NEW ORLEANS SERIES
These photographs of the historic French Quarter were taken in March 1995.

New Orleans in happier times

An unknown conference planner gets full marks for setting the dates of a conference during Mardi Gras 1995. Jazz music blaring, evening debauchery running its course during parades, and where was I? Taking photos of landmarks in N'Awlins' historic French Quarter. Exactly.

I was drawn not just to New Orleans' architecture, but specifically restaurant architecture:  Antoine's and the Court of Two Sisters. 

Dinner at Antoine's, a New Orleans dining icon since 1840, is an affirmation in fine food, elegance and American history. On the walls are photos of the rich and famous, including five American presidents and the usual assortment of movie stars, who have shared memorable meals at Antoine's.

The Court of Two Sisters is another New Orleans institution. Built around 1832 by Zenon Calavier, the restaurant gets its name from two sisters, Emma and Bertha Camors, who operated a variety store there from 1886 to 1906.

The big attraction is the Sunday Jazz Brunch which features mountains of peel-your-own crayfish. This is a happy trade-off:  crayfish take time to peel and jazz makes a lovely distraction. 

As the name suggests, the restaurant has an interior open courtyard, accessible by a carriageway. In March, the walls of the courtyard are covered with lush, lavender wisteria blooms that hang down like grapes. Their perfume overpowers the air with floral sweetness.

You can just picture Tennessee Williams sipping a Brandy Alexander, fountain pen in hand, working out the dialogue for his latest play in this courtyard. 

I did not get a shot of uber chef Paul Prudhomme's K-Paul's Kitchen because it was undergoing renovations and I didn't think the enormous dumpster parked by the restaurant's front door added to the architectural appeal.

The only appropriate word for Marie Laveau's House of Voodoo is an "institution." The front window sign announcing that "We remove hexes" was interesting, but the sign I was looking for was "We apply hexes so you get your way, all the time..."

The shot of the drunk in the doorway was taken on Sunday morning after a night of hard partying.