Business trip to New Orleans - food and fun suggestions wanted!

The entire French Quarter is a tourist trap. You could check to see if there are any good shows at the House of Blues. I've grown to hate New Orleans, but southern cooking is great. Some places to eat (ranked cheapest to expensive): Quartermaster Store Remoulade Louisiana Pizza Kitchen Port of Call Bourbon House If you happen to smell beer and human waste, don't worry... it's normal. I can never find anything cool to do around there besides eat and go to a concert or catch an indie flim at Canal Place Theater.

For music, much of the Quarter has gotten very touristy. However, some of the bars in the Marigny (walking distance) have good music, a relaxed vibe, and fewer tourists. Stroll Frenchmen street to get a sense.

Before I can comment on food, I would need to know a bit more of what you are looking for and what you do not eat. For example, if you like oysters and crawfish and drink beer, you could eat very well indeed at the bar at Acme. If you want to do a more upscale Creole/Cajun influenced experience, walk over to Cochon or Herb Sainte for lunch.

In any event, I travel to NOLA a fair amount for work and pleasure and would be glad to share whatever I can.

Rubensteins is on Canal, which borders the Quarter. Nice clothing selection. Canal Place has all the usual mall selection: Brooks, Saks, etc.

Many great food and drink choices all thru the quarter. You can also cross over Canal past the Casino to the warehouse district. On the quarter side, Galatoire's(no jeans, jackets in evening), near the Canal St end of Bourbon is one of many great restaurants. It is hard to find bad food in New Orleans. Just ask at your hotel, or check the many web sites.

Great cool spring weather down here right now.

Oyster Pooooooooooooooooooooo Boys!!!!

K

If you're already in the FQ, I'd recommend planning a dinner at Stella and/or Bayona depending on your budget. If you like architecture, you're in a good place and can have many happy hours wandering the quarter.

For cool bars & music, check out Fauborg Marigny, the neighborhood just on the other side of Esplanade St from the FQ. If you're staying on the Canal St. side of the FQ, it's a pretty long walk or a really short cab ride. The essential thing is to avoid Bourbon St unless you want to do the whole I'm a touron/ I just enlisted/ I just turned 21 routine.

Shopping/ clothes-wise, Rubenstein's is just across Canal St. from the FQ. If you go to the Uptown area, Style Lab for Men, Aidan Gill and Shoefty (the clothing portion is more interesting than the shoes, but small) are all on Magazine St, as is Perlis if you're into trad/ preppy. Also in uptown are loads of good restaurants and nice architecture.

More recs later if you want them, in a hurry right now.

Well if you want to avoid the tourist spots, you will have to cab a bit out of the quarter.
I have a sister at Tulane, her crowd frequents:

The Boot, 1039 Broadway,
Bruno's next to the Boot
Cooter Browns 509 Carrolton
Fat Harry's 4330 St Charles
Friar Tuck not sure on the address
Bulldog, Magazine st

I recently moved away from New Orleans and can second other's recommendation for going to bars in the Marigny. It's an easy walk from the French Quarter and has a nice strip of bars along a few blocks of Frenchman street. Most of these places will play live music, and there is a good variety of bars from jazz to reggae to yuppie. It's a much more local neighborhood than the French Quarter. There are some good local bars scattered throughout town, but everything is much more concentrated on Frenchman St., which makes things easy for you. A few other bar that are kind of grungy, rock places are One Eyed Jacks, which is in the French Quarter. It's one of the few bars I'd go to in the Quarter. I've seen some good shows there, so you may want to check to see if there is a show in town. There's also the Circle Bar, which is pretty close to walking distance from the Quarter as well. Both of those places have a kinda indie-rock vibe. There's also Les Bon Temps, which is a few miles in a cab up Magazine St. It's a pretty good small music venue, if you want to hear a more local sound. For dinner, I would recommend Cochon as well. It's a little pricey, but it's not one of the old school, fancy New Orleans places that are way overrated. It's one of the best new restaurants in town, in my opinion. I also really like Jacques Imo's and would take any visitors to town there. Maybe the real locals think it's jumped the shark, but I still really like it. Great food, fun atmosphere. There's also a good bar next door, the Maple Leaf, that will be packed on certain nights when Rebirth Brass Band plays. That's a lot of fun and well worth braving the crowd for. Both these places are several miles from the quarter, but an easy cab ride. In the quarter, my favorite restaurant is Irene's Cuisine, which is an Italian-Creole mix. Just stay away from most restaurants in the quarter and ask locals where they like to get Po Boys and go there for lunch.

These are good recommendations as well. There's a fun strip of shops on Magazine Street where Aidan Gill is. You can also get a nice hot shave there, which is a lot of fun and a great hangover cure. I'd make a reservation for that, though.

There is now a second Aden Gill on Fulton Street, which is behind the Casino

Brett, Just shut up and do the touristy crap: get a hurricane at Pat O'Brien's, get a grenade Tropical Isles, and coffee and beignets at Cafe Du Monde. You will thank me.

I actually think that the greatest touristy thing in the world is cafe au lait and beignets at Cafe Du Monde. Can't go wrong there. I drink in Pat O'Brien's can be fun as well. But I find nothing special about Tropical Isle or their grenade. Another half-decent touristy spot for a drink in the quarter is at Napoleon House.

Pat O'Brien's has a piano bar that is a lot of fun.

+1 on Jacques Imo's. You'll have to get over there, but it's worth the trip. I haven't been there since before Katrina, but these are the places I enjoyed when I was there.

- Euglesich's. Best oysters I've eaten, but this may be closed now.
- Acme or Felix's. Both oyster places. I liked Acme better, but YMMV.
- Jacques Imo's. Skip the standards (e.g. Gumbo) and get some of the other stuff on the menu, like the deep fried roast beef po boy appetizer.
- Peristyle: not sure if this is still open.

I'd also echo Who's recommendation to hit the standard spots. Yes, Cafe Du Monde is touristy, but the beignets are damn good.