A Dose of Dev

• Indications: a great time, friend trip, party, food, adults
• Daily Dose: so much fun, delicious food, and dancing
• Side Effects: very hot June-August, a lot of walking – protect your feet,
• Counseling: wear GOOD shoes, and clothes that can handle sweat

So we left from Bwi and our flight was delayed but we made it to New Orleans within good time. From the airport we caught an Uber and it dropped us off pretty close to our hotel. The street was blocked so we had to walk with our luggage about A block and a half, there was also a lot of construction being done at the time.

We arrived at Hotel Le Marais. We got situated and went out for dinner! Luckily Oceana Grill was right next-door so we walked up waited in line and got sat pretty quickly. While we were waiting we met a nice friend who lives in Atlanta, and as photography. I think she recently opened her own shop!

The food was absolutely delicious… So of course we left stuffed. and we decided to walk around Bourbon Street and figure out our bearings for the first night. We just knew we had to walk some of this food off. We ended up realizing the Bourbon Street was a long strip with a lot of bars playing awesome music… And we love to dance 💃🏽!

We had about two drinks on our list that we wanted to try, so we tried the hand grenade tonight. After a long evening of strolling around Bourbon Street, we went back to our hotel! We realized how hot the heat and humidity was because our outfits were drenched! We went to bed and got ready for a busy day tomorrow!!

The next day we had a super fun food tour planned.. Dr Gumbo’s Tour! We enjoyed everything from gumbo to this really cool sandwich walked all over the city!

The next day we had a super fun food tour with Dr Gumbo. We enjoyed everything from gumbo at Red Fish Grill to a muffuletta sandwich at Napoleon House! We faced our spice fears and tried different types of hot sauce at Pepper Palace, had some sweet treats at Leah’s Pralines and some really cool cocktails in between! We toured so many places. Then Jazz and I continued our journey and went for a really nice walk just to see the scenery and we stumbled upon café Du monde… which is famous for their beignets. We started rating our beignets and made it our mission to see who had the best beignet… Stay tuned!

• Click on the photo below to view the story.. pictures from the food tour! 👇

After a full day of eating and drinking and walking we decided to go back to Bourbon Street and do some more dancing… Where we would find ourselves up until 5 AM – I know insane right lol tonight we decided to try the hurricane which was the other drink that was recommended! To me it was super Duper sweet… I had it frozen and I got brain freeze lol.

The next day we waited in a very very long line for Jimmy J’s brunch… we heard it was a great place so we walked over and waited. It was worth the wait they were really good. It was a small little cozy quaint shop that served a righty of really neat dishes. I got something along the line of a huevos ranchero with turkey bacon! Yummie! And I think Jazz got some thing that was like a shrimp and grits with toast.

After that we decided to go on a pretty long walk to Lorettas praline. A lady on the plane recommended this place and said they have the absolute best beignets including the crawfish beignet. I feel like it was only about a mile and a half walk but with that heat and that sun beaming down on us it felt like the walk took forever. But it was so so worth it… it looks like a little store on the corner – but that store packs a boom! We rated this our number one favorite beignet as her family recipe stood out amongst the rest of the beignets we tried!

We got lucky because Miss Loretta was there and she gave an inspirational speech saying to basically follow your dreams… She told us how the recipes were passed down from generation to generation and her family it was truly touching. She even took a picture with us! Jazz and I didn’t know what beignets to get so we got a variety lol we had the traditional beignet with powdered sugar then we got a crawfish beignet and a Crab beignet… I was debating on getting a chocolate beignet to but I didn’t want to be too greedy we had a long walk back lol!

On the walk back we stopped at Pat O’Briens and had another type of hurricane. This one was not frozen… But it was cool and refreshing however very sugary I think they used to pre-mix. But we heard about this place In passing as we were talking to some people so we stopped and tried the drink out. It was a live party like atmosphere where everyone just kind of relaxed outside. There was a good weight for a table but Jazz and I found an open table so we sat there and relaxed and enjoyed our drinks.

Later we linked up with some friends that we met for dinner at I believe the Hilton hotel and we had a chance to try some charbroiled oysters… They were absolutely delicious however they were very hot so don’t burn your tongue! Then we walked down to the outlet at Riverwalk and I wanted to visit Frenchmen Street but it was too far so we decided to take an Uber.

We ended up walking around Frenchmen Street which had a lot of live bands and music – it was really fun. One of the clubs had a drag show going on… It was cool – the divas were working it! After that we went to Mason… We heard that was the club they went to in the movie girls trip so I definitely wanted to check that out! They had a live rocking band.. with a variety of genres.

Me and Jazz scored some seats so he sat down and listen to the band and enjoyed the evening. We started walking back to Bourbon Street and we found one more club that sounded like they had some pretty good music so we stopped and gave it a listen. We got back to Bourbon Street walked up and down the strip a little bit and danced in a few bars. The streets were absolutely filthy by this point as the cleaning day was the following day… I think they let the trash build up over the weekend and then they clean it one good time in the morning! Goodnight !

Today was our final day in Nola… We decided to go walk around the town a little bit more. We walked to Jackson square and watched a magic show. Can I say that guy came ready to perform and get money… He had a Cash App and a Venmo ready and available just in case people didn’t carry cash! We had a nice brunch at Stanley! I didn’t want to leave without trying a Poboy… So I got the shrimp Poboy with sweet potato fries. I was kind of bummed that we didn’t have a chance to get in the pool at our hotel… We had a really nice hotel with a really nice outside patio– but we just stayed so busy the entire time but we quickly grabbed a few shots by the pool before we left! I would say we made the most out of our time in New Orleans and I would definitely want to return. Trip highlight was tasting beignets at Loretta’s pralines!!

Check out my YouTube for a short video of our adventure!