As previously mentioned, this past Thanksgiving week, J and I indulged ourselves by taking the whole week off work (ha!) and taking a mini road trip before we settled down in Atlanta for the holiday. We flew down to Atlanta straight after work on Friday 11/20 and arrived safely despite minor delays. The following morning we slept late, ate (a common theme in this piece) some brunch and caught up with ViHo (Vicki & Howard, Jessica’s folks) before we hit the road around 3pm.
Our first stop was Birmingham, AL – Jessica’s hometown until she graduated from High School. It’s a relatively unremarkable, little over 2 hour drive (about 160 miles straight down I20); the only “major” landmarks being the GA/AL State border and the infamous Talladega Superspeedway (the redneck Mecca). However, the sun was shining and we were excited to be back on the road. Excluding a trip to Dorset, South England in August, our last road trip was a 6,500+ mile Odyssey across the US and back again, that resulted in a beautiful marriage.
In Birmingham, we were once again warmly welcomed by Hoodie, Jessica’s bff. She has a beautiful house, and greeted us, as always with a well stocked fridge and a friendly smile. Hoodie is getting married at the end of January, so there was plenty to catch up on, and we were soon joined by other former schoolmate’s of Jessica, Will and Beth. Cue an hour or so of minor scandal involving a cast of merry pranksters of whom I have never heard!
Suitably inebriated, we later headed out for a bar crawl. We hit Beth’s apartment, the excellent, neighborhood Mexican restaurant Rojo (mmm, Mahi Mahi tacos), another apartment, indie rock venue, the Bottle Tree and finally the infamous Oasis. In amongst all that I managed to sample several local brews (notably Sweetwater 420 from Athens, GA and the local Birmingham brewery Good People’s American Brown Ale), drink some real ginger ale, listen to a couple of bands, catch up with friends, learn about the ‘Free The Hops’ Alabama movement and generally have a cracking night out.
The following morning, nursing sore heads, we bid adieu for a couple weeks to Hoodie and Beth (we’ll be back for Hoodie’s bachelorette after Christmas) and headed South towards Mobile, AL. Mobile is a formerly prosperous port city situated on Mobile Bay in the Gulf of Mexico and the hometown of Jessica’s grandma (Vicki’s mom), who lives in a beautiful little house on the outskirts of the city. It was the first time that I met ‘granny’, and was also to be the day that we told her that we were married. Of course she was thrilled and after a hefty Southern meal (pot roast pork, fried okra, mash potatoes, sweet potatoes, beans, cornbread, etc) we settled down for a good chat and a look through all of Jessica’s baby photos (so cute!).
After an early night, we woke up refreshed the following morning. After an epic lunch at The Tiny Diny and a drive around the historic Mobile downtown, we hit the road for New Orleans, as the sun broke through the clouds. It was a relatively easy trip, and we noticed progress had been made both on the Lake Pontchartrain road bridge and in cleaning up the dilapidated buildings that lined the freeway compared with the previous year. In NOLA we once again checked into the delightful Frenchmen Hotel just outside the French Quarter in the Fauberg-Marigny district. The hotel is in a classic NOLA building, with a cute courtyard with a small pool and hot tub; and the rooms are moodily lit with some great artwork.
After a quick dip and a short lie down, we headed out on the town. Being a Monday night, the bars weren’t especially busy early doors, but we had a dinner reservation at 8:30 at the excellent August, downtown. On the way there I enjoyed the highlight of my trip, as we bumped into The Bunk! We enjoyed the four course tasting menu with accompanying wine courses and another bottle of Pinot Noir. Needless to say we were the last people to leave the restaurant.
The following day we both felt a little tender, but that wasn’t to stop our ultimate goal of eating more and more delicious food – I was beginning to suffer from indegestion at this point. For lunch we took the old trolley car to the great mid-city neighborhood restaurant, Liuzza’s. I’d first heard about it when i read the excellent book, Gumbo Tales by Sara Roahen (basically a eulogy about New Orleans cuisine) and I took the opportunity to order a bunch of appetisers and sides so we could sample as many local dishes as possible: stuffed artichoke, chicken, andouille and okra gumbo, shrimp and oyster po’boy, jambalaya, mustard greens with bacon. It was delicious and washed down nicely with a couple pints of super chilled Abita Amber.
However, all that food pretty much knocked me out. We took the trolley back to the quarter, and ambled all the way along Bourbon Street, pitying the sorry souls who failed to venture further than this horrendous strip of awful bars and seedy clubs. Back at the hotel, we soon descended into afternoon naps and once we had recovered, it was time to do it all over again. I decided that we should have a night out on Frenchmen St as I had read some good things online. We weren’t disappointed.
The first bar we went to though, was pretty deserted (it was still early) but a jazz 3 piece was playing and they were pretty good. However, after one beer we moved on. Almost across the street we saw a cute looking bar and when we entered we were treated to an old, vagrant-looking man singing blues songs whilst being served by a friendly old cowboy. The bar was called Apple Barrel and was also well stocked with beers including the whole stable of Abita brews, which I proceeded to work through. Above the bar was the restuarant, Adolfo’s which we had heard about previously. It served delicious French-Italian-Creole food in an unpretentious way in a charming space, anc for me it trumped the far more expensive meal the night before at August.
After our great meal, we walked about another block up Frenchmen to d.b.a., which turned out to be a fantastic find. Compared with other bars on the street, this one had a more upmarket feel with smart furnishings and a well-turned out crowd. The bar was busy, with the walls lined with people of all ages sitting and watching the great six-piece house band (free entry Tuesday nights, fyi). As well as people sitting, throughout the band’s performance (4 sets throughout the evening) there were several couples dancing with great competence. It was a joy to watch and my foot never stopped tapping as I nursed several different local beers from the wonderful draft list.
We rounded off our stay in New Orleans the following morning with breakfast beignets at the famous Cafe Du Monde, before grabbing the mother of all sandwiches, a Central Grocery muffaletta, for the road. Despite being the day before Thanksgiving, the traffic was kind to us most of the way home and the 480 mile journey took us a little over 7 hours. It was a fun little trip, but it was nice to get back to Atlanta with the knowledge that the next few days would be wonderfully relaxing. Until next time…
BaxterJames 