. I had baked drum topped with shaved fennel in a spicy tomato broth (with garlic toast to soak it up). Our dessert was a pineapple rum cake with dulce de leche ice cream. This was an outstanding meal to end a trip with some up and down food experiences.
That was about it for the trip, On Tuesday we were up early to grabbed some breakfast from the Staybridge and spent the time we did have packing. The Airport Shuttle picked us up around 10, and we were at the airport and through security in plenty of time for our 12:30 flight. I got a Pineapple Surf smoothie (strawberries, pineapples, and kiwi apple juice) from the Smoothie King in the concourse for my pre-flight lunch. I'm not sure wha Laurie got.
We had a good flight on our Canadair regional jet, and we were on the ground by 4:15 and home by 6 courtesy of our daughter. And that's a wrap!
So it's customary to provide some final thoughts on the last day's entry of this blog.
Despite the debacle with the Rolling Stones, which left many people with a bad taste in their mouths, it did in the end result in an extra day of music, so at this point I have no complaints. The Jazz Fest people and WWOZ continue to make the festival more enjoyable every year, this year including the up-close-and-personal stage in the Rhythmporium. So I'm sure we will be back, but they do need a better sound production team, especially at the big stages.
Here is a quick list of musical highlights. Again, I've said it before, but it's the diversity of these artists that makes Jazz Fest an experience like no other. For the first weekend, James Carter's Organ Trio, Karl Denson's Tiny Universe, the astounding set from Santana, the a capella voices of Naturally 7, Maurice "Mo'Betta" Brown and his band, the entire Marsalis family, and a whole bunch of local favorites who are always outstanding.
Second weekend highlights were Kyle Roussel with his tribute to New Orleans piano masters; Regina Carter's Southern Comfort project; Donald Harrison Jr. with Mike Clark, Dr. Eddie Henderson, and Bill Summers; Galactic with Erica Falls; the Savoy Music Center's wonderful Saturday morning jam session; Robert Randolph and the Family Band; the great tribute to the great Allen Toussaint; the Mavericks; and a whole bunch of local favorites who are always outstanding.
But really, everything is a highlight at Jazz Fest, and if you think that something isn't going to be, you just move on to another stage. There are only 10 others to choose from!
We don't go to as many night shows any more, but it is hard to pass up an opportunity to see the ever-awesome Dr. Lonnie Smith with Donald Harrison Jr., Detroit Brooks, and Joe Dyson at Snug Harbor. And it's also hard to pass up seeing Shamarr Allen and the Underdawgs anywhere. Louis Prima Jr. at the Rock 'n' Bowl wasn't too shabby, either.
This year in the dining area, our longstanding favorites, NOLA and GW Fins, gave some good food but let us down in the service area. Emeril's Meril and the Palace Cafe did better. Two of the three new places we tried, Seaworthy and Pêche were great. At Bayona, on the other hand, the food was outstanding but again the service missed the mark.
Of course, we were at some old standbys Lucy's, Daisy Dukes, the Crescent City Brew House, 9 Roses, Gordon Biersch, and the Louisiana Pizza Kitchen, too, and added to that list Carmo, the Legacy Kitchen, and the Ruby Slipper Cafe These were all good.
Strangely, we never got to Mother's and the Royal House this year.
Now it's time to mention who we missed seeing. This list doesn't include local New Orleans and Louisiana artists that we have seen before and missed this year because there will be plenty more opportunity to see them again, both at Jazz Fest and at home.
On the first weekend, Earth, Wind and Fire; Amy Helm; José James celebrating Bill Withers; Katy Perry (who would have guessed?); Van Morrison; Johnny Rivers; Bonnie Raitt; and I didn't see nearly enough of Taj Mahal. My Creole favorite, the ageless Goldman Thibodeaux, was rained out on the first day, and that was a big disappointment.
On the second weekend, Tom Jones, Gary Clark Jr., Chris Stapleton, Los Lobos, the Dave Matthews Band, Diana Ross, Chaka Khan, and I didn't see nearly enough of Mavis Staples.
Foodwise, the list is shrinking. I really should have tried the Martinican chicken curry in the cultural exchange area this year, and I still have not tried: a BBQ turkey wing (served with meaty white beans and coleslaw, which I've had before), grilled chicken livers with pepper jelly, crispy wings with collard greens and fried okra, crawfish pie, alligator pie, and crabmeat stuffed shrimp. I'll just have to keep going to Jazz Fest, I guess!
Once again, all of the pictures in this review section and many elsewhere are taken by Jazz Fest's large contingent of photographers, who spread out across the Fair Grounds every day to record the proceedings.
You can look at all of their work on Jazz Fest's Facebook photo pages: Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, Day 5, Day 6, Day 7, Day 8.
The awesome community radio station WWOZ does the same thing in galleries for Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, Day 5, Day 6, Day 7, Day 8, Hats, Fashions, Parades, and Food. If that's too much, they whittled it down to their 200 best photos here.
If you like all this music and culture, and you aren't streaming WWOZ regularly ... I ask again, Why not?
Taken together, all of these photos give you an idea of the incredible range of music, arts, heritage, and fun that can be found at Jazz Fest. They are well worth a look.
So, that's it for Jazz Fest 2019. Our love for New Orleans, its people, and especially its music grows ever stronger. And now, again I say, as the dearly missed D.L. Menard always said, "If the hog don't eat me up, I'll see you next year!"
Happy 50th Birthday, Jazz Fest! We wish you many, many more!
And remember, Live Music Is Better ...!
