Gary and I have been back to New Orleans and the surrounding areas about once a month. We visited Biloxi twice and New Orleans three times this summer.
Katrina in New Orleans
My best friend, Katrina, and her son, Conor, came with us on one of the trip to New Orleans. They had a great time touring the swamp. We had a great meal at one of my favorite restaurant;
The Star Steak & Lobster House
237 Decatur St, New Orleans, LA 504-525-6151
The host, Joey, has been there forever and is lovely as always. The small and cozy restaurant has gotten a makeover and is not as cluttered as it used to be. The service is on par with all the restaurants in New Orleans, slow and courteous. Katrina and I had a combination plate which consisted of Jambalaya, steamed rice, red beans sausage and rice and crawfish etoufee. I forgot what Conor had, but Gary had his usual special steak of filet migon topped with crab meat. The average price on the menu is between $16 to $24 with the lobster dinner priced around $30. I do not remember much about this trip exept that Gary had won some good money playing black jack therefore we ate well on this trip. This included the oversized seafood plate at Cafe Masperos (601 Decatur St). Please take note that if you are at the front door of this restaurant and there is a sign telling you to wait outside, please wait outside. Katrina, Conor, Gary and I waited outside while a group of 6 was inside and when a table was available, the door man went outside and brought us in to our table. The inside group protested only to be told by the doorman that our group read the sign and understood it! I think he waited all day for the opportunity to say that.
 
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Video
Before I continue with my journey, here is the video of Southern Decadence during Labor Day weekend in New Orleans. The song is a remix of “Down Town” by Petula Clark.
The BallsOnIt Effect
Gary and I went to Biloxi twice and each time we met up with his parents and sister. The last meeting was in August to celebrate his mother’s birthday. It was a short trip and all we did was eat and drove around the surrounding area of Biloxi and Gulfport.
We celebrated Dixie’s birthday at the new Emeril’s Fish House in Gulfport. This moderately priced restaurant is inside the large and very bright Island View Casino. The location used to be part of Harrah’s Grand Casino Gulport before Hurricane Katrina.
The food at Emeril’s Fish House was a dissapointment. My traditional dish of shrimp and grits was mediocre. The grits was creamy and the few pieces of mushrooms gave it a nice contrast in texture and taste but the shrimps were overcooked and the ever popular “balsamic reduction” that was drizzled over the shrimps did nothing for the dish. I AM TIRED OF balsamic reduction. Infact, Gary and I have renamed this hideously overused sauce as “BallsOnIt” . I guess that these darn chefs think that by putting this “BallsOnIt” reduction on their dish it will elevate it to a higher status. All I tasted was the sourness of the vinegar which killed the shrimps. CHEF of the world; please stop this BallsOnIt assault! I also had the gumbo and it was too salty! Every gumbo I ever had at Emeril’s or any of his restaurants were always too salty. Yet, Dixie’s (Gary’s mother) creamy corn and crab chowder was bland. Gary and Dixie both had the fish of the day and the dish was so unremarkable that Gary has no recollection of it. I remembered it as tasty, but overcooked. The dry fried potato that the piece of fish sat on top was again, unremarkable. Arthur (Gary’s father) had his usual roast chicken dinner and he enjoyed it. Tracey (Gary’s sister) had the same shrimp and grits dish as mine and did not eat her shrimps at all but she liked the grits and the mushrooms. I had the sorbet trio for desert. The three very small balls of mango, passion fruit and lemon sorbet was refreshing but Dixie could not eat her sorbet because it was too tart. Tracey picked up the bill and commented that it was one of the cheaper meal she had paid for. She paid over $1,000.00 at a restaurant in Tampa (Bern’s Steak House) for the four of them two weeks earlier; therefore, Emeril’s Fish House was a bargain (dinner price range from $24 to $35).
Biloxi and Gulport are recovering and just like New Orleans, it is a slow process. Most of the nice mansions facing the ocean are gone. The lots are either vacant or replaced by larger condo units.
