rémoulade. Eating at Galatoire’s is the ultimate fine-dining experience, with tuxedoed waiters tending to your every need. If you’re a regular, you likely have your own waiter. Although reservations are taken for the second floor, waiting in line for the more festive first floor—especially on Fridays—is the way to have a true Galatoire’s experience.
Continue down Bourbon, where you’ll pass strip joints, T-shirt shops, daiquiri shops, and the like. At the end of the block is Jean Lafitte’s Old Absinthe House, which opened its doors in 1807. Legend has it that the pirate Jean Lafitte and Andrew Jackson met on the second floor to plan the victory of the Battle of New Orleans. Over the years, the tavern has hosted such celebrities as Frank Sinatra, Mark Twain, and Liza Minnelli. Its interior features antique chandeliers and the jerseys of football legends hanging from the exposed cypress beams.
In the next block, the Royal Sonesta Hotel is to the right. The Sonesta has long been one of the Crescent City’s finest hotels. It’s home to Restaurant R’evolution, the latest restaurant of chef John Folse, and Irvin Mayfield’s Jazz Playhouse, the jazz club of Grammy Award–winning trumpeter and bandleader Irvin Mayfield. One of the city’s musical treasures, Mayfield is an amazing talent who also teaches, composes, and travels the world spreading the gospel of New Orleans jazz. He and his New Orleans Jazz Orchestra perform at the club on Wednesday nights in a show billed as Irvin Mayfield’s NOJO Jam; other regulars include the James Rivers Movement, Glen David Andrews, and Shannon Powell. One of the most famous traditions associated with the Sonesta occurs every Mardi Gras, when those lucky enough to book balcony rooms arm themselves with beads to toss to the raucous revelers below. The celebrating begins the Friday before Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday) with the annual “Greasing of the Poles,” a Sonesta-sponsored event in which celebrity greasers spread petroleum jelly on the hotel’s supporting poles to prevent partiers from climbing up to the balcony.
Over the next few blocks you’ll pass several more bars and lounges, among them Rick’s Cabaret, one of Bourbon Street’s fancier strip clubs; the Famous Door, where pianist, actor, and American Idol judge Harry Connick Jr. played his first gig at 13 years old; and the Chris Owens Club, a burlesque joint whose ageless namesake is a French Quarter nightlife legend.The Four Points by Sheraton French Quarter, at 541 Bourbon, occupies the one-time site of the legendary French Opera House, which served as the center of the city’s social and cultural life, especially among the Creoles. The Opera House opened in 1859, and New Orleans quickly became known as “The Opera Capital of North America.” It remained that way until 1919, when a fire destroyed the building.At the corner of Bourbon and Toulouse Streets is Tropical Isle, known for a drink called the Hand Grenade, a melon-flavored concoction that, with its mixture of “liqueurs and other secret ingredients,” is billed as “New Orleans’s most powerful drink.” Farther down the block, to the left, is Channing Tatum’s Saints and Sinners, the bordello-themed restaurant and bar that Tatum, a regular visitor to New Orleans, opened with a business partner in 2012.
From Toulouse, walk one block to St. Peter Street and turn right. On this block, you’ll pass two of the city’s most beloved landmarks: Preservation Hall and Pat O’Brien’s. Preservation Hall opened in 1961 to honor traditional New Orleans jazz. Nightly performances feature bands made up of such musicians as Greg Stafford, Charlie Gabriel, and Ernie Elly. All ages are welcome, so if you have children in tow, bring them along for this one-of-a-kind learning experience.Pat O’Brien’s, or Pat O’s for short, is a playground within itself, an entertainment mecca since 1933, when, at the end of Prohibition, Pat O’Brien converted his speakeasy to a legal drinking establishment. Pat O’s features several bars, among them a patio bar and a piano bar, where dueling entertainers lead sing-alongs from two copper-topped baby grand pianos. The signature drink is the Hurricane, a rum-based libation served in a 26-ounce souvenir glass.
