Author name: La Belle Esplanade

What makes New Orleans so enticing in summer?  It’s my favorite time of year.  I live in New Orleans.  If I was going to visit, I would come in July or in August.  The New Orleans year may revolve around Mardi Gras, and a highlight is the Jazz and Heritage Festival, but, if you want […]

The Sidney and Wanda Besthoss Sculpture Garden is in City Park, at the end of Esplanade Avenue. It is a short, picturesque stroll from La Belle Esplanade. The work is world class. There are artists that you’ve heard of. A visit to the sculpture garden is a nice way to wile away a morning or

For as long I have lived in New Orleans, I have been in the hospitality business, welcoming and explaining this wonderful city we call home to visitors from around the world. In all these years, no one has ever said they came to New Orleans to go to IHOP.   It may be possible for

Betsy’s Pancake House is the kind of breakfast and lunch counter frequented by tradesmen and the President of the United States.  Betsy has since passed away, R.I.P.  The restaurant opens at 5:30 AM, before the sun comes up.  As I write this at 5:48 AM, there are three policemen, a plumber, two linemen, a secretary,

I was walking down Esplanade Avenue, in the 2200 block to be exact. It is the merry month of March. It is 80 degrees. Next month, night herons will be nesting in the oak trees on the next block. The rhythm of the year rolls on. Jazz Fest is coming. Laissez les bon temps rouler.

When something is Uptown, there is its equivalent Downtown. It is hard to find a good bagel in New Orleans.  Uptown, on Freret Street, there is Humble.  Downtown, at 457 North Dorgenois Street, Is Flour Moon Bagels.  When you are in New Orleans, go to Flour Moon.  It is a ten minute walk from our

The perennial question: What is New Orleans, exactly? It is hard to put into words. It is best experienced to be known. New Orleans is a kaleidoscope of color and sound, flavor and scent, sense and sensibility. New Orleans is a city where good memories get made every day. Sit on a bench. Sit in

There is no place more American in America than New Orleans, this most francophile of cities. Nineteen million people visit New Orleans in a year, most of them Americans. An America without New Orleans would not be America at all. It would be something else. The country would have too many cares. The real world

There is no resisting the chicken at Manchu Chicken, officially the Manchu Food Store. Nobody calls it that. Yats stop at Manchu Chicken on their way home. Most Yats work in the city and live in da Parish. They are Chalmations. It is always busy at the Manchu Chicken on North Claiborne Avenue. Especially at

I am watching the city shuffle its way into the present tense.