There were not many people out and about. My 15 minutes drive from Biloxi to Gulfport that Saturday night was easy. The road was almost empty after 7:30 PM. BUT all the casinos were packed. Most of the rooms in Biloxi and Gulfport were sold out. The casinos industry is definitely keeping this part of the Gulf Coast alive. However, beside gambling, eating and walking on the beach; there is not a whole lot to do in the area right now.
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Southern Decadence
A few years back, I decided to rename this weekend Southern Bearcadence. I stand correct. The gay bear community was a force this weekend. Over 100,000 visitor came to New Orleans for Southern Decadence 2007 and gave a big boost to New Orleans’ economy considering that this summer was one of the slowest summer the tourist-dependent economy ever had.
RESORT FEE!!!
I bid three rooms for my group of friends and got the Ambassador Hotel for a total of $42 a night ($35 plus tax & a priceline.com charge) for each room. This was cheap, but this hotel does something that many hotels now do and it drives me nuts. The Ambassador charged a whopping $7 a night for their resort fee. Other resorts ususally charge about $2 to $4 a night for this fee. The Ambassador is not a resort! This fee includes inter-net usage but none of my friends could connect to the inter-net. For next year, I may raise my bid and get a nicer hotel but only if my friends are willing to spend a little bit more.
Meanwhile, Harrah’s Casino put me and Gary at the nearby Double Tree Hotel on Canal Street. We did not gambled enough to be placed into their luxurious hotel on Poydras. The Double Tree was a disaster. In the course of one hour, we were moved to three different rooms. We had requested a non smoking room and the first room smelled like an ashtray. The second room was being remodeled and the bath room door was off from the frame by three inches. The third room still had paint strips on the door and the toilet shot water up two feet into the air. The toilet engineers had to come up and readjust the pressure level.
Our Double Tree also hosted the 388th Bomber reunion. Judging from the age of the attendees, there will not be many after this one.
Fridaycadence
I spend this day checking in hotel rooms for friends and waiting on friends to arrive. Ian flew in from South Carolina and Chito flew in from Galveston. David and Adi arrived around 10 PM and Dee and Billy arrived around midnight.
For lunch we first walked to the infamous Clover Grill, but at 11 AM, all of the 24 seats were taken and the wait was about 20 minutes. Chito decided to walk into the bar across the street, Lafitte in Exile, and found our friend Ritchie all alone in the bar. We kidnapped Ritchie for the remainder of the trip.
We did not want to wait so we walked to Cafe Masperos for lunch. Gary and I shared a hamburger and a muffaletta and Joe had a chicken sandwich. Chito and Ritchie had the Jambalya. My favorite place has $1 wine and $1 strawberry daquiries served in 8 oz see-through plastic cup.
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To burn off the heavy meal, we walked to the nearby French Market which is under rennovation and only a small part of it is available to vendors. I did not see my “Jade Lady”. I befriended this lady back in 2003 when Gary and I had a weekend booth at the French Market selling our toys. I made a habit of buying something from her everytime I am in New Orleans. Despite losing her home to Katrina, she and her husband are still living in New Orleans and ocasionally she set up her small booth selling jades and other artifacts from China. Her husband is an engineer working in New Orleans. The couple are from mainland China.
On the way back to our hotel, we walked past the gay clubs on Bourbon Street but went to the Corner Pocket on St. Louis instead. It was too early in the day and the pretty male dancers had not yet showed up at this small popular bar.
For dinner, Ian joined us at the all you can eat dungeness crab buffet at the casino. Joe and his group of friends went their separate ways and I have not seen Joe since ( he was hanging out at the Corner Pocket). I have never seen two of my thin friends ate so much before. As skinny as they are, they must have ate their weight in crab legs.
