Halloween in NOLA

Since moving in July, Elizabeth & I hadn't been back to NOLA, so we thought Halloween was the perfect excuse to head East for a weekend of friends, fun, and FOOD!


Stop # 1:  Domilise's Po-Boy and Bar

This hole-in-the-wall is located in Uptown, situated in a collection of streets referred to as the Isle of the Nile for the area's ability to withstand flooding in the event of a hurricane or levee failure.  

Dom's is the epitome of old-school, and up until 5 years ago, was simply a neighborhood standby until the Food Network, the Travel Channel and Tony Bourdain featured it on their shows.  

We started our visit with the coldest beer I've ever had in my life!  $2 at Dom's gets you an icy chalice of Coor's Light, or if you're like my Grandpa Glenn, a Miller High Life.  After a 6 hour drive, to say the beer was refreshing is an understatement!

Life is full of choices and this equally true at Domilise's.  If you're curious what the brown bags are under the wall menu, they're actually 3 ft. long and filled with fresh baked French bread.  


Side Note:  The history of New Orleans French bread is rather interesting; despite the French influence on baking in the city, the properties of the local water combined with the humidity of the City has created a French bread unique to New Orleans.  If you've ever had it, you know it's crusty tough on the outside, but airy & light on the inside, thus making it the perfect bread for a wet, soppy po boy.  

If you thought your kitchen was small, check out the kitchen here!  However small in size, the quality of the food it puts out is HUGE.

Elizabeth went with the roast beef po boy dressed only with lettuce, tomato, and pickles (no mayo or brown gravy on this one!).  The meat was sliced thin, but very tender and flavorful.

The kitchen crew at Dom's was more than happy to put Elizabeth's brown gravy on my shrimp & oyster po boy, dressed with hot sauce, lettuce, tomato, mayo, & pickles....AND BROWN GRAVY!  I politely asked to leave the ketchup off because in my book, ketchup has very limited purposes.


The sandwich that made Domilise's famous is their shrimp po boy with brown gravy, an off-menu secret.  I thought that sounded great, but also thought that oysters make anything better.  Elizabeth & I both agree I was right on this one.


Brown gravy appears to be a theme at Dom's and oddly enough it shows up everywhere, including their money!

Stop #2:  Herbsaint

It's futile arguing over whether one Donald Link restaurant is better than another, but let me tell you, Herbsaint makes a strong case for the #1 ranking.

We started dinner with a flight of "Interesting" French reds, complete with funny descriptions written by the Herbsaint manager.

None of the appetizers jumped out at us, so I decided to try the duck & andouille sausage gumbo, complete with very little (read:  the perfect amount) Louisiana rice.  The gumbo was awesome to say the least-the sausage was fork tender and the duck gave the soup a rich taste similar to tender chicken skin.

Elizabeth opted for a peppery heirloom arugula salad with Burrata cheese, beets, and lightly dressed with a walnut vinaigrette.  The cheese and beets provided a nice contrast to each other and made for a great salad!

For an entree, Elizabeth decided on the night's special, a lightly dusted fillet of flounder atop a savory sweet potato hash.  In the back of our minds we were a little leery of the corn meal dusting, but the fish was cooked perfect and tasted light.  The sweet potato hash was full of bacon and umami flavors, and is currently inspiring a sweet potato hash we're making for dinner as I write this!

What's that beautiful piece of meat on top of those lovely butter beans Drew?  Well, that's a lamb neck, and in short, it was phenomenal!  I wish I would have ordered another one for dessert!  Fork tender, crispy on the outside, and covered with a feta/mint chutney, the lamb neck tasted like the world's best gyro x 100!

Alas, we did not have another lamb neck for dessert, but rather the warm chocolate pudding cake with salted caramel, cashew ice cream & cocoa nib caramel corn!  Good, but certainly not great.  The cake was moist and oozed rich chocolate sauce, but the real winner was the homemade ice cream and caramel corn.


Stop #3:  Pat O'Brien's French Quarter Bar


After dinner we headed to Pat O'Brien's in the French Quarter to watch the St. Louis Cardinals take on the Texas Rangers in Game 7 of the World Series, and as the Cardinals came closer and closer to winning, I thought it only fitting to drink a red drink, so I switched to Hurricanes.

During some time long ago when the City of New Orleans was under rationing, the only way a bar could get a bottle of whiskey was to purchase a case of rum.  Thus with an influx of rum, Pat O'Brien's got creative and created their signature rum punch to sell off the glut of rum.


Stop #4:  Stanley's

Saturday started off with a stroll through the French Quarter & a stop at Stanley's for breakfast.  Elizabeth elected to go with the egg & cheese sandwich while I went with the Eggs Stanley, 2 pairs
 of cornmeal crusted fried oysters served atop an order of standard eggs Benedict.

Stop #5:  Central Grocery

Always packed, but always worth the wait is the best way to describe Central Grocery, which is actually an old-school Italian grocery store selling cheeses, meats, and spices.

But the star of the show is their muffuletta sandwich, consisting of their famous marinated olive salad, capicola, salami, and provolone inside of a seeded Italian bun.  The whole sandwich, cut into quarters, can easily feed four.

The store is a state of organized chaos, which is probably why they store their olive salad in these....here's to hoping they're sanitary!

Stop #6:  Drago's

We were ready for a mid-afternoon snack as well as long walk, so we Gumped it over to the Hilton near Canal St. for a plate of char broiled oysters at Drago's.

One dozen shucked oysters, placed over an open grill, drowned in garlic butter, and topped with cheese.  Served with crusty French bread to sop up the butter, the oysters taste eerily similar to steak.  However, I think that the char broiled oysters are better at Acme Oyster House, but I know that I enjoyed not having to wait in an Acme long line to get some oysters!


Stop #7:  Dickie Brennan's Steakhouse

The Brennan name is the gold standard for fine dining & great food in New Orleans; some of their restaurants include Commander's Palace, Brennan's, Ralph's, and of course, Dickie Brennan's Steakhouse.


With a Halloween party looming in a few hours, we opted to sit in the bar, but the food & service were not lacking at all.  

We started with the BBQ Shrimp, which consisted of large Gulf shrimp sauteed in a myriad of spices, Abita beer, and garlic.  I honestly can't think of a better way to eat shrimp!


Not wanting to be overly full for our night out, we split an order of rare-medium rare prime rib and a chop salad with kalamata olives, red onion, feta cheese, and tomatoes.

The meat was literally a hunk of prime rib & seasoned nicely with a mix of Cajun/Creole spices, and the salad, with it's balsamic vinaigrette, hit the spot!


Stop #8:  Squeal BBQ

You know you're on to something good when you can smell it before you can see it or taste it, and Squeal has that down pat with it's smoker hanging out at the entrance of it's site, a converted residential house.


For our final meal in NOLA, we split brisket tacos topped with cilantro, red onion, and house made hot sauce & our absolute favorite, pulled pork nachos with house made tortilla chips, melted cheese, & black beans.

The tacos were good, but the nachos, actually a half order, hit the spot, and as quickly as our trip started, it was time to head back to Houston, but leave a light on NOLA, we'll be back!