- 1 hour ago
In the town of excess, New Orleans, Tony indulges in fresh crab and shrimp, drinks Sazerac with Davis Rogan (a Treme-inspired character), hits the Kingpin and tops off with tacos from one of the nation's top-20 foods trucks.
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TravelTranscript
00:00The Super Bowl is going to be held here this year, and I'm rooting for the Saints, by the way.
00:12I like New Orleans. I'm not here to sneer and mock.
00:14Be a traveler, not a tourist.
00:17Drink heavily with strangers.
00:18Jager shots? Oh yeah. Have unprotected sex with strangers.
00:21It is a town about excess. It's a town where fried batter is a main course.
00:26I have no regrets. Man, that's good.
00:30They're drinking at 7 o'clock in the morning. It's perfectly acceptable.
00:35Cheers, by the way. Cheers.
00:37Jazz, blues, rock and roll.
00:40New Orleans has always been there to say, you know, you should live a little.
00:43There is no other place on Earth, even remotely, like New Orleans.
01:04Don't even try to compare it to anywhere else.
01:08Even trying to describe it is tricky, as chances are, no matter how much you love it, you don't really know it.
01:14No last call at bars. Lots and lots of great food.
01:18We know that.
01:19Locals who are, well, uniquely wonderful.
01:22There's an attitude here that defies all setbacks, all the things wrong with this fabulously and famously f***ed up city that defies logic in the very best possible ways.
01:33The proper way to say the name of my city is New Orleans.
01:37New Orleans.
01:38New Orleans.
01:39New Orleans.
01:39It's not New Orleans, it's New Orleans.
01:42The only time you ever hear somebody say New Orleans is if they're not from here, they're trying to rhyme in a song.
01:48It's 4 p.m. and I just arrived at Louis Armstrong International Airport.
01:53A taxi in a town is around $30.
01:56Public transportation in New Orleans, like pretty much everything administered by politicians or bureaucrats here, is, well, spotty at best.
02:05So plan to walk, rent a car, or take one of the many cheap and awesome cabs in the city.
02:11Drivers here, particularly guys who drive for institutions like United, have seen it all.
02:16So they know what to do.
02:18I've hired my old friend Elliot Flood for the next 36 hours, because we make a television, bitches, and that's how we do.
02:24Well, the barrier, it says, what is it, $150 charge for vomiting in the cab.
02:28They had different prices.
02:29Oh, yeah.
02:29$150 for vomiting in the cab.
02:31I like that they state the price up front, though, so it's like you can kind of decide, hey, I have that.
02:36You know, I can afford that.
02:37I can afford that.
02:40New Orleans.
02:41The French Quarter.
02:42Yeah, yeah, yeah.
02:43And go right ahead.
02:44It's fun.
02:45But the outer neighborhoods of New Orleans are where you should be going.
02:49Maybe do like me and stay in the quarter at a swankadelic I'm on TV kind of hotel like the Ritz Carlton.
02:56Or if you want to avoid the madness, chesticles, and projectile vomiting of the quarter altogether, you could stay at, like, Loft 523, a modern boutique-y style place in the central business district, or CBD.
03:09Locally owned, comprised of 18 studio loft apartments rather than traditional hotel rooms.
03:15Or there's the International House Hotel, an old Beaux-Arts bank building that's been made over into a more modern space.
03:23Loa, the lobby bar, is great for fans of modern mixology.
03:26And it's also locally owned, not part of the chain.
03:29Me, I'm taking a taxi to Lake Pontchartrain, where there's a series of shacks and camps along the water where you can get some real good stuff to eat.
03:39What does it say about me that, like, every time I see, like, a road like this, I'm thinking, this will make a good body dump.
03:46It's worth a trip out here.
03:48What a lot of people do that live in New Orleans, you know, they'll take a ride out here and try these different little restaurants.
03:54Louie Lips owns this Crab Shack, where he boils freshly caught shrimp and crabs straight out of the lake.
04:01And he cooks them just right.
04:03There's crab and shrimp, and then there's perfectly cooked crab and shrimp, okay?
04:08This is perfect.
04:10They just gotta have their fix, so.
04:12Who could possibly have turned me on to this wonderful place?
04:15This guy, of course.
04:17Donald Link.
04:18Hey, Tony.
04:18How you doing?
04:19What's happening, man?
04:20Just looking over at the menu here.
04:22Donald is the chef-owner of a number of New Orleans' best restaurants.
04:26Cochon, Cochon Butcher, and his flagship, Herb Sink.
04:31Always inspired by his grandparents' Cajun cooking, he's been working that cuisine in with French and Italian and modern influences to make wonderful things happen at the table.
04:41So, let me ask him, why here?
04:43Why'd you pick this one?
04:44I grew up in South Louisiana, like Charles.
04:46Because my dad and I used to go crabbing in the canals out there with alligators and shrimping.
04:50And there's this feel that you get of this kind of on the water, this is where it comes from.
04:57So, it's just a matter of, you know, this connection that they have with their source.
05:01I mean, this place is like your friends are here and you're cooking for them.
05:03Yep.
05:04So, how's New Orleans doing?
05:05How's business?
05:06How's the city?
05:07I'll tell you, I think since I saw you last, this city has become just a different city.
05:14It's alive.
05:15It's busy.
05:15It feels like the city it should have always been.
05:17So, that's like good news.
05:19Because the conventional wisdom of North is, man, New Orleans, you know, really got f***ed.
05:22Then they got f***ed again.
05:24And you lost more.
05:25What percentage of your population?
05:27It's all debatable.
05:28A lot.
05:29A lot, that's to say.
05:30But you're saying on balance things are pretty good.
05:32I mean, there's still areas in town that need some work.
05:34It was a fundraiser that we did to build some homes out in the Ninth Ward.
05:37And I think that the hurricane brought a lot of awareness to the city.
05:41And it made people want to focus on the school system and focus on the infrastructure.
05:45And our mayor is great right now.
05:47The tourists love coming here.
05:48I love that New Orleans is growing in a way that retains its soul.
05:51There will be no Disneyfication of New Orleans.
05:55It doesn't look that way.
05:56Locals won't put up with it.
05:57Well, New Orleans has always been a place where different people live together.
06:01Very close proximity and different cultures and class and race.
06:05And it all just seems to work.
06:07Yeah, we talk about that a lot in New York, but we don't actually do that.
06:10Oh, yeah, that's looking pretty attractive.
06:13They call this barbecue shrimp, but here it means big-ass gulf shrimp and butter, black pepper, and spices.
06:21Wow.
06:23I'm going to try to try it.
06:23They look good.
06:24It looks like this.
06:25I'm going to try it.
06:25Mmm.
06:27Now what's that?
06:27Worcestershire?
06:28Garlic?
06:28Worcestershire, garlic, butter, lots of black pepper, rosemary probably.
06:34I love the seasoning.
06:36Yeah.
06:36And look at the peel on this shrimp.
06:39It's just clean.
06:41Oh, this flies right off.
06:42Damn, that's good.
06:43This food has balls.
06:45It's kind of flavor.
06:46It's messy.
06:47It's dirty.
06:48That's my life.
06:49You know you've got a Jedi Master back there.
06:52It does not get much better than this, my friends, but you could always go to Butcher,
06:57Link's newest location in the Warehouse District, featuring Cajun-inflected, Cajun-inspired,
07:02and straight-up Cajun sausages and cured meats.
07:06And if you're not already a fan of the classic New Orleans muffaletta sandwich,
07:10this would be a great place to get with the program, open your mind, and your mouth wide.
07:15Or how about Dookie Chase's in the Treme?
07:18This place is an institution.
07:21Everybody comes here.
07:22Families, famous faces, politicians, bag men, regular folks looking for fried chicken,
07:29shrimp Clemenceau, jambalaya, red beans and rice.
07:33Leah Chase rejected the respectable lifestyle planned for her, married Edgar Dookie Chase,
07:38and began running the kitchen for her mother-in-law.
07:41It's been nothing but love from New Orleans since.
07:44Yeah, my daughter can be somewhat finicky, but this is her dish right here.
07:50These barbecue crabs, and she can tear through three orders of this stuff.
07:54I always feel like I'm engaged in some sort of battle of the wheels with a crab.
07:57It's like, you know, you're trying to hide from me, but you are so sly, but so am I.
08:03It's like a game to see how much meat I can get on this swimmer leg.
08:06It's good.
08:08It is genuinely delicious.
08:10It really is, man.
08:11The crab trap we've since found out was flooded out during Hurricane Isaac in August of 2012.
08:18Louie says he will not be reopening by the time this show is aired, but we can only hope for the future.
08:24The biggest mistake tourists make is they go right to the French Quarter and don't get to see the whole city of New Orleans.
08:32If you're not dealing drugs, you're probably safe pretty much anywhere.
08:36Get on a streetcar and take it all the way up down St. Charles Avenue and see the city for what it really is.
08:41Activities? Other than food and drink? Meh.
08:47We're close to New Orleans to eat, drink a hell of a lot, see a lot of great music, and then go, like, you know, mountain biking or, you know, it's not like the exercise capital of the world, right?
08:58The sun sets and it's time for a classic cocktail.
09:01The Central Business District is just up from the quarter, and there you can find the Roosevelt Hotel, which houses the Sazerac Bar, a place with about as much history as the cocktail it's named for.
09:13What are you drinking, sir?
09:14I'm drinking the Sazerac.
09:15Davis Rogan is a fifth-generation New Orleanian.
09:19Well, she had great big breasts and a really small dog, and I'm sitting at the stair and like a bump on the lawn.
09:26He's a former DJ-turned-jazz pianist who along the way inspired the Davis McElary character on the series Treme.
09:33I write for that show, by the way. Just saying.
09:35I have to say, cause I was so proud.
09:39I got strippers moving in my neighborhood.
09:45I got strippers moving in my neighborhood.
09:52Well, you can call it gentrification.
09:55I'm gonna call it good.
09:59Cheers, sir.
10:00Santé.
10:04So you were a...
10:05Oh, that's good.
10:06I was a line cook for six months.
10:08Oh, and for Emeril.
10:09For Hair Emeril and the Empire.
10:11Yes, I worked for the Empire.
10:12I went from pantry to fry station to desserts.
10:16I think I made as far as hot apps before I discovered that line cooks make less money than musicians and work harder than teachers.
10:21Yes.
10:22It made absolutely no sense.
10:23You were on the rocket to the top there.
10:25You were on the fast track to success in the Lagasse Empire.
10:29Ran screaming.
10:30I have, however, definitely written a few lines, not many, for the character loosely based on the inspired button.
10:39But the character is a bit of a douche who can't really play or sing.
10:42I, I, I, how do I...
10:44The first rule of television is when you enter any kind of a relationship with the bitch goddess television,
10:50her first order of business is never making you look good.
10:54That's true for me as well.
10:56They're just hoping I'll choke on my food or soil myself because that would be considered good TV.
11:01Make you look like an idiot at 20 pounds, things of this nature.
11:03But you are, your character is, the most direct and passionate advocate for all things New Orleans.
11:10Would you say that's true of you as well?
11:11That is, that is, that is accurate.
11:13This place is perfect, but if you must stay in the French Quarter, go check out French 75 Bar,
11:19part of old school institution Arnault's restaurant.
11:22It's just far enough off Bourbon Street that locals still come for a proper drink
11:26and the classic vibe of dino era French restaurant.
11:30Naturally, the French 75 is on the menu.
11:33A prohibition-style cocktail made from cognac and champagne.
11:38More 21st century bar with food?
11:41Try Happy Hour at Bourne, the latest joint from John Besch,
11:45focusing on the Spanish influences in traditional New Orleans food.
11:49But in my case, I'm having a second Sazerac, please.
11:52I think I was 9 or 10 when it became my job when my grandparents visited that I made the Sazeracs.
11:58So let me ask you, it's the only place in America that I can think of
12:02where young people listen to or at least are very familiar with the same music that their parents listened to.
12:09Yes.
12:09What is this reverence for the past?
12:11I mean, or at least a respect for tradition.
12:14Maybe just disappointment with the modern.
12:16Where I grew up, there was a cemetery here and a church here, and there were funeral processions with a jazz band going past my street.
12:26You know, that's what I saw.
12:27Well, honestly, I had my high school period where I did nothing but listen to punk rock
12:30and had a certain amount of disdain for all that old-timey s*** that I grew up on.
12:33And then I went away to college.
12:35I went over to Portland, Oregon and discovered how terribly white the rest of the world is
12:40and that the Grateful Dead is an organized s***ing religion.
12:43And I just ran screaming for my Professor Longhair and my meter's records and never moved back.
12:47So we would agree on this, that the Grateful Dead were not a positive force in the universe.
12:51There isn't enough acid in the town of Berkeley to make the Grateful Dead interesting.
12:55Just, I'm with you.
12:56Okay.
13:05My favorite all-time saying from New Orleans, I'm going to make groceries.
13:11That means I'm going to the grocery store.
13:14When you're talking about your family, you say my mom and them.
13:17How's your mom and them?
13:18It means, how's your family?
13:19My favorite word is lamb yap.
13:21When you go somewhere, lamb yap is just a little bit of something else.
13:25You don't get a dozen donuts, you get 13.
13:27You always get a little bit extra.
13:31Two drinks in and it's clearly time for some food.
13:34Davis and I head for Cochon.
13:36Now you haven't eaten, you've never eaten here before.
13:39Which is incredible to me.
13:40So it's for me and foie?
13:41Cochon's where Donald Link and Stephen Svrajewski allow guests to share their passion
13:45for Roots Cajun and Southern home cooking.
13:48We're not talking donut burgers or deep fried freaking stuffing.
13:52We're talking food that actual grandmothers once made.
13:55Somewhat tweaked for restaurant service, of course.
13:58Cochon is French for pig and there's lots of it here.
14:01Five single dishes left to eat in New Orleans before somebody shoots you in the back of the head.
14:09Stewed tomato and okra.
14:10Stewed tomato and okra, that's okay.
14:12Yeah.
14:12A gumbo.
14:13Gumbo.
14:15Big ass pile of crawfish.
14:16Right.
14:17Some fried oysters and some raw oysters.
14:20Wow.
14:21Unusual.
14:21No red beans and rice.
14:23I've had plenty of them.
14:24Born and raised on it.
14:25You know, I mean, as a child, once you've learned how to make toast, making red beans is the
14:30first recipe that you attack when you're 10 or 11 years old.
14:33What street would you walk down in your lap, just prior to you walk down French Street?
14:38What's the first thing you miss, or the thing you miss most fiercely?
14:42The no-happy, laissez-faire attitude of the people, plus we all speak English.
14:47I love to travel, I love to go to other places and play my music for the other people in the
14:53world, but I couldn't exist anyplace else.
14:55No one else would have me.
14:56Who is the ideal New Orleansian?
14:59Here's what I love about John Boutet.
15:01Okay, John Boutet did the theme song for the Treme show.
15:04John Boutet got a decent chunk of change.
15:05Is John Boutet out there traveling the world, working all the time?
15:08No.
15:09He said, well, I got paid, I'm going to work less.
15:11He paid off his mama's house and proceeded to just take fewer of the gigs because he didn't
15:16need them.
15:17And just the, you know, it's work smarter not.
15:20If he walks down the street, are people yelling out their windows?
15:22Oh, everyone loves, yeah, everyone loves John Boutet.
15:24So John Boutet.
15:25Yes.
15:25What about those people who genuinely were saying, why rebuild New Orleans?
15:31Why shouldn't we care?
15:32We gave you red beans and rice.
15:34We gave you jazz.
15:37We provide you with 30% of your mother's oil and we never see a dime of that.
15:40And to take it back to some simple French catchphrases, joie de vivre and laissez-faire.
15:47And everyone could use a little bit more of these in your life.
15:50New Orleans needs to be kept around so we can keep bringing you that soul.
15:54We start with boudin, a sausage of pork parts, and rice.
15:58Oh, yeah, look at that boudin.
16:00So meaty.
16:01That's delicious.
16:03Right?
16:03Good stuff.
16:04With that, some breaded pork cheeks.
16:08Now that's just converting an air-quote trash piece of the pig into something incredibly beautiful.
16:16That's a boutique cut of meat now.
16:18That's a little pig.
16:19The poor people had something on us, didn't they?
16:21Eating the cheeks and the sea bath.
16:23Another place in town that worships the pig is Boucherie, named after the small-town rural
16:28Cajun tradition of pig slaughter followed by a feast.
16:32Boucherie serves up stuff like blackened shrimp with grit cakes and bread pudding.
16:36Everything on the menu is less than 20 bucks.
16:39Whoa, here we go.
16:41Nice.
16:42What I have coming, though, is smoked ham hock with red beans, charred radish, and chicken
16:47hearts.
16:48Unbelievably good.
16:50Oh, yeah, and macaroni and cheese casserole, because, well, one must.
16:54Whoa, whoa, and whoa.
16:55Okay.
16:56Davis is doing the Louisiana pig with turnips, cabbage, pickled peaches, and cracklins.
17:01A Boucherie on a plate.
17:03Cracklin.
17:04Cracklin, I think that puts it over the edge.
17:06Wow.
17:06That's a beautiful dish.
17:08And turnip.
17:09We just don't have enough turnip in our diet.
17:11Oh, great.
17:12And it really just took all of this pig flavor, and it's just holding it and transmitting
17:19it, and yet it's still a turnip.
17:20This is a very cool, first of all, this is a really cool menu.
17:23You know, this whole philosophy of food is really cool.
17:26And it's not over the top.
17:28No.
17:28No, there's not like a big wad of foie gras on it.
17:30It's not like rubbing it in your face.
17:32There's no foam or there's nothing molecular about it.
17:35What original, uniquely American cuisines are there?
17:40Unique.
17:40Creole cuisine comes from here.
17:43It is the only uniquely...
17:44It is not African.
17:45It is not African.
17:45Creole-engaging cuisine for most of our history was the only specific to American mutation.
17:52Right.
17:53Man, that's good.
18:00One cannot, repeat, cannot go to New Orleans and not see some live music.
18:07The Maple Leaf Uptown is what a New Orleans club is all about.
18:10This place was one of the first to reopen after Katrina, with an emotional performance powered
18:16by Generator by legendary local blues man, Walter Wolfman Washington.
18:21It's always good here.
18:22No matter who's playing, this place is great.
18:25But if the Rebirth Brass Band is playing, do not miss it.
18:29Or else you're pretty much missing the point of New Orleans.
18:32They play here every Tuesday.
18:38If you just ain't gonna be here on a Tuesday and can't be here...
18:45they play here every tuesday if you just ain't gonna be here on a tuesday and can't be here
18:58you can try oh one-eyed jacks for 80s night yep spend your evening regretting your pants choices
19:05and haircut in that terrible terrible decade jacks is in an old movie theater converted into a music
19:11venue it looks like a whorehouse and its seating plan and easy access to alcohol sort of invite
19:17people to fall onto each other but hey there's the fun there's also the terrific tipitinas which
19:23has live music nearly every night of the week dedicated to piano legend professor longhair
19:29and named after one of his songs this is one of the best spots to catch local and national acts
19:35from across the full spectrum of music tips as they call the place is well worth the cab ride
19:41on almost any given night but rebirth brass band that's a must
19:47world
19:51us
19:54Not only do that, we should do it again
19:58We're suffraim, we're not even serious
20:01We gotta be saying We gotta be serious
20:05We never set you down
20:07We're suffraim
20:24One of the bad things I see tourists do when they come down here is they're just not friendly.
20:43Everybody's willing to say hello, give you a hug, give you a kiss on the cheek, thank
20:47you for coming down here, and sometimes they're a little bit reserved.
20:50New Orleans has that no other city has, it's just it's uniqueness, it's the architecture,
20:56it's the music, it's the people, it's the food.
20:59You can go other cities and they'll try to implement what we do and it just doesn't work
21:03because you have to be part of the soul of what we have down here in New Orleans.