We all went to different places this night. After a short stroll to the French Quarter, Gary and I came back to the casino and parked our rears at the table game and penny slot machines. This was one of the luckier trip for me. I won about $300 on two of my favorite penny slot machines. That ATM check card was never used!
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Saturdaycadence
Ian and I were in bed by midnight. Gary came back from the Casino around 3 AM and my fourth roommate (shall be nameless) crawled in at 7:30 AM. Restless and hungry, Ian and I walked to the French Market Cafe and ate the breakfast buffet. It had everything I wanted; grits, eggs, sausage, bacon, biscuit and gravy. The bears were up early and filled pretty much the entire restaurants. All eyes were on us, a short fat Asian guy and a tall African/American cowboy, as we walked to our table.
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The weather had been perfect until 4 PM. It rained heavily and my pre-dinner wine party had to be moved from Lewis’ Crown Plaza hotel to my Double Tree-NOT.
I made a mistake of bringing two cheap bottles of red wine and one of them tasted like dishwater. Pairing these two wines with a block of 8 year old white cheddar, 7 year old yellow cheddar and a 7 year old parmesan cheese from Italy was a crime! I also had deviled spam (it was not even the real Spam, but a HEB grocery store brand) on fine crackers along side of one small great tasting smoked summer sausage and a box of Kroger Sociable crackers. We were just enjoying ourself talking and “chillin” out in my room.
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The rain stopped as we ran out of Perrier water and cheap wines. We walked to the French Quarter for our dinner. We dropped David and Adi at the Star Steak & Lobster House for their romantic dinner. They told me the next day that they enjoyed their dinner. Eight of us went to my cheap eat favorite, Cafe Masperos. We were split into two groups of 4. Our group shared the fried seafood plates (two plates total). While, Dee, Billy, Lewis and Ian ordered individual dishes. Lewis and Dee had the red beans sausage and rice. I remember this because Lewis always put some vinegar on top of his red beans and this night he asked the young and tattooed waitress to bring him some vinegar. Billy had the fried shrimp plate. I forgot what Ian had. I think he had the small jambalya with a fabulous French onion soup.
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Dee and Billy left us after dinner and us 6 men wandered around the gay bars in the French Quarter. We all walked to the Raw Hide ( 740 Burgundy St) and squeezed into the very crowded bar. Gary and Ian did not want to stay so we made a turn and left the bar. I have heard many many naughty tales about this place. This night, the bears took over the place and it was too much for Gary and Ian to handle. Gary and I bid goodbye to our boys and headed to the Casino. Lewis bar hopped a little bit then went to Snug Harbor, a very nice Jazz club located on the other side of the French Quarter in the Marigny district on Frenchmen Street.
My luck on the penny slot continued. I won about $150 on the penny slot and went back to my room by midnight. The rest of my room buddies hobbled in very late. Gary came in around 2 AM. Ian, after spending a night at a local club crawled in bed around 7:30 AM and the last one entered in at 8:00 AM.
Sundaycadence – THE PARADE
Dee and Billy left their Ambassador hotel early morning for a swamp tour. Ritchie, Adi, David, Chito, Gary and I went to Bacco’s for lunch. The famous ten cents martini are available, but not on Sunday. This Brennan’s restaurant no longer have the low priced lunch that was available pre-Katrina. However, the lunch specials are still priced nicely ranging from $12 to $24 for lunch. Gary and I had the three course brunch special. The $24 dish came with a choice of salad or soup. Gary and I went for the duck confit salad (EXCELLENT!). The entre was two fried eggs on top a bed of smokey pulled pork which was on top a piled of potato cubed hash. I enjoyed this dish. Gary’s eggs were perfectly cooked while my eggs was cooked too long and one of the yolk broke when it arrived to the talbe. The third course was the delicious bread pudding. This bread pudding was much better than the bread pudding I had at the original Emeril’s two years ago. Ricthie had the popular lobster ravioli. I had it before and it is good, but for a fat boy like me, I can eat two times the portion that was served. Chito had a grilled chicken salad and Adi just had the duck confit salad. They both like their food. I think David had the Eggs Bacco’s which is similar to the eggs benedict. What ever it was, he liked it. My friends Adi and David paid for my lunch. This was very sweet of them. If I knew, I would not have ordered the most expensive dish on the menu.
