Friday
Overall, my first ever visit to New Orleans exceeded expectations. Not as dirty or sketchy feeling as many had warned. Food scene is awesome, and I left many boxes unchecked for a return visit.
- Took the Southwest 9:30a flight solo on Friday. Smooth sailing. MCO was pretty empty. Bunch of Knights fans on the flight.
- Perfect weather in the high 70's and sunny.
- $40 Uber to the Virgin Hotel. Strong recommendation. Typical Richard Branson flair...very modern and hip, great decor, comfortable.
- Met the squad at The Carousel Bar at Hotel Monteleone. Classy spot, worth a visit. Knocked back a couple $18 Sazeracs.
- Ubered to Turkey & The Wolf for lunch (2017 Bon Appetit best new restaurant). We tried the fried mortadella sandwich and the collard green melt....both awesome. Washed it all down with some frozen margs.
- Walked around Garden District for a bit. Some cool architecture but nothing crazy to report.
- Ubered to Cure for some really top notch, creative cocktails. Awesome bar. Killer selection.
- Ubered back to French Quarter just after sunset. Hit the French 75 bar for a, well, French 75. The main bar was closed for a private event, but they served us at a side bar. Not my favorite drink but worth it for the nostalgia, I guess.
- Things are getting hazy now. We stumbled into The Dungeon (name UCF approved), which is a dark, loud, rock n' roll bar. Skulls everywhere. Bartender was cool, played Clutch all night at our request.
- Around 9p I was wiped out, so I walked back to my hotel. Another wave of friends arrived that night and they hit the casino until 2a while I caught some ZZZs.
- Side note: GPS sucks in New Orleans. Google Maps kept losing track of me. Ubers sometimes wouldn't connect. Overall, worst connectivity throughout a city in recent memory. Guessing the infrastructure still isn't where it needs to be.
- Woke up around 7:30 and had a lazy morning watching Gameday.
- Weather shifted to a chilly, foggy mist.
- Tried to hit Willa Jean for brunch, but it was packed.
- Audibled to Cochon, and pretty glad we did. Food and cocktails were awesome. We shared everything and had roasted oysters, fried gator, brussels sprouts, braised pork neck, boudin, rabbit & dumplings, twice-cooked cochon....all excellent.
- After lunch, grabbed a round at Ugly Dog Saloon while waiting for some of our crew to go back and grab jackets.
- Ubered to Tulane (again, the driver's GPS messed up and we took the "scenic route").
- Found the only bar within sight, Robert's Bar & Liquor Store. Established 1933, right after Prohibition. Major Wally's vibes from back in the day, although (thankfully) no smoking. Just a good old fashioned dive bar—man, if those walls could talk! Patrons were mostly Tulane fans save for our crew and another big UCF party at the front table (maybe some of you are reading this?)
- Left Robert's and crossed the street to campus. At first glance, not impressive. The whole area is kind of run down and dingy, in my opinion.
- A nice young Tulane coed offered us a ride on her golf cart, so we took her up on the offer. Dropped us right at the gate.
- After a short wait in the security line, I went to scan our tickets, as I had all of them on my phone. The attendant asked "How many?" and when I responded "six" he just waved me through without scanning my tickets! I said "Are you sure?" and he just nodded and waved us on. We were definitely not counted in the attendance figure. He never even looked at my phone.
- The stadium has a nice facade to it, but it's rather tiny and has a dark, Wrigley-esque vibe to the concourse. Felt very old.
- As I mentioned in another thread, Miller High Life cans were only $3! I asked the guy how many he could sell me, thinking he'd respond with the typical "limit of 2", and his response was "I can sell you 100 if you want." We loaded up to avoid extra trips.
- Got to our seats midway through the first drive. We were in Row I on the 50 yard line, UCF side.
- The sidelines are super narrow. Players were right there up against the seats. One of the smallest sideline areas I've ever seen.
- I'd estimate the crowd was 50/50 UCF. Maybe 60/40 Tulane at most. Tons of empty seats on their side. UCF had the louder fans, for sure.
- I'll skip the game analysis....you all watched it! Happy to get the win, but it ended up being way too close.
- Walked right back to Robert's for post-game celebration as we waited for the crowd to thin out. Same UCF group was there and we shared some hugs/hi-fives.
- Tulane patrons seemed pretty indifferent to the loss. We played pool with some Tulane students.
- After a while Ubered back to French Quarter where we hit the The Dungeon bar again. Had drinks with a regular who told us the history of the place. Apparently some pretty big industrial metal acts came up through there (Nine Inch Nails, Ministry, etc.) Not sure how much is true but the guy seemed to know his stuff.
- I was wiped again so walked back and grabbed a burger at The Virgin before hitting the hay.
- Up early for an 8:30a return on Frontier. Definitely was dragging after a whirlwind of a weekend. Took a nap as soon as I got home, then plopped on the couch to watch NFL.
Overall, my first ever visit to New Orleans exceeded expectations. Not as dirty or sketchy feeling as many had warned. Food scene is awesome, and I left many boxes unchecked for a return visit.