21:08Breakfast?
21:09I have heard of this meal, perhaps I shall try some.
21:16You have to cross the bridge or you go east and there's two huge Vietnamese communities,
21:21one's on the West Bank, the other's in New Orleans East.
21:24John Besh, chef, champion of Gulf cuisine.
21:29Born in Mississippi and raised in southern Louisiana, he's the owner of acclaimed restaurants August,
21:34Luke, Domenica, and Bourne, among others.
21:37Here we are, nothing but the best neighborhoods for you, David.
21:40This is going to be good, I can tell already.
21:43Pho Tao Bay opened in 1982 and it's named after a pho shop in Saigon where the owner used
21:50to hang during the Vietnam War.
21:52He met the love of his life and the owner's daughter and after the fall of Saigon in 1975,
21:57moved the entire family to the States.
22:00It takes eight hours to make their authentic pho broth and the recipe has never been written
22:06down.
22:07It's the smell of happiness actually.
22:08This is awesome.
22:09I love this place.
22:10Why do you think that everywhere you go, chefs hold clandestine meetings at Vietnamese restaurants?
22:15I think we gravitate towards this food.
22:17You're tasting all these big flavors all the time, it's what we do and so you need big, bold,
22:23but you don't want the impact.
22:24You don't want to eat.
22:25You don't want fatty.
22:26You don't want the richness of it.
22:27We start with an order of Nem Nong Kwan, summer rolls filled with barbecue pork, carrots,
22:33lettuce and rice noodles.
22:35Dig in.
22:36So, how many restaurants now?
22:39Nine?
22:40I have nine restaurants.
22:41All in New Orleans area?
22:42Yeah.
22:43Why haven't you opened in New York, Montreal, Toronto?
22:46You've been asked, right?
22:47I have, but it was, Hurricane Katrina hit and it changed everything for me.
22:51It changed, you know, prior to the storm, August was about winning awards.
22:57I mean, my name and the, you know, and the newspaper.
23:00In a way, it's just, you know, really all about me.
23:02Me just cooking for my ego.
23:05Then, after the storm, it really became a quest to rebuild, make a difference, do good where
23:15we can.
23:16There were a lot of national change that pulled out of New Orleans, which vacated all these,
23:20you know, the gorgeous downtown that we have.
23:23I saw an ability to grow, elevating the people that came back to help bail my ass out.
23:29You know everybody you're doing business with, too.
23:31Yeah.
23:32Such a person.
23:33And I love them.
23:34When it comes to the main course, John has his usual, the pho dak biet, beef combo with
23:41tendon and tripe.
23:42I order Bun Bo Hue, Central Vietnamese spicy pork and beef served in fish stock with large
23:49rice noodles.
23:50Oh, now that's beautiful.
23:52Look at that.
23:56Not in the mood for pho, you say?
23:57Well, I pity you, but I can help.
24:00Setsuma Cafe in the Bywater is good for fresh juices and its breakfast sandwiches.
24:06So if, like, beet and lime juice is what you need to accompany, say, egg, spinach, and cheese
24:11croissant, well, this could be the place for you, hippie.
24:16Or there's Atchafalaya, located uptown.
24:19The shrimp and grits are amazing.
24:21Head on, fresh as all get out with a spicy, bacon-y sauce.
24:25For Sunday brunch, there's music, and this is probably the one city in the world where
24:30music with your brunch can be a good thing.
24:33Atchafalaya will do me just fine.
24:36Coming down here, there was a kid on my plane.
24:39He just left Gramercy Tavern and he was coming down here to work.
24:42That's not the way it's supposed to work, you know?
24:45I do see a much more progressive New Orleans being built.
24:48I see people now moving to New Orleans for the purpose of making it a better place.
24:54How is it?
24:58After a healthy breakfast, I find it difficult to resist a low-rent cheeseball training drink
25:06for future binge drinkers.
25:07Going out for a few minutes, Bob.
25:08Going down to the daiquiri store.
25:10New Orleans Original Daiquiri's, 16 flavors of judgment-impairing, standard, lowering goodness.
25:17And you get a huge drink, good enough to get you a DUI in any state in the union for under
25:2210 bucks.
25:23And that's value.
25:25Good afternoon.
25:26Good afternoon.
25:27Tough decision.
25:28What's a house special?
25:29The house special is 190 proof liquor.
25:31It has rums, it has orange juice, pineapple juice.
25:34And I don't want to be like operating power tools or driving a high-performance vehicle after
25:39that.
25:40That sounds good to me.
25:41House special.
25:43Fruity.
25:44Frothy.
25:45Freezy.
25:46And delicious.
25:47You can hardly taste the alcohol.
25:50It's perfect because let's say you don't like the taste of alcohol and you're 21 and
25:59you're looking for a way to become an alcoholic.
26:02This would be your sort of training wheels.
26:05So where's the guidebook?
26:06It's said that in New Orleans the dead outnumber the living.
26:09I'm pretty sure that's true everywhere.
26:11Tennessee Williams, A Streetcar Named Desire is based on a real...
26:14This is not so interesting.
26:16Tennessee Williams choked to death on a bottle cap at the Hotel Elyse in New York.
26:20That's interesting.
26:21The LaLaurie Mansion said to be one of the most haunted places in New Orleans, the home
26:26of a former serial killer and murderer.
26:28That house now belongs to actor Nicolas Cage.
26:32It is illegal to rob a bank and then shoot at the bank teller with a water pistol?
26:37I would imagine so.
26:38I think that's illegal everywhere.
26:40Rituals that involve the ingestion of blood, urine, or fecal matter are not allowed.
26:44Really?
26:45No ingestion of blood, urine, or fecal?
26:47Damn.
26:48Some people at Air Guitar, there are AirSec World Championships here.
26:51You know, for a fascinating city like New Orleans, this is some pretty weak here.
26:55Where'd you get this?
26:56www.screaminglyobviouswitless.com?
26:58And you can get your own copy of this.
27:02Look, look.
27:04Empty book with tragically glued in pages that some sad intern from the office has gathered
27:16gathered from the internet in between scoring narcotics for our production team.
27:25Ice cream headache.
27:26My daughter would love this.
27:28Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow.
27:33New York has, y'all got nothing on the po'boy.
27:44You gotta come to New Orleans to get a po'boy.
27:47A real po'boy?
27:48A real po'boy, yes.
27:49Yes.
27:50Now, what are we gonna talk about?
27:51A po'boy is French bread cut in the middle.
27:52Yes.
27:53At least 8 to 12 inches long.
27:54Lettuce, tomato, pickles.
27:56And most of us will have seafood, but also it has some great meats and all sorts of stuff.
28:02Fantastic food.
28:08The Faubourg Marini is a neighborhood just below or downriver from the French Quarter.
28:13And many say it feels like the quarter used to.
28:15My definition of a great city is a place you can walk and discover stuff.
28:19Frenchman Street and the Marini has that now.
28:22Lola Selle is an author, journalist, filmmaker, and a fellow writer on the HBO series Treme.
28:29He's written and co-produced a documentary on the subject of Faubourg Treme,
28:33the untold story of black New Orleans for PBS,
28:36and is basically a walking chronicle on the subject of his city.
28:41Watermelon cocktail looking good.
28:43This bar attached to the Royal Street Inn is known to locals as simply the R Bar.
28:48My kind of place.
28:50The bartenders, as in most good bars, know their subject, know their town, and have something to say.
28:57Do you know about the fact that in 1850, 40% of this city was owned by free women of color?
29:02Do you know these things that created this city that you love?
29:05They also act as front desk for the hotel upstairs, but good luck getting help with the bags.
29:11Cheers, by the way.
29:12Cheers.
29:13What distinguishes a local from a visitor as far as casual bar behavior?
29:18The main thing is, we drink to have a good time.
29:22Drinking is not the end.
29:23Right.
29:24Life is supposed to be fun.
29:26You don't have to turn off your senses in order to suddenly have fun.
29:29Right.
29:30It's more of an endurance sport rather than a sprint.
29:32Yeah, exactly.
29:33The visitors are sprinters.
29:35Yeah.
29:36You want live music with your midday beverage?
29:38Over at Le Bon Ton Roulet uptown, there's usually live jazz, a brass band, and other local acts.
29:45Regulars hang all day playing pool in the front room digging into oysters.
29:50Or you could head over to Three Muses Jazz Club on Frenchman Street, where you might well find Davis Rogan playing a set.
29:58I'm happy with a festive watermelon cocktail.
30:01I think the fact that this city was founded and controlled by Catholics is crucial to our whole identity of who we are.
30:09You know, the Protestant ideas do not sin.
30:11Right.
30:12Let's not even talk about what happens if you do, because you're not going to.
30:15Yeah, bless me, Father, because I'm planning on getting really up today, going home with a prostitute.
30:19We'll talk again tomorrow.
30:21Tony, if you'd like to buy an indulgence, I know an ice priest down the street, you can buy an indulgence, you know?
30:26I'm so for that.
30:28I really, I would be a God-fearing man.
30:30If we could go back to the good old days, pre-Reformation, where you could buy indulgences in advance, like a debit card, you could sort of stock up.
30:40And I think that would be completely awesome.
30:43Good afternoon, sir.
30:46Look, we talk about creativity in the context of chefs.
30:51Creativity is not merely, well, what can you do with foie gras that I didn't think of before?
30:56No.
30:57Creativity is, what can you do with pig feet that I didn't think of before?
31:00Yeah, look, the dishes that the poor used to have to eat or were byproducts of oppression or slavery, they're cherished.
31:07Now, it's a triumph of skill over circumstances.
31:11But also, we need to be reminded.
31:13Times, where do we come from, and times we're not always good.
31:17Lunch in Bucktown.
31:19The place started as a string of fishing camps lining the 17th Street Canal and the lake.
31:25All right, debris.
31:26Best po'boy in New Orleans?
31:28I ain't making that argument.
31:30I'm not starting that discussion.
31:32All I can tell you is that R&O's is a seriously excellent version of the roast beef po'boy.
31:38An unlikely but near perfect combination of bread, beef, debris-flect gravy, mayo, lettuce, and tomato.
