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!

Blue Dog Cafe - Lafayette, LA

One of the last stops on our weekend tour of Lafayette was the Blue Dog Cafe for brunch. Some of you may already know that brunch is my favorite meal of the week. The Dining Companion is not as big a fan as I am but he let's me drag him off to brunch on the occasional Sunday.

The Blue Dog (art, not cafe) is the creation of George Rodrigue, a Louisiana artist. As you can imagine with the name, his art is featured in the cafe. I'm a huge fan of the late Mr. Rodrigue and the art displayed around the restaurant is a big plus for me.

One of my favorite Blue Dog paintings

Let's face it, the art is great but we were there for the food. That didn't disappoint either. Brunch was a mix of standards and some Cajun specialties. There were bagels and lox, salads, eggs and bacon. Also a carving station with roast beef and a nice dessert table.

Carving station and breakfast standards

For me, where brunch really shined, was the non-standard offerings. It's hard to see my stuffed plate clearly but this is what I had...

From the top clockwise: Cornbread dressing, Shrimp Etouffee, Crab Cake Benedict, Sweet potato bake, roast beef with horseradish sauce, sauteed veggies and somewhere in the center, Smothered Cabbage

This was by far my favorite dish of the day, grillades with cheese grits. (notice it got its own plate) Grillades are medallions of beef (pork) dredged in flour and sauteed. They are then covered in a flavorful gravy made with tomatoes. Although all of the  grillades I've ever had were made with beef these were made with pork and were fantastic.

Cheese grits & pork grillades

 Desserts rounded things out. Of all of the items I had these were the least exciting. I expected more from the Banana Pudding but it was a little bland. The bread pudding and chocolate pudding were pretty tasty.

All in all brunch at the Blue Dog Cafe was a big hit. Once again Lafayette delivers on its promise of being one of the south's best food cities.

There were a few places on my list that I didn't get to. They were closed over the holiday weekend which caused much sadness on my part. Needless to say I'm working on a plan to get back there and remedy this injustice. Also, I would like to pay a visit to a couple of the local attractions, most notably the Acadian Village.

That wraps up this trip to Southern Louisiana. Next stop: more BBQ!

As always,

Happy travels!

Copeland's of New Orleans - Atlanta, GA

While breakfast is easily my favorite meal of the day, Sunday brunch is my favorite meal of the week. One of the places I love to have brunch is Copeland's of New Orleans. Everything I could want for brunch and more.


There are the usual suspects, eggs, bacon, sausages, waffles, French toast and bacon, lots of bacon. As if that wasn't enough Copeland's also serves up some New Orleans style dishes like jambalaya and shrimp étouffée.

Jambalaya, Red Beans & Rice, Mashed sweet potatoes and a light as air biscuit

Perfectly cooked and seasoned shrimp

Peel and Eat Shrimp, Waldorf Salad and Pesto Caprese Salad

 There is a large boat of peel and eat shrimp, a carving station featuring roast beef and ham and an omelet station.

Bacon, spinach and mushroom omelet

 A cold bar features several salads. A great take on a caprese salad with cubes of mozzarella and cherry tomatoes tossed in a pesto dressing and a very nice Waldorf salad full of crisp apples and walnuts.

 The best part of the brunch buffet,for me,is dessert. There are brownies and other things but the star of the show has to be the white chocolate, raspberry bread pudding. So good. This week there was also a banana and pecan bread pudding so I tried that too. Oh, and a praline.

Banana Bread Pudding, Fresh Whipped Cream, White Chocolate Raspberry Bread Pudding & a Praline

Due to local liquor laws you can't have a Mimosa or Bloody Mary until after noon. Brunch starts at 10:00am so if you want to have a drink plan accordingly.

I recommend Copeland's brunch without reservation. The food is fresh and flavorful, the service is good and it's a fun place to have Sunday brunch. (I don't usually highlight chains here, I figure they get enough promotion, I do however have a few that I frequent. Copeland's is one of those.)