New Orleans Things to Do

Have a half-birthday? Sure. Everyone remembers being a kid and celebrating one. And keep it in mind I don’t recommend pure debauchery and silliness all the time. Well, at least not every day. But come the advent of this Labor Day weekend, let ring all that is crazy– Southern Decadence is here. It falls around the appropriate time, so I think it’s appropriate, what with the debauchery and decadence that ensues, to call this a Mardi Gras half-birthday.

If you’re like me and prefer to eat and drink your way down history lane, you’ll love New Orleans. With a rich history of culinary tradition, it’s rare that you’ll find a city that can compete with the eats available in New Orleans. So it is with great pleasure that I introduce to you one of the culinary bedrocks of this fine city: New Orleans’ own Po’ Boy.

Say New Orleans to most people and two things are bound to come up in the conversation within seconds – Bourbon Street and Hurricane Katrina. The city has been indelibly marked by both of those things, and no visit to The Big Easy is complete without incorporating each into the experience – but focus solely on either one of them and you’ve missed most of what this complicated and fascinating city has to offer.

Oh, New Orleans. The truth about this city could far outweigh whatever fiction could create. Built on swampland rumored to be an ancient Indian burial-ground and erected by Parisian outlaws, the “Beautiful Crescent” as it is known has a long reputation for pirating, misanthropy, voodoo, slave-trading, and some of the most gruesome horror stories one could calculate. If you’re into a fright-night or have simply long-wondered at the macabre, you couldn’t choose a better city to delve into.

New Orleans has developed a bit of a reputation for itself. Known as The Big Easy, people come to New Orleans to relax, to play, to eat, to gamble, and to, as the locals say laissez les bon temps rouler (let the good times roll)! It’s here you’ll find Jimmy Buffet’s famous Margaritaville, the Natchez Riverboat Casino, the oldest bar in America, and several New Orleans original cocktails about which many great country and rock and roll songs have been written.

If you’re in New Orleans and looking for a bar, chances are, you’ll find one – and quick. New Orleans was the last of the major U.S. cities to give into the federally mandated 21 and over rule, and it’s here that decadence and laissez-faire doesn’t just concern the municipal budget. The French Quarter is rife with excellent hangouts, dive bars, drunk tanks, jazz clubs, dance clubs, soul music, and basically any sort of nightlife entertainment you can come to think of, but there is one distinctive spot that still gets mentioned from time to time that sets the standard for good old fashioned Bars – and that is Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop.