My wife and I love New Orleans ! How could you not if you enjoy interesting food, live music and a ton of fun. We have been here a few times over the years and have been to lots of restaurants, cafes, eateries & live music venues. Our favorite is The Maison because it has it all. My wife and I were staying in a duplex in Marigny a few years back and walked over to Frenchmen St. to check things out and found this great live music venue. We decided to have dinner and catch some live music.
We scored a front row table not far from the stage just inside the entrance. A large 8 piece Jazz combo called The Smoking Time Jazz Band commenced playing soon after we sat down. The white female singer was incredible with a voice like Billie Holiday. We ordered our dinner dishes from a very attentive server named Stephanie and I grabbed a cold beer at the bar. We loved the band so much we bought 2 of their cds.
Their lovely singer Sarah Peterson even signed an album for us. Diners were up dancing the entire time this band played their mostly Dixieland jazz style set. We enjoyed our meals very much and my Abita beers tasted fine. The live music continued with a Motown Revue in another area which was fantastic ! We stuck around til after 10 pm and had a real fun time. We loved it so much we came back a few nights later and did it all over again.
New Orleans wants to feed you and entertain you ! A few years later we arrived in town to catch a Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers concert and we stayed a few nights at a quaint historic place called the Maison Dupuy Hotel in the heart of the French Quarter. It was great ! It’s the evening after the fabulous Tom Petty show and we are having dinner once again at The Maison. A young all male trio called Chicken & Waffles was playing to a packed house.
Seating at a table was a lot harder to find this time but we got settled on a couple of bar stools at a table near a wall and enjoyed the music. A sweet server named Alex took out order for 2 serves of Crawfish Etoufee and I chose a Bell’s Two hearted Ale IPA. Our meals came out fast and tasted just fine. I had a couple of beers and we thought it was time to move on as we had an early flight home to San Diego in the morning.
My wife and I walked out of the front entrance and immediately heard some cool guitar playing across the street. Of course there is always music going on in the streets of New Orleans and that is half the fun ! We walked over and stood near a few people watching a cool dude with a cap on playing in the style of the famous Chicago bluesman Hound Dog Taylor. I asked the guy to play Give Me Back My Wig and he did. Turned out this guy was 19th Street Red and I bought his album Street Dog. What a great way to end our fun stay in New Orleans ! So if you find yourself in Frenchmen St. one day makes sure you check out The Maison !
