I must warn you, this is probably a longer than average blog post. 😉
At the tail end of our Florida trip, instead of tackling the mega-long drive all the way back to Houston in only one day, Patrick and I made a wonderful pit stop in New Orleans to see some of our good friends.
A five hour drive slowly turned into a seven hour drive, thanks to some serious traffic, so we arrived stiff legged and hungry, just in time for dinner and a night out on the town. Our amazing hosts/Nola tour guides for the evening, Mallory & Andrew, chose Drago’s for dinner, specifically for their famous charbroiled oysters… which we, “just had to try!”
But more on that in a bit!
First things first….I have got to tell you all about the completely lovely and ridiculous SheInside dress I wore that night.
Why is this dress ridiculous, you may ask? Well for starters, it was only $17! And another reason, it strangely comes in only “one size fits all.” I do not understand this concept one bit, but I took the risk and ordered it anyway. Luckily, I was able to fit into it, and avoid the hassle of shipping it back. It is a tad bit shorter than what I’m used to, but there’s nothing wrong with spicing things up a bit, right?
I originally saw this blue & white gem styled by not one, but two of my favorites bloggers. For the price, I absolutely had to get one for myself.
Find this budget-friendly dress:
here
Alrighty then, now back to some New Orleans goodness:
The wait for our table at Drago’s was quite the long one. We made use of our free time and had ourselves some good fun at the bar, toasting the evening and our little reunion. Even the bartender decided to join in on the mini celebration.
When our table was ready, we followed the hostess past a sea of tables and tourists then made a sharp turn where we were treated with a glimpse of oysters in their charbroiling action.
To be honest, I wasn’t the biggest fan of oysters until a little over two years ago. I couldn’t get past their gooey saltwater-y taste.
Thanks to a convincing husband who encourages (begs) me to try new foods, I am now obsessed. And these yummies below were covered in cheese and all sorts of spices, so I simply couldn’t not like them.
Of course we had to order a round of their good ol’ regular ones, too.
Like I mentioned, I’d consider myself a newbie to the oyster scene. But I’m confident enough to say that these oysters were almost double the size of the ones we had while in Florida.
That’s what you get when you’re dining in the famous for its food city of New Orleans.
After dinner the four of us wandered all around the French Quarter, popping in and out of music venues, cocktail bars, and coffee shops.
And I failed to get pictures of most all of that.
But, I did salvage a snap of Mallory and I pondering life’s existence at an open air art market on Frenchman’s street.
The side table between us happened to be made out of an old Ouija board. Needless to say, it ignited a spark and the two of us had to tell each other every ghost story we knew, in that very moment.
A night out in New Orleans just isn’t complete with out a creepy ghost story….or three.
Sluggish from our long day and what felt like an even longer drive, we capped off the evening at a wee hour in the morning by treating ourselves to beignets and coffee from Cafe du Monde.
I’d consider myself a morning person, (well … late morning person), and this was my first time to stop into this famous coffee shop when it was crowded with their late night/early morning clientele. I should say, it was a completely different and much livelier scene.
But I must warn you, if you plan to visit the coffee shop to end all coffee shops at an hour such as this, prepare to leave with a great deal of powdered sugar all over you and your things.
But really, how can one expect to keep all of that sweet goodness contained to just one tiny plate?
The next morning, we all pulled ourselves out of bed and ventured back into the French Quarter for a leisurely stroll and a brunch at the famous Court of Two Sisters.
Upon arriving to our highly anticipated brunch, we expected there to be a long wait for a table. We had called to make a reservation the day before and it was all booked up. Not letting that deter us, we showed up anyway.
A bit of advice of you’re planning on eating here: don’t be discouraged by lack of a reservation. We showed up at prime brunch time (11:30 on a Sunday morning), and we were seated immediately. It was pretty crowded, but with just the right amount of people.
Once you pass through the restaurant’s grand entrance, you are whisked away into a garden wonderland that is one of the French Quarter’s largest courtyards.
I took this accidentally stalker-ish picture on purpose. I didn’t just want to show this cute couple having their brunch, but what I really wanted was for you all to have a look at the tree like structure behind them.
Our waiter was kind enough to give us a history of the restaurant and he explained that this wisteria tree was around 200 years old. It has interlocked itself over time with several others throughout the garden to create a natural canopy of sorts spanning the entire courtyard.
If you’re going to eat outdoors during the summertime in New Orleans, The Court of Two Sisters is the only place to do it!
Other than the fantastic atmosphere, the live music, and the rich history of this restaurant, the main event is obviously their food.
It’s an all you can eat brunch consisting of hundreds of unique Cajun and southern dishes that have withstood the test of time, this is on older restaurant after all.
I went through the buffet line one to many times, filling my plate with dishes
such as eggs benedict, shrimp cocktail, crawfish pasta, turtle soup, cheese grits, and for dessert: bananas foster.
All washed down with a pitcher of mimosas, this may have been my favorite meal …. ever.
It was a perfect way to end our week long vacation. Which as I’m just now posting this, it already feels like it was ages ago as opposed to only a few short weeks.
If you’ve made it all the way down to the bottom of this hefty post, thanks for listening to me ramble on and on about one of my favorite cities!
Until next time, New Orleans.
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