Just Back From…New Orleans

I’ve visited New Orleans a dozen times that I can remember, a few blurred times that I cannot, and at least one or two times to which I won’t admit. Like any great love, New Orleans is complicated. It’s a white table-clothed dinner of Creole-inflected haute cuisine precipitously followed by late night  tachos  (tater-tot nachos, IYDK) served on wax papered-hotel pans, and washed down with icy-cold Abita beers. It’s a stumble down a street you shouldn’t be on, but there’s live music just around the corner and suddenly you’re dancing, even though you never do. It’s that omnipresent opportunity for spontaneous adventure paired with an ethos of inclusivity—despite (or perhaps because of) a truly eclectic local culture—that makes New Orleans my true love. And it’s why I ventured back to the city last month to see how it would challenge me once again. Here’s a list of some newish spots as well as some old favorites.