Annie Clements Music

What to do in New Orleans

Posted on 22. Jul, 2010 by annie in Notebook, Uncategorized

Me on Mardi Gras day, 2006

I get tons of emails from people asking about cool places to visit and great restaurants to check out while in New Orleans so I felt it prudent to simply compile them in a blog for general reference. It’s hard to be a tourist in your own home town so I’m just including links to the stuff that I like to do when I’m home. You should probably do a swamp tour, riverboat tour, cemetery tour, eat some crawfish, etc…

Ok, here we go!

Restaurants (in cool neighborhoods that you should explore)

Adolfo’s -Located in The Marigny

Le Crepe Nanou -Uptown

Cote Sud – Riverbend

Cafe’ Degas – Mid city

Port of Call – French Quarter

Bars/Music Venues

The Chillun’s at Tipitina’s, Jan. 2010

Tipitina’s - Uptown. This is where I play every year with the Chillun’s. Considered New Orleans’ premier music venue.

Snug Harbor – The Marigny. Great jazz. A real listening room. Great food as well.

Mimi’s in the Marigny – The Marigny. Relaxed, lounge atmosphere. My dad plays here on Sunday nights with Gal Holiday and the Honky Tonk Review. Killer spot.

Rock and Bowl – Uptown. Bowling and live music. So much fun, good food too. I had my 18th birthday here. And yes, I was the house band at my own birthday party.

The Maple Leaf – Classic New Orleans bar, live music. Located uptown in the Carrolton area. Same bar where scenes from the movie “Ray” (the Ray Charles movie) were filmed.

Carrolton Station – Uptown/Carrolton. Played this bar a lot when I was a kid. My dad’s band Twangorama plays here a lot. Great atmosphere, great music.

The Circle Bar - This is my uncle Dave’s bar. Located downtown on Lee Circle. Dark, vibey atmosphere, I played here a lot with Davis Rogan, the inspiration for Steve Zahn’s character on HBO’s “Treme.”

Snake and Jake’s Christmas Club Lounge – Another establishment of Uncle Dave’s, this is a local favorite hole in the wall bar uptown. Don’t show up here until around 2 am. That’s when the party gets started.

Things to do:

Walk up and down Magazine Street – Daytime boutique shopping, restaurants, tons of fun!

The Marigny/Frenchman Street – Super cool neighborhood adjacent to the French Quarter. So many great music venues. This is the new scene and the place to be at night.

Decatur Street - Shopping and eating in the Quarter without all the madness of Bourbon Street. This is where I did all of my vintage/thrift shopping as a teen.

Walk around The Garden District - Beautiful old New Orleans architecture and cemeteries. A lovely, relaxing way to take in the charm of New Orleans.

Of course this is just scratching the surface of all the wonderful things to do, see, and eat in New Orleans. Feel free to follow up with comments about any of your favorite spots! Enjoy exploring this wonderful city!

Tags: Annie Clements new orleans, sugarland bass player