Walk one block to Royal Street and turn right. Royal is the antithesis of Bourbon: a ritzy shopping stretch lined with antiques shops, art galleries, jewelry stores, and boutiques. Among them are M. S. Rau Antiques, Ida Manheim Antiques, Sutton Gallery, and Vincent Mann Gallery.At 533 Royal, between St. Louis and Toulouse Streets, is the Historic New Orleans Collection, a museum and research center dedicated to the study and preservation of the history and culture of New Orleans and the Gulf South region. The museum’s holdings include more than 35,000 library items; more than 2 miles of documents and manuscripts; and about 350,000 photographs, prints, drawings, paintings, and other artifacts. The updated and interactive Louisiana History Galleries comprises 13 galleries tracing Louisiana’s fascinating past. The latest additions to the permanent display are exhibits on Hurricane Katrina and the 2010 BP oil spill.
Walk one block to 400 Royal. The stunning Beaux Arts structure to the left is the home of the Louisiana Supreme Court. The state’s highest court moved into the building in 1910, where it remained for nearly 50 years. After the court moved to the more contemporary Central Business District, the building fell into disrepair, but it saw new life in 2004 when, after a major renovation, the Supreme Court returned to its Royal Street address.Across the street, at 417 Royal, is Brennan’s, the old-line restaurant renowned for its sumptuous breakfasts, world-famous bananas Foster, and romantic courtyard. To the dismay of foodies everywhere, Brennan’s shut down in the summer of 2013 after its owners declared bankruptcy, but a cousin, New Orleans restaurateur Ralph Brennan, came to the rescue: He purchased the property at auction, bought back the Brennan’s name, and reopened the French Quarter institution in November 2014. Meanwhile, Brennan’s former owners were planning to open a new eatery, Ted Brennan’s Decatur, on nearby Decatur Street in 2015.In the next block, at 334 Royal St., is the headquarters of the New Orleans Police Department’s Eighth District. Erected in 1826 as the Old Bank of Louisiana, the building served as Louisiana’s state capitol from 1868 to 1869, and later the Royal Street Auction Exchange and the Mortgage and Conveyance Office. This block of Royal also contains lots of fun shops, including Vintage 329, which specializes in autographed memorabilia, rare books, and other historical items.If you need a break—or even if you don’t—stop in at the venerable Hotel Monteleone (214 Royal St.), which boasts live entertainment and one of the most popular hotel bars in New Orleans. The Carousel Bar & Lounge features a 25-seat revolving bar with a carousel top, antiqued mirrors, and hand-painted chairs. The lounge, with its circular glass chandeliers and expansive windows along Royal Street, is equally inviting.
Turn left on Iberville Street, walk one block to Chartres Street, and turn left. Like Royal, Chartres offers a lot in the way of shopping, but it also has much to offer in the way of eating. Over the last few years, Chartres has become something of a culinary corridor, with several new restaurants—SoBou, Doris Metropolitan, Kingfish, Sylvain, Tableau, and a French Quarter outpost of Carrollton’s Camellia Grill—joining K-Paul’s Louisiana Kitchen and Pierre Maspero’s in the five blocks between Iberville and St. Peters Streets.Of course, you may just opt for the Napoleon House (500 Chartres St.), which has been serving up its famous Pimm’s Cups and muffulettas since 1914. The Napoleon House—one of the best bars in America, according to Esquire magazine—is housed in a 200-year-old building that belonged to Nicolas Girod, mayor of New Orleans from 1812 to 1815. Girod offered his residence to Napoleon Bonaparte in 1821 as a refuge during his exile; alas, Napoleon died before he could make it to New Orleans.A few doors down from the Napoleon House is the Pharmacy Museum (514 Chartres St.), the one-time apothecary shop of Louis Joseph Dufilho Jr., who in the early 19th century became America’s first licensed pharmacist. On display are old patent medicines, books, and pharmaceutical equipment dating back as far as the early 1800s, as well as surgical instruments used in the Civil War. Other exhibits include a re-created 19th-century physician’s study and a spectacle collection illustrating the historical development of eyewear and other antique vision aids from around the world.
For many New Orleanians, the French Quarter is home. This is an example of a balconied apartment building that can be found throughout the neighborhood.
Continue walking to the corner of Chartres and St. Peter Streets.