31:46But, I mean, I think it is great, though.
31:49We finally realized that places like this are important and great places for American food.
31:55Now, we've been talking about debris and po'boys.
31:58I do not see the word po'boy or debris on this menu.
32:01And yet, that's what we're having.
32:03And that's what they're famous for.
32:04There's a distinction between the New Orleans restaurants that are sort of gearing themselves toward tourists,
32:09which is saying, okay, sir, this is where you find the things you've read about.
32:13And they're saying, look, we're for the local people, because you come here once a year.
32:17So, this restaurant is not a tourist mecca.
32:22Lolis has ordered a full one.
32:25Me, I screwed the pooch with a half.
32:27Lovely.
32:28Did y'all eat anything else?
32:29No.
32:30I think we're good.
32:31All right.
32:32Y'all enjoy.
32:33Thank you so much.
32:34All right.
32:35Before anything, I gotta get a picture of that beast.
32:36Look at that thing.
32:37This is food for back to people working on the riverfront, doing physical labor.
32:42I cannot imagine doing this, eating this, and going back and sitting in front of the computer for a couple of hours and working.
32:48Mm.
32:49Mm.
32:50Mm.
32:51Oh, good lord.
32:52That's good.
32:53Yeah.
32:54The bread is toasted.
32:55With me, it's more of the fingertips.
32:58Your choice of bread is so important.
33:01There's mayo in here.
33:02Awesome, right?
33:03A little bit of overkill is a good thing here.
33:05Good po'boys are not hard to find in New Orleans.
33:08Walker's southern-style barbecue is home of the cochon de lae po'boy, or hickory-roasted suckling pig slathered with mustard slaw, which started out as street food during Jazz Fest but has now become a regular brick-and-mortar go-to.
33:22Or just grab some fresh seafood at Big Fisherman Seafood on Magazine Street.
33:27You'd get ready to eat boiled crawfish, shrimp, or crabs.
33:32Eat out front or right in the park.
33:34Lax drinking laws might well allow you to enjoy a fine local beverage while you eat.
33:39I'm happy with this debris.
33:41I begin to wonder whether or not the debris is what they put on the sandwich.
33:45Or whether it's what ends up on your plate.
33:47Exactly.
33:48One thing that we have here, and you don't have as much in other food cities, is a dialogue between the fine dining chefs and the regular cooks in places like this.
33:58It's weird, because they all eat this.
33:59Yeah, yeah.
34:00They all love it.
34:01They all refer to it in their food.
34:02They grew up on it, you know?
34:03How is everything?
34:04It's awesome beyond words.
34:06Wow.
34:07It is an earthly good stuff, man.
34:10Wow.
34:11Damn.
34:18Happy birthday, Louis Armstrong!
34:23Hello!
34:24My name is Jennifer Jones, and I'm the second line dance queen.
34:30One thing a tourist should not, drink too much.
34:36Tourists think, oh, we're in New Orleans, we can let it all fly out.
34:39And you drink too much and you forget what you're doing.
34:41You wouldn't do that at home.
34:42And what we do in New Orleans is we take breaks.
34:45Go home, take a shower, start over, and come back.
34:47This is a 24-7 town in terms of drinking.
34:50You want to have water after each one of consciousness.
34:53Be moderate.
34:54That's my tip.
35:01I'm a pretty loyal guy.
35:02When I fall in love, I fall hard.
35:05And even if we part, years later, there's still, chances are, love in my heart.
35:10And my love for this place, dimly but fondly remembered from years ago, will last forever.
35:17When I went there last, they had a legendary industry people, you know, restaurant industry
35:21people drink for free if they're naked.
35:24Really?
35:25Yeah.
35:26If you dropped your clothes at the door, we're not talking about an attractive bunch of people
35:29either, you know, cooks or blind cooks, off-duty.
35:32Well, when you go in there, usually you need your sunglasses, because when you're coming
35:35out, it's usually sunlight.
35:37Most cities, a place like that would never survive, you know.
35:41The neighborhood, or somebody would have figured out a way to shut it down.
35:45Snake and Jake's, where it's Christmas every night of the year.
35:49Official hours are 7 p.m. to 7 a.m., but anything can happen.
35:5321 is way too young for this place.
35:56Bartenders have been known to pass out.
35:59Customers blacking out is pretty much the norm.
36:02I love the place.
36:03It's a national treasure.
36:05How are you doing, man?
36:06Donald and Steven join me for a beverage or two.
36:09It begins.
36:10I'll have what he's having.
36:12I think maybe a Jaeger shot.
36:18After our own heart.
36:20Yeah.
36:21Nothing has changed, Bill, for 11 years.
36:24This is clearly a menace to society.
36:27That's why I haven't been here in a while.
36:30I'm too old for this.
36:31You know, this is what cocaine teaches a person.
36:34You know, if you hear the birds cheeping as you head home, or as you're laying in bed,
36:40you've made a basic mistake.
36:42Cheers.
36:43To survival.
36:45Cheers.
36:51When I first came here, I asked Tony, who was, I guess, that then partner, when do you close?
