that is quite an evil stare the man is giving in the top picture!
thanks for the info!

Oh, how sad. I really like visiting New Orleans and I am looking forward to my next trip this March. Admittedly, what I like best about NOLA is the food, but I think the very friendly nature of the residents was always a welcome change of pace from the 'northern environment.'

Yes. It is still a predominatly Catholic city, and most places are closed on Sundays. And yes, the undevestated parts of the city are touristy during big event time (Jazzfest, NBA playoffs, Mardi Gras.) Tourism is the largest economy for NOLA. Until things change down there (government corruption being the big one) it will stay that way for a long while. But when you are there, enjoy the food and the locals. It really is fun.

Well, I hope you'll report back after your next trip on where you ate and what your impressions were.

Camellia Grill... sigh! I am so glad that they decided to re-open. It's the place that Jimmy Buffet wrote the Cheeseburger song about, or so the legend says.

From all accounts over on the Jazzfest chat boards, the city was in "tourist" mode for the NBA which may have made it seem more "touristy" than usual.

We're heading there in April for Jazzfest and can't wait. The music at the festival and then well into the wee hours of the morning, coupled by all the great food at Jazzfest (I could really use a Crawfish Monica to kick my morning into higher gear right now!) and the food around town is the closest thing to heaven on earth I think I'll ever experience.

It all starts with a Muffaletta from Central Grocery about 90 minutes after I deplane and doesn't stop until my last Cafe Du Monde coffee on my way back to the airport.

This year, we are doing a Chef's Table and Restaurant August and a dinner at K-Pauls. You don't want to be too programmed while you are there on the chance that you might miss something, but these two should keep the inner "foodie" happy during our trip there.

I do hope you give New Orleans a chance. While there is still devastation there, there's also devastation in East and West Baltimore and most other large cities in the country.

And yes...I'll report back once we return!

Believe me, I would always give it a chance. But I'm just tagging along on this one. I'm lucky to have been invited.

There is a little place across from the Flea Market called Louisiana Pizza Kitchen and their food is soooooo good! I eat there everytime I go to NOLA (4 times in 4 years!) and everything from the pizza to the Wild Mushroom Ravioli to is just so great! The atmosphere is so relaxed and friendly too. It's also a great place to have an Abita Amber (on draught)!

There is something so... comfortable about New Orleans that you can only understand if you have been there. It's old, it's dirty, it smells, ITS WONDERFUL!!!!!

In the words of Bob Dylan: 'I like a lot of places, but I like New Orleans better.'

Ahhh...Cooter Browns. Good times. Nothing like trying to drink around the world while scarfing down a po-boy!

On my last trip to New Orleans, my wife and I took a walkking cocktail tour of the French Quarter, from Gray Line Tours. Not only did we go to several different bars to try famous cocktails, we got a lot of the history of the area from our tour guide.

I just got back from New Orleans on Saturday after spending a week (and my honeymoon) there. Having never been their before I must say, the food was delicious, but only if you knew where to find it. I did not realize how tourist-y (sp?) it was, but I believe it was only that way because that is what they have built back up after the hurricane. Anyway, we had two delicious dinners at two of Emril's restaurants and then the must go-to's of Court of Two Sister's, Antoine's, and Cafe Du Monde (yes, I consider Biegnet's a perfectly acceptable dinner). We also stumbled across this place, Muriel's, right off of Jackson square. It was an awesome meal as well as historic (we learned about the place on our ghost tour). It's a beautiful city, and reminds me alot of Baltimore, but it definatly has it's own edge. I highly recommend giving it a try and please please please, talk to the locals, they were the most informative and helpful people on earth and could not have been nicer.

I would LOVE to go to Nohleans for the food but someone needs to convince my wife...its not fair since she's been there and I have not!

Fairfax, although the Camellia Grill has a good burger (I like the place much better for breakfast, btw - pecan waffles made by Marvin!), it is NOT the origin of the Buffett Cheeseburger in Paradise.

That honor goes to Stanley's Welcome Bar in Tortola, BVI - an open-air bar/cantina right on the beach in Cane Garden Bay. Many of Stanley's customers sail right up to the place, as Buffett supposedly did back in '74. They're OK burgers, too - but it's more the 'paradise' than the 'cheeseburger' there, if you know what I mean.

The Coral Reefers are no strangers to the Grill, though -- in '96 I was flying to Jazzfest and found myself surrounded by the band. (Everybody but Jimmy himself - according to my seatmate, Mike Utley, he was in NYC at Sotheby's for the Onassis auction trying to buy JFK's golf clubs! A long way from the rest of us schlepping our own bags on Southwest Airlines.) We all started talking New Orleans restaurants, and everyone could not wait until the next morning when they could breakfast at the Grill. So I'm sure Jimmy's had a few Grill burgers over the years, but they weren't the inspiration for the song.

I stand corrected... it was what I'd always heard.