A birthday in the Big Easy

Ben celebrated his 33rd birthday on August 24th. Not too long ago, I heard on the radio that the gifts we remember most are experiences, not material items. So when a trip to the Loew's New Orleans came up on Living Social, I thought it was the perfect way to celebrate Ben's birthday and a great excuse for us to get back to the city that we love. The deal included a two-night stay in a Grand King Suite, $25 per day in food and beverage credit at the hotel bar/restaurant, $10 off the daily parking fee and a welcome basket of New Orleans goodies. Considering the hotel typically runs around $200-300 per night for the room alone, the $380 price tag for the Living Social was a great deal.

However, little did I know that between black out dates and our own schedule conflicts, we'd only have one weekend to choose from. It happened to land on Ben's real birthday, so we decided, what the heck! We celebrated the night before with the kids and a Snicker's cake from Tasty Pastry.

Then my parents took the kids for the weekend and we packed up and headed to the Big Easy to celebrate. Our room was really nice {and huge} and we were greeted with a basket of Zapp's potato chips, pralines, Abita beer, Barq's root beer and New Orleans candy.

We arrived on Friday around 8 p.m. and started off with a few drinks at the Swizzle Stick bar in the hotel lobby. I enjoyed a Wild Magnolia (right) and Ben had the 1886 (left).

My drink was probably the best drink I had the whole weekend and I encourage you to try it out if you are ever in the Swizzle Stick at the Loew's Hotel.

Here's the description: The Wild Mag­no­lia – named for the famous Mardi Gras Indian tribe – is made with Lu’s own house­made bit­ters.  She has worked to per­fect the mem­ory of the aroma of the mag­no­lia tree that grew in her front yard as a child.  It is made with Hendrick’s gin, lemon juice, St. Ger­main elder­flower liqueur, Mag­no­lia bit­ters and fin­ished with a can­died lemon zest. Served ice cold in a cock­tail glass to sip and enjoy while chas­ing away the heat.


We then continued to our 9:15 dinner reservations at Root in the Warehouse District. This was Ben's pick and I've never had a more creative and delicious dinner. I really felt like I was on Top Chef. We started with Chef Phillip's Ménage à Foie and signature Foielly Pops (middle) which was foie gras rolled in watermelon pop rocks and wrapped in strawberry cotton candy. It sounded awful, but actually tasted really good.

We followed the appetizer up with the Petite Greens Salad and Grilled Compressed Watermelon Salad. For our main course, Ben ate the Cohiba Smoked Scallops - smoked in a cigar box - and I had the Blanquette de Veau, with sweet corn gnocci and tender veal cheeks. Everything was amazing, but we unfortunately didn't save enough room to try any of the desserts! I guess I'll just have to go back and eat there again.

We slept in the next day and wandered into the Quarter for jazz brunch buffet at Court of Two Sisters, a never-fail, New Orleans tradition.

Stuffed again! So, we followed up all of this eating and drinking with lots of walking in the Quarter, which is what you have to do in New Orleans to counteract the calorie overload. We saw the usually, unusual sights of the city and did some shopping for some treats to bring home to the kids.

It was warm, but the weather was quite pleasant and breezy for late August.

Then we did a bit more drinking. Our very own New Orleans cocktail tour, if you will. We started at Avenue Pub in the Garden District for a few cold brews and sampled some of the local beers of NOLA Brewing.

Then we headed back to the hotel to get freshened up and continued the cocktail tour with the Lucy Broussard (left) and a traditional Sazerac (right) from the Swizzle Stick.

Then to the Carousel Bar at the Hotel Monteleone.

Where we drank a Vieux Carre (left) and a French 75 (right).

Then we finished up at Pat O's for some dueling pianos and an Abita and a mint julep.

That night we ate at Cochon, which was much different than I had imagined - I guess I was imagining a restaurant similar to Root. Instead it was a casual and lively atmosphere and down home cooking with an upscale twist. We started with the wood-fired oyster roast. For the main course, I ate rabbit and dumplings and Ben had the Louisiana cochon with turnips, cabbage, pickled peaches and cracklins.

The timing for our trip couldn't have been better. As soon as we returned home it was becoming apparent that Tropical Storm Isaac was going to make landfall as a hurricane in New Orleans exactly seven years later, on the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. We collectively held our breath for the city in hopes that it would weather the storm okay. The kids sported their new shirts from the city on the day of the storm. It turned out that the city itself made out okay, but we were reminded of the damage and destruction of Katrina, as Plaquemines parish got the brunt of the flooding. We are thankful for sparing New Orleans and pray for those now homeless folks just south of the city.

It was definitely a 33rd birthday celebration to remember!