37:01And he said when she passes out.
37:04And I believe she did.
37:06Just suddenly, the eyes rolled up in her head.
37:09And, but it was late, you know.
37:13For the first time in recorded history, I plan to leave this place in a state of verticality.
37:17This will be my first time today.
37:19All right.
37:20So, kingpin?
37:21Kingpin.
37:22At some point, we wisely decide to adjourn to the kingpin before something truly awful
37:28happens.
37:29Watch the saints on TV, play a little shuffleboard, everything will be fine.
37:34Oh, I needed that.
37:37I'm liking your air conditioning a lot.
37:41So, why this place?
37:43To me, this bar is just right.
37:45When you look at New Orleans bars, you've got the tourist bars, you've got the college
37:52bars, and then there's not much left for the locals.
37:55Right.
37:56You need a little place for yourself.
37:57You need a place for yourself.
37:58And I think this bar is a place for us.
38:00Right.
38:01So, if you're watching this on TV, and you're planning on behaving in a douche-like fashion,
38:07this would not be some place you should come.
38:10That's really the beauty of, like, drinking in New Orleans.
38:13People, like, outside of the French Quarter, just really don't tolerate douchey drinking
38:19activity.
38:20If you're a , they'll chase you out.
38:23Of course, we could have gone bowling, but after Snake and Jake's, that didn't seem
38:28like a good idea.
38:29At Rock and Bowl, you can dance, drink, pray, listen to live music, and oh yeah, bowl.
38:35Zydeco is the focus, but all sorts of bands play here.
38:39Something that's missing from my life, actually, is I need, like, an old man bar.
38:44Like, a place where I can go drink at, like, 4 o'clock in the afternoon in my neighborhood.
38:48A respectable gentleman of my years can enjoy an anonymous beer with a bunch of elderly
38:55alcoholics who don't give a who I am.
38:58I don't have this in my life.
38:59I need this in my life.
39:00But this is like an old man bar, I feel.
39:01The better.
39:02It's a middle-aged bar.
39:03A middle-aged bar.
39:04It's like the bar I'm talking about, but you know, the customers still have bladder control.
39:09Which is important.
39:11Cheers.
39:12Cheers.
39:13Cheers.
39:14Cheers.
39:25New Orleans is your dream, and you don't even know it yet.
39:29It's like another country in the United States.
39:32The architecture, the music for me, I love the live music in New Orleans.
39:39Good times, great food, great music, and great alcohol.
39:44We're back.
39:45And not only are we back, but we're going to be the greatest city in the world.
39:48And I guarantee that.
39:49All right, tacos, gentlemen.
39:56Parked just outside Kingpin, and just when I need it, is one of the few food trucks in
40:02New Orleans.
40:03The superbly awesome Taco Loco, owned by Alex Del Castillo.
40:08Because they're protective of their restaurant culture, the city has made it tough on food
40:12trucks.
40:13There are strict rules on where they can and cannot sell.
40:17So even though just about every chef in town loves this place, and eats here regularly,
40:22they're here, and nowhere else, every Friday night.
40:26Already named one of the top 20 food trucks in the nation by Smithsonian Magazine, Taco
40:32Loco has a creative sounding menu of shocking deliciousness.
40:35I'm going to go with the south in your mouth.
40:37I'm comfortable with ordering them.
40:39South in your mouth is what Lynyrd Skynyrd used to suggest to groupies, I thought.
40:43But no.
40:44Pork belly taco with maker's mark chipotle and charred jalapenos.
40:47And we have our homemade habanero over there if you like it really hot, but wash your
40:52dance before you pig.
40:53Right.
40:54Yeah, that's a lesson I learned early.
40:57Donald gets the messin' with Texas.
40:59Smoky shreds of brisket with fresh cabbage, radish, and cilantro.
41:03Amazingly delicious.
41:04Yeah.
41:05Some people are like, are these traditional Mexican?
41:07We're like, no, this is New Orleans in a taco shop.
41:10And I have also to try woke up in Oaxaca with eggs, chorizo, and cheese.
41:15Wow, that's incredibly delicious.
41:17That would be my everyday.
41:19The Texan would be my drunk ass.
41:22Early in the evening, in a state of relative sobriety, I would eat this.
41:27We could, of course, have gone over to the Clover Grill on Bourbon Street, a retro-style
41:32diner serving up burgers and eggs with hash browns.
41:36Locals seem to love it.
41:38But I'm happy here, even with the reptiles.
41:42Oh, look, your little brother's right here.
41:48Well, you were single-handedly a persuasive argument for the food truck as a source of
41:53enlightenment.
41:54Really, really, no , really, really delicious.
41:58Well, gentlemen, I think we've learned something tonight.
42:01We've learned that it is possible to make it through a night of savage drinking and eating
42:06and still leave with a little dignity.
42:17New Orleans is a glorious mutation.
42:19The South, but not quite the South.
42:22America, but weirder and more fun.
42:25It's where so much that is good and glorious and unique about America was born.
42:30Unlike anywhere else, it sounds different, behaves different, tastes different.
42:36And like a great meal or a good bourbon, it's something to be savored.
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