NOLA

August 10, 2018

New Orleans, LA

Breakfast

We are getting an early start today because we want to get the full NOLA experience. I found a restaurant named Satsuma right up on Dauphine St where we are staying that has vegan breakfast options and a dog friendly patio. We drive over and settle in to this cute place. There was a cat sitting on one of the tables and apparently that is his table and you are welcome to sit there as long as you pet him. He was adorable!

Right away a man sitting in the corner began a conversation with us. He told us ALL about the history of Louisiana and NOLA. He is an aspiring author who has been in New Orleans for almost 5 years submersing himself in the culture to get his book going. His name is Clifton Thuma, and after 2 hours listening to him, we felt we knew everything we could about the city. It was amazing! What a gem 💎. I had an amazing tofu scramble with homemade jam and it was pretty awesome.

Clifton told us that we were two blocks from where “A Streetcar Named Desire” was written so we walked over to it to get a picture of the tiled street sign.

It had just started to rain so we drove toward Bourbon street to see where we could find parking before walking the area. We walked two blocks before the skies opened up. The poor pups were soaked. Jason ran back to get the car and by the time he got to us the downpour had ended. We still decided that it wasn’t worth doing that again so we drove around the city looking for places Clifton pointed out or we read about the night before. Jason has always wanted to go to a Louisiana cemetery because the graves are above ground. He grabbed some amazing pictures.

We also drove down Bourbon St and caught a band walking around and playing.

Definitely some nice daytime fun!

Lunch

Well lunch time was eventful! We had trouble finding both dog friendly and vegan availabilities. We headed over to Magazine St because it seemed to have the most possibilities. First we walked through what we thought was just a regular old back gate to a bar named Bulldog. They mostly had beer, which hasn’t been my favorite on this trip, and I just wasn’t feeling the food options so I asked Jason if we could go to the Mexican place next door that said it had pitchers of margaritas. Much more my style lately! We walked out the same gate we went in and *ALARMS BLARING!!* yup, it was a security door. It must not have been clicked in all the way when we walked in but we slammed it shut when we got in there so it had to have set it. The dogs got all freaked out so I just dragged them out while Jason went to tell the bartender. Yeah, we were those people. It made no sense.

So we hopped right next door to Arañas. They had tacos I could eat and margaritas. I think Jason is a little sick of Mexican food at this point but I love it. We shared a pitcher of jalapeño, pineapple, and cilantro margarita and he was happy.

I got mushroom and spinach tacos with a poblano sauce and we shared Mexican rice and veggies as a side. So tasty!

Dinner

Yes, I’m talking about dinner already. I made Jason go get our dinner now because we knew we wanted to walk Bourbon St when it was on full swing as well as go to other places later at night too. I wanted my dinner ready for me at home. I had one place I wanted to go to in NOLA, and that was Sweet Soulfood. All soulfood. All vegan. Here was their menu for Friday.

I walked in and man it smelled insanely good. I couldn’t believe it was all plant-based. The owner was there and she was so super sweet. Here you select 4 items that fill a to go box. I couldn’t pick 4, so I got two boxes, filled with every item she had.

These probably weighted 5 lbs all together. Look at how beautiful!!! I can’t even pick a favorite. If you are in NOLA, you need to go to this place. I don’t care if you aren’t vegan. This is what good cooking is.

We headed back to the house and let the dogs rest. Our plan was to leave them for no more than 2 hours, come home again for a few hours, and then head out one last time. We figured this would keep them as calm as possible.

We walked Bourbon St, and ended up seeing 4 different sets of people whom we had met randomly throughout the day. It was crazy!! A local overheard us talk about the weird coincidence and said “NOLA is a small city, happens all the time.” Amazing!

Bourbon St for me is a place I will go to once and say I’ve been there and done that. And I did. It’s done for me. I’m not a huge fan of crowds or loud craziness out in public. We of course stopped and grabbed a drink and walked the street, but walked back on a calmer street. I believe Jason probably would’ve loved it if it weren’t for the fact that he knew I felt uncomfortable. He definitely was in protecting mode which I know isn’t fun. A Friday night on Bourbon St was certainly a crazy time! We went back to the house and chilled with the dogs. I finally ate my dinner and loved all of it. Vegan soulfood. Perfection. We went out one last time to Frenchman St, which we heard would be less hectic and more musical. It was definitely not less hectic. We didn’t last 10 minutes. We got in the car and went over to a place my mom suggested, Cafe du Monde. Jason grabbed a coffee and the beignets, which were not vegan, so I just people watched. A little of everything could be seen. Families, couples, bachelorette parties. The people watching in NOLA is bar none! Very interesting. The next morning was going to be a “red dress run” and we saw some men and women already dressed and partying, ready to go. It was a sight to be seen!! We got home and crashed with the pups. Nothing better than being home. 💜