April 27th. – Day 24

Gee, I am a little hung over this morning. 

We are meeting up at Ruby Rose for breakfast mid morning. The trio were already at the cafe when I arrived. There was a Mimosa waiting for me!

Once we had eaten it was time to head off for a walk around the Quarter. A very long walk on a warmish type day. I am saving Bourbon Street until nightfall and instead walked the guys back down Royal St for a look at the art galleries and antique stores and of course a listen to some very good buskers. Millsy has got into the swing of things with being called Jnr. and is introducing me as his Dad.

At 3 o’clock, Georgia decided it was cocktail time. We were close to Pirate’s Alley so I steered the group to Olde Absinthe House for Margaritas’  and to share an Absinthe (the Green Fairy). Tonight Skye has booked us in to the most famous restaurant in New Orleans, Commander’s Palace.

At 4ish the crew decided we needed to share a grazing plate before the formal dinner. Junior had heard that Bacchanal Fine Wine and Spirits was a good place. In fact I know this to be true as Pat took Wendy to the same place last year and Wendy was very impressed. We caught a Uber as it is maybe 15 minutes drive outside the Quarter. Fantastic place. Check it out http://www.bacchanalwine.com Someone should do something like this in Melbourne. We sat out in a beautiful garden area to await our food and a band (Roamin’ Jasmine) was just setting up. Junior was so impressed with Roamin’ Jasmine that he bought a C.D.. We are supposed to be dining at Commander’s Palace at 7. The time flew and we didn’t finish up leaving Bacchanal until 6:30. We still had to shower and dress up as Commander’s have a pretty strict dress code.

The guys got to my apartment in a Uber around 7:15 and we didn’t get to Commander’s until 7:30. Good thing we phoned them whilst in the Uber as we would have lost our reservation. As it is we had been moved to the courtyard, which was very pleasant. I was very pleasantly surprised when I was told that the first timers to New Orleans were shouting me dinner. It is a very posh restaurant and the waiting staff are very formal. The food was excellent, as was hoped. My steak was melt in the mouth. We had a look at the wine list and skipped the $800 and $900 bottles. I had some sort of cocktail, reasonably priced at $11

Time to head back around 9:30. Now is the time to show the crew Bourbon St. We started at the 100 block and walked all the way to Jean Lafitte’s Blacksmith shop. The walk took a long time as Jnr. wanted to stop and listen to each pub that was pumping out music. That I may add is a LOT of pubs. 

I am pretty tired and tomorrow is the first day of Jazz Fest. We decided to have a night cap (or so I thought) at Jean Lafitte’s. Up the back of the very dark and dingy bar a piano man is singing. After each song he asked the crowd around the piano for the city they come from. He then proceeds to sing a sung relating to that city. For example, Boston, the Cheers theme song. Most people in the bar joined in with the singing. I had one beer and called it a night. I left the crew gathered around the piano player.