Mother's Restaurant - New Orleans, LA

Looking out the window of our hotel room in New Orleans, I kept noticing a line of people at a place across the street. My curiosity piqued I set out to find out what everyone was lined up for. I figured if people are lining up for food in New Orleans we had to check it out.

Turns out we were right across the street from Mother's Restaurant. Mother's has been around since 1938 and is famous for, among other things, the Ferdi Special. The Ferdi was named for a local merchant and is a po'boy made with roast beef and Mother's famous baked ham. Mother's has been featured on The Best Thing I Ever Ate, Man vs Food and Food Paradise. We didn't know any of this when we walked in the door.

You walk in, look over the menu as you head toward the counter in the back. You place your order and are given a ticket and told to grab a seat. (Mother's is usually busy so at peak times there may be no seats to grab.) Your order will be delivered to your table. 

Turkey Ferdi - Turkey with ham, the original debris & au jus

Fried Shrimp Po'boy - So many shrimp my po'boy couldn't contain them

The Dining Companion had the Turkey Ferdi and I had the fried shrimp po'boy. Everything about it was good; the right bread, crispy shrimp and pickles. And of course the other things you need for perfect po'boy enjoyment were there too...

Mother's serves breakfast too. Check out the Early Bird Special:

Served Monday-Friday, 7-9 a.m. only
Scrambled eggs, smoked sausage, grits,
biscuit, coffee or small orange juice

All that for $6.50! If you're not an early riser have no fear, Mother's serves breakfast all day. (Four of my favorite words to see on a menu.) You can even get some of their po'boys as early as 7:00am. There's something here for everyone.

Mother's is open 7 days a week from 7am - 10pm serving breakfast, lunch and dinner.

The thing is, you can get po'boys all over the city. Part of the fun of visiting a great food city like New Orleans is trying different places and finding the things that will become your favorites. Get out there and explore; there's a whole city full of tastes waiting to be discovered.

Happy dining!

New Orleans, Louisiana

The Dining Companion and I (and the 4 Pound Wonder) spent a recent weekend in New Orleans. We stayed at the Loews New Orleans Hotel located in the Warehouse District.

The Loews is a very nice, pet friendly hotel located an easy walk from the French Quarter. They were offering a weekend package that included some dining incentives, gifts and welcome drinks in the hotel bar. Add to that the fact that they treat pets like guests and we had to check this place out.

The 4 Pound Wonder was welcomed with some nice amenities all her own.

If all of that wasn't enough there was also this...

That's right, a room service menu just for her. 

The only downside was the lack of a park or other outside space that was dog friendly. The hotel is downtown so this really wasn't a surprise to us. There is a public plaza adjacent to the hotel that has some trees and small areas of open ground. She made the best of it and it worked out fine.

Enjoying some time in the sun

After getting the 4LBW settled we stopped in at the Swizzle Stick Bar in the lobby for a drink before dinner. There are two parts to the bar, the bar area and an adjacent lounge area.

Lobby Lounge - photo from Loews website

We had dinner at Cafe Adelaide also located in the hotel. The chef offers a modern take on traditional Creole cuisine.The food and service were good. We dined here again for brunch on Saturday.

Cafe Adelaide decorated for brunch

Saturday we spent some time walking around and just seeing the sights before our lunch reservation.

A celebration around every corner

 

I love walking around the city. The beautiful architecture, the people, so much to see.

Part of the weekend package from Loews were gift cards to use at local restaurants. One of them was for dining at Peche Seafood Grill. We had lunch there on Saturday.

 

Lunch started with Shrimp Toast "snack" and a drink called the Ancient Mariner

Shrimp Toast

Ancient Mariner - Plantation 5 yr rum, Goslings Black Seal rum,
grapefruit, lime, allspice dram

We moved on to entrees with the Mahi special and the Chicken Diablo. Yes, chicken, in a seafood place. It turned out to be one of the best dishes we had at Peche.

Chicken Diablo w/ roasted sweet potatoes

Grilled Mahi, Carrot Rice and Broccoli Rabe

 Dessert was a Salted Caramel Cake with a rum pairing

Salted Caramel Cake with caramel buttercream - paired with Prichard’s Fine Gold Rum

Lunch was good. The dining incentive brought us in but the food will bring us back.

Looking out of the window in our room I kept noticing a line of people at a place across the street. My curiosity piqued I set out to find out what everyone was lined up for. I figured if people are lining up for food in New Orleans we had to check it out. (And we did. All will be revealed in an upcoming post!)

