Jeffrey Eats New Orleans! Part I - Capital City Free Press

Volume 7, Issue 2, February 2008

Jeffrey Eats New Orleans!
Part I

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Jeffrey Becraft
Staff Writer
Capital City Free Press

Editor’s note: Individuals mentioned in this review include Simone Coleman, Managing Editor Josh Carples and Publisher Joseph Patton.

Any long drive such as the one from Montgomery to New Orleans without food or sweet tea for the journey can be trying, so the when the Capital City Free Press crew - Joseph, Josh, Simone and I arrived in New Orleans, we immediately set off in search of some genuine Cajun cuisine.

The definition of genuine can often be in the eye of the beholder, but whatever we found was good. We found our Cajun cuisine in the form of La Bayou. It’s a quaint two story restaurant with a classic Bourbon Street balcony providing us a place above the massive throngs of people moving in and out of the various bars. Upon entering we were led up a narrow stairway through a large dining room then past some truly tall windows where we were seated on the balcony. Our waitress arrived promptly and I ordered the Abita Winter Brew. Abita beer is one of the most famous beers brewed in New Orleans and always has very tasty seasonal brews. After getting our drinks we ordered the duck quesadillas as an appetizer. I found the quesadilla to be quite tasty with an excellent filo crust stuffed with duck meat, though it wasn’t overburdened with the dark flavor of the duck.

As we made our way through the appetizers, Joseph ordered the alligator po-boy, Josh, the roast beef po-boy and Simone and I decided on a New Orleans classic, the muffaletta. Everything was served with French fries and made it to the table in a responsible amount of time for a crowded restaurant on Bourbon Street. The muffuletta is a Creole-Italian specialty and ours was about six inches in diameter spread with olive tapenade, provolone, salami, mortadella and cappicola ham. It was all in all a good classic muffuletta and my only complaint is that it was too greasy and oily, but that's part of the mystery and wonder of the muffuletta. The alligator po-boy looked good and I tried a piece of the fried alligator tail, but it tasted just like anything fried to me. But Joseph gave it his stamp of approval as did Josh with his roast-beef po-boy and all were satisfied with our struggling waistbands.

All together my beer and muffuletta rang up to about $17. A little steep in comparison to other restaurants in the area but considering the good Cajun cuisine along with the excellent view of Bourbon Street, and optimum place to throw beads into the crowd during Mardi Gras, make La Bayou a definite highpoint of any culinary experience in New Orleans. La Bayou is located at 327 Bourbon Street, New Orleans, Louisiana just between Bienville Street and Conti Street in the French Quarter.

After we left La Bayou, I decided to introduce the group to a New Orleans original called the Hand Grenade, a drink with one of the most appropriate names. It is a secret blend. After two or three of them you’ll be feeling nice and possibly hungry again. Here I would suggest the Tropical Isles’ personal pan pizzas… they're pretty good and reasonably priced at five dollars. Tropical Isle has two locations, one at 600 Bourbon Street and the other at 721 Bourbon Street. They offer live music and cocktails nightly. You can visit them in person or if you aren’t in New Orleans, visit them online at TropicalIsle.com and be sure to click on the New Orleans Live Web Cam.

So after a long night of drinking Hand Grenades and corn liquor (Shine On, Georgia Moon packaged in a lovely mason jar) we were in need of something to fill our stomachs and soak up the alcohol therein. Luckily next to the Camp Street Hotel was a little place called Welty’s Deli. I don't know if the dire circumstances slanted my reporting, but this was the best food that we ate while we were in the Big Easy! They specialize in sandwiches and salads but have daily specials, and since this was a Saturday, we were blessed with two out of this world brunch offerings.

The first selection which is what Simone and I ordered, was quiche Lorraine with crawfish etouffee served with hash browns. This plate was premiere, the quiche was moist and once it’s smothered in the crawfish etouffee, your taste buds don't know what's coming for them. The hash browns were of the style where roughly cut potatoes pan fried with savory spices. The food was better than anything I could have expected to find so close to our hotel.

The second brunch special was called the Camp Street Plate and it included several nice-sized crispy pieces of bacon or a huge smoke sausage link - I think it was a kielbasa - hash browns, eggs and a biscuit. Joseph had the sausage, Josh got the bacon, and I sampled the sausage which was phenomenal. Josh couldn’t get enough of the potatoes, making a remark that they were the best ever. I believe he even took a picture. Both plates were only $12.95 and well worth the amount of food that was brought to us.

Welty's Deli offers a nice variety of sandwiches such as their muffuletta for $7.95, roast beef, ham, turkey, corned beef and pastrami sandwiches for $6.95 and a selection of croissant salad sandwiches, which includes tuna, chicken and chicken curry salad, all of which are topped with lettuce, tomato, banana peppers, red onions and pickles with a choice of sauces ranging from pesto to sweet curry. The croissant sandwiches are $7.50 with the exception of the chicken salad which is $7.

In addition to sandwiches, Welty’s offers a large selection of salads. A few options are the deli smoked salmon salad for $9.25 that includes smoked salmon on a bed of romaine lettuce with honey mustard dressing. It’s topped with chopped red onions, chopped eggs, capers, parsley and sour cream with homemade croutons. Or if salmon isn’t what you want, but you’d still like some seafood, you can go with the shrimp remoulade salad which is seasoned boiled gulf shrimp topped with parsley and green onions served on romaine lettuce with boiled eggs and tomato with a Creole dressing all for $9.50. You can add a slice of roasted chicken to any salad, such as the spinach salad or Caesar salad, for $2.50 or boiled shrimp for $3.25.

Welty’s is a real five strings of beads and a flash of the boobs kind of place. It’s located at 336 Camp Street, New Orleans, Louisiana next to the Queen and Crescent Hotel. For directions and hours you can call them at 504.592.0223.