TRAVEL & PHOTOGRAPHY

New Orleans Is My Favorite City

And Dave Grohl agrees with me

If you haven’t read Dave Grohl’s memoir, The Storyteller, now may be the time.

In The Storyteller, Grohl defines New Orleans (or NOLA) as his favorite city. New Orleans is my favorite city too — although this feels uneventful, as there are many cities, let alone countries, I haven’t been to.

But this is Dave Grohl. He’s been on tour for maybe 30 years straight. Between Scream, Nirvana, and the Foo Fighters — he’s been everywhere. Dave has travel clout.

If Dave Grohl, Anthony Bourdain, and myself love New Orleans — maybe you should give it a chance. Yes, I threw Bourdain in there too, read on and you’ll see why.

There’s a Cajun French saying in New Orleans,

Laissez les bons temps rouler

Let the good times roll.

You may know New Orleans for its food, its architecture, its music, Mardi Gras, Hurricane Katrina.

You may not know New Orleans at all. I would say the same for people who have visited once and know New Orleans for its trash on the street (like New York City, no alleys in the French Quarter — trash goes out front), its poverty, its cockroaches, drunk people on Bourbon Street, the intense humidity.

One trip to the French Quarter for a conference or a bachelorette party does not mean you know New Orleans.

That’s the thing. I keep going back to know New Orleans.

I made my first trip to New Orleans with my parents in 2005, I was 16.

Hurricane Katrina hit seven months later.

I returned a few years after the storm. New Orleans had not lost its luster. And then I came back. Again. And again. I’ve lost track of how many times.

It’s actually problematic for a person with wanderlust when the pull of New Orleans is stronger than my desire to visit new-to-me cities. Like a good friend, I tend to become familiar with what I like and keep coming back.

New Orleans is the vibe. The Aesthetic.

Here’s why.

The trumpet player outside Café du Monde playing “You Are My Sunshine” at 10 a.m. on a Tuesday. There are artists and musicians everywhere you look. A man with a wolf mask playing violin on Royale, a Zydeco band posted up in a courtyard bar, trombones and sax on Frenchman.

The VooDoo and HooDoo shops, rumors of Marie Laveau.

Vietnamese and Sno-Balls, Cajun spice and crawfish boils, gumbo and oysters, oh hell — THE FOOD.

Yellow, green, and magenta shotgun houses along Magazine Street, Creole and French architecture, no city has quite the intersection of cultures.

There are alligators too.

A pilot I once flew with told me, “In New Orleans, I can be whoever the hell I want to be. New Orleans doesn’t judge.”

This pilot had some serious drinking habits so I can see what he meant. In New Orleans, you can drink on the street. He liked to drink, to smoke, to cuss, and in New Orleans, no one cares.

“KEEP NOLA WEIRD” — I can see it appearing on stickers and postcards, or has it already? Replicating sentiments of Portland and Austin.

When I tell people New Orleans is my favorite city, they think I’m talking about drinking a Hand Grenade or a giant Hurricane in a Styrofoam cup and walking Bourbon Street. They think I’m talking about Mardi Gras. I mean, they’re not wrong — and there’s more.

What I’m talking about

1. Walking the parks. Audubon and City Park. Marvel the walking oaks, maybe the Tree of Life.
2. Listening to live music on Frenchman Street. Miles Davis and Louis Armstrong allegedly played Snug Harbor, Ellis Marsalis still does. Tipitina is on my to-do list.
3. Visiting the Garden District. You’ll see an above-ground graveyard or three.
4. Finding Magazine Street. I could walk the street all day, maybe order breakfast from Slim’s Goodies or stumble upon a costume shop.
5. Riding the St. Charles Trolley Car. You’ll get an entirely different, maybe enlightening? view of the city from the Trolley Cars.
6. Grabbing breakfast at Café du Monde. It’s touristy but it’s not a trap. Chicory Coffee is New Orleans. Then continue down Decatur from Café du Monde. There’s an open-air market and a flea market. The art gallery is pretty sweet too.
7. Eating! Gumbo and Po’boys, Bahn Mi and Phở, Crawfish Étouffée, shrimp and grits, Jambalaya, Muffuletta, red beans and rice. New Orleans is a riot of cultural culinary perfection.

Don’t listen to me, but you may want to listen to the man, the myth, the legend.

“THERE IS NO PLACE ON EARTH EVEN REMOTELY LIKE NEW ORLEANS. DON’T EVEN TRY TO COMPARE IT TO ANYWHERE ELSE.”

— ANTHONY BOURDAIN