Hotel at a Glance: Catahoula Hotel

The Big Easy’s storied history goes all the way back to the 1700s, but inside the Catahoula Hotel its sleek, modern style reigns supreme. Housed inside a restored Creole townhouse, the original windows and exposed brick walls remain, but rooms have been updated with rainfall showers and flat-screen TVs. Little details from unique gold chandeliers to the funky mural in the atrium help this hidden gem exude hipness. But if it’s history you crave, no worries; the heart of the historic French Quarter is just a 15-minute walk away.

• Sip their specialties: The onsite bar serves boutique coffee all morning before switching to pisco-centric cocktails at night.
• Try this: The Coolest Kid in Class pairs chamomile-infused pisco with sherry, apples, and honey.
• Get your jolt from the light-roast coffee that’s a hallmark of the hotel for a morning cup of joe that’s crisp and bright instead of bitter.
• Flavors of Peru inspire the menu from its use of pisco to its ceviche and butifarra (peruvian ham) sandwiches.
• Daily deals include a happy hour at 4–7 p.m. and a rotating menu of drink specials that ranges from half-price bottles of wine to mix-and-match beer bundles.

New Orleans’s French Quarter: Let the Good Times Roll

“Stop thinking of New Orleans as the worst-organized city in the United States,” writes author Dan Baum in Nine Lives, his post-Katrina book. “Start thinking of it as the best-organized city in the Caribbean.” Some folks think there is something distinctly foreign about New Orleans, a place where people’s priorities seem inclined toward enjoying life and relishing the moment at hand. Nothing says it better than the town’s unofficial Cajun creed: “Laissez les bons temp rouler,” or “Let the good times roll.”

Historical buildings with intricate wrought-iron balconies line the narrow streets of New Orleans’s French Quarter. Here, street musicians often fill the air with jazz music, their trombones and tubas swinging back and forth. Just off the Jackson Square park and near the towering St. Louis Cathedral, the legendary Café Du Monde serves beignets under heaping piles of powdered sugar, as well as cups of iced or steaming café au lait.

And then there’s Bourbon Street, where neon lights advertise frozen cocktails and crowds gather along 13 city blocks. The nearby Frenchmen Street, just north of the Quarter, provides a slightly less touristy taste of New Orleans nightlife. Some of the city’s most popular live jazz and blues bars dominate this historic two-block district, with each venue hosting world-class musicians nearly every night of the week. Jazz fills the air at the Spotted Cat Music Club, where a sign warns that both drinks and drunks are barred from the piano—but like all rules in New Orleans, it’s one that’s bound to get bent from time to time.

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