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PARADE MANIA
Most of my friends and I managed to meet on Royal Street to catch the parade. We also ran into many of our friends in Houston. The short but fun parade started around 2:30 PM on Royal Street from the Golden Lantern bar. I have been a part of this parade before and it was a lot of fun.
Prior to the parade, there were about 6 of Grant Storm’s ultraconservative Christian protestors. However, their message of hate was counter attacked by a man carrying a “Hate Reflector” sign and a megafone yelling “STOP THE HATE”. Thank you kind man for doing this.
The parade had all kind of marchers consisting of drag queens, bears, shirtless men in boa etc… We all took pictures as we cheered on the marchers. It make me want to be part of this parade again. The whole thing lasted about 15 minutes and soon the crowd moved toward the action on Bourbon Street. We stopped briefly at the Corner Pocket again and this time there were about 5 male dancers prancing around in their panties on top of the bar. I was dying from thirst and ordered 4 cranberry with soda water at the bar while the dancers were shaking their rump for dollars from bar patrons. My money and tips went to the bartenders. The dancers were too skinny for me. As for my friends, I plead the 5th.
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Gary and I went to Lewis’ hotel drinking red wine, pomegranate juice and goji berry juice to recovered from the heat of the day. Lewis hotel room was beautiful. It had a living room with a small kitchen area. Since Lewis was staying there for a week, he packed enough food and vitamins to feed an army.
The three of us ate our Sunday night meal at the Casino Buffet. The reason why I decided to eat there was that it was close to us and it had stone crab claws on the buffet. I just can not resist a crab dinner. Gary and I gambled all of our winnings on Sunday and mannaged to acheived high roller status for the year 2008. Hopefully Harrah’s will put us up in nicer hotels in the future.
MORE PICTURES!
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Home Sweet Home
Ian slept over at his aunt’s house and flew back to South Carolina on Monday. Dee and Billy flew back to Houston that morning so did Ritchie, David and Adi. Joe and his friend, Juan, along with Juan’s nephew and a friend from Dallas drove home. Chito flew to Ft. Lauderdale to continued his vacation with his sister there. Gary and I drove back to Houston in my big car only to experience car problem. It turned out that “Big Bertha” needed two new coils and I am so lucky to have a mechanic for a brother-in-law. Lewis stayed back in New Orleans for 5 more days of Jazz overload at Snug Harbor.
GALVESTON
Today, September 14, 2007, Gary and I drove down to Galveston to visit Chito and Phil. Chito and Phil run a nice B&B in Galveston, The Lost Bayou Guest House B&B (1607 Ave. L, Galveston, TX 77550-6021 (409) 770-0688). Chito took all of us, including Phil’s 24 year old cousin from Italy, to a wonderful lunch at the Saltwater Grill. The food here is respectable and the price is great for what you get. I decided not to write a review of it due to two reasons. First reason is that it was Chito’s treat and I was enjoying my friends’ company. The second reason is that I am just to lazy to write about it. After lunch, Chito treated us to a 3D movie at the Imax Theatre at Moody’s Garden. We ended our wonderful afternoon at a gay bar on the seawall, Third Coast. There we met some locals and had a wonderful time drinking with them. Since I am the driver, I had 3 cranberry juice with soda water while Gary downed 3 Shiner Bocks. We really had a good time and plan to visit Galveston more.
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Next Trip
Gary and I along with my mother and aunt are going to New Orleans on September 21 for 2 nights stay and I plan to go to Snug Harbor to support the local muscians there.
SEE YOU NEXT TIME!
OH! One more thing. PLEASE LEAVE BRITNEY ALONE!
