Oh, yeah. That was fun! Weather was perfect – mid-80s all week. Cooking classes were fantastic. Location couldn’t have been better.
Casa Pelican is a B&B and a cooking school in historic Algiers Point. It’s a quiet residential neighborhood – but it’s a five minute ferry ride away from the French Quarter. So the best of both worlds. If you’re old, getting around New Orleans is dirt cheap. I bought the 31-day senior pass to everything – trollies, ferries, and busses – for $14.00, and just rode everywhere. They’ve got an absolutely enormous World War II museum, and a first class art museum.
Karen Duncan ran a Cajun restaurant in Toronto for 15 years, and then moved down here. The school and B&B is her retirement project. Breakfast every morning – and I don’t mean granola and toast. Sausage gravy and biscuits; omelet and bacon; pancakes and sausage – I didn’t eat many lunches out because I was still full from breakfast.
So I spent four days there. Nice time, but I don’t think I’m moving there. For one thing, everything is uphill both ways.
But nice time! Some recommendations, if you’re thinking of going.
Pinball. I looked at the Asheville Pinball Museum, and… meh. 35 whole old machines for $15!! Skip it. Instead, go to Level 256. Better machines; better beer; $10.
Breweries. They have more breweries per capita than anywhere else. Here are my favorites.
Burial. Zope, if you go there this is where you will park yourself and never leave. Big, big NEIPAs. As in, three triples and five doubles. And then there are the 14% stouts…
Zillicoah. Couple of miles outside the city on a real nice site with food.
Digression here. If you go to Asheville in the summer and decide to do something sane like use Uber to get outside the city – beware of Saturday afternoons! I took an Uber to Zillicoah for $7 at around 1PM; decided to go back at 3PM, and… it was $35. And not only was it $35, but there were no cars available. So I did the only smart thing.
At around 5PM, prices went down and things got normal. I asked, and got this explanation. All of the cool wedding venues are a half hour out of town. So two hours before the wedding, everyone calls an Uber; they all go away for an hour or so, and thus my issue. Makes sense.
Food. As is true everywhere, there is a lack of staff. I went to one place and it was 2/3 empty – and yet there was a 45 minute wait for food. Luckily, it was a tequila bar, so I found something to do with the time.
Mayfel’s. Excellent NOLA food. I had my weakness, the Oyster Po’ Boy.
Sovereign Remedies. Cocktail bar with wicked good food. And a killer Vieux Carre. Two blocks from the hotel, thank God.
Lobster Trap. What it says. Great Cioppino. Excellent live music 6:30 to 8:30.