 
On our last day in New Orleans we had brunch at the renowned Commander's Palace. It's hard to believe but Commander's has been a New Orleans landmark since the late 1800's. It has a long and storied history. Commander's is the type or place where jackets are still required and people dress for dinner. If for no other reason it needs to be on your must visit list for its place in New Orleans history. Unusual for me, but there are no pictures from brunch. I wanted to give this gem and my Dining Companion all of my attention.

If you plan to visit any major tourist area take a look online to see if any of the local hotels (or chains) or local businesses are offering any specials or deals. We took advantage of a package at Loews New Orleans Hotel and got not only a very nice room but several hundred dollars in dining and drinking incentives. Your next weekend getaway may be just a couple of clicks away.

Happy travels!

Olde Tyme Grocery - Lafayette, LA

When the Dining Companion and I were recently in Lafayette, LA, we made a couple of stops at Olde Tyme Grocery. While it's now an awesome po'boy (poor boy) place, at one time it was a grocery store.

Some of you may not be familiar with this most quintessential New Orleans sandwich. (The other being the muffuletta, but that's a tale for another day.) A po'boy is a sandwich that consists most commonly of fried seafood or also roast beef. It comes "dressed" with lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, and mayonnaise. However, roast beef po'boys often come with mustard. I don't think anyone is 100% certain how the name came about but Wikipedia had the following:


In the late 1800s fried oyster sandwiches on French loaves were known in New Orleans and San Francisco as "oyster loaves", a term still in use. The sandwich was alternately called a "peacemaker" or "La Mediatrice".^[4]
There are countless stories as to the origin of the term "po' boy". A popular local theory claims that "po' boy", as specifically referring to a type of sandwich, was coined in a New Orleans restaurant owned by Benny and Clovis Martin (originally from Raceland, Louisiana), former streetcar conductors.^[5] In 1929, during a four-month strike against the streetcar company, the Martin brothers served their former colleagues free sandwiches.^[5] The Martins' restaurant workers jokingly referred to the strikers as "poor boys", and soon the sandwiches themselves 
took on the name.^[5] In Louisiana dialect, this is naturally shortened to "po' boy."<sup>[5]

When you walk into Olde Tyme Grocery you still get that grocery store vibe. Only nowadays the shelves are filled with chips and beverages.</sup> 

I love Zapp's chips - The Voodoo flavor is seriously good

^{You place your order at the counter and you can either dine-in or take out.} 

^{The first time we stopped by we ordered the Shrimp po'boy. It's shrimp seasoned and fried to a golden brown, served "full dressed" on a baugette style french bread. The bread is key. Any other bread and you have a shrimp sandwich. The french bread makes it a proper po'boy. And this one was spot on perfect.}

Shrimp Po'boy at Olde Tyme Grocery

^{I spotted some small pies on one of the many shelves and grabbed one of those as well. It was a Buttermilk Pie and oh my goodness... it was wonderful. Buttery and tangy, not too sweet; the perfect way to finish a fantastic lunch.}

Buttermilk Pie

<sup>We weren't done with Olde Tyme Grocery yet. Finding ourselves at odds and ends for lunch the next day we headed back and tried the Roast Beef and Sausage po'boys. We also snagged a half a shrimp for good measure. Oh yeah, and another buttermilk pie. The Roast Beef po'boy was one of the best roast beef sandwiches I've had. Sadly we ate it all before I could get a picture but trust me on this, get one when you visit.

There are no few excellent food regions in the country and Southern Louisiana is a great one. The diversity of the food and culture and the warmth of the people make it a truly wonderful place to spend some time. I may be biased as I grew up in the area but I believe that everyone should experience it at least once.

As the Cajuns say "Laissez les bons temps rouler!" and of course Happy Travels!</sup>

 
 
 
 

It's Five O'Clock Somewhere

Boys and girls, summer is on the way! It won't be long before we're all sitting outside, sipping a cold beverage and enjoying the warm weather. Maybe on a patio somewhere or poolside or in our own backyards.

It'll be time for fruity Umbrella Drinks and ice cold beers (what's better than that on a hot summer day?)

  
Maybe a frosty iced tea is more your style or a crisp ginger-ale with a squeeze of lime, so good.

One of my favorite warm weather refreshments is iced coffee. Nothing like a large cold press to start the day off. Frozen coffee drinks are great too and Caribou Coffee has a Northern Lite Caramel Cooler that I love.

Whatever your favorite is, summer is about to light the drinking lamp.

It'll be time to get outside, stake your claim on a lounge chair and raise a toast to warm weather, sunshine and friends.

Cheers!