This is a continuation of a thread that guided me while there last week:

Espresso/coffee in Columbus, OH and New Orleans?

I'll start with Cafe Du Monde, an old favorite, and will make separate posts for La Divina Cafe e Gelateria and Spitfire Coffee. I didn't go to Cafe Du Monde for the coffee but looked forward to the beignets and the atmosphere. I found the coffee mellow, fresh and drinkable and added a couple of packs of sugar to enhance its fruitiness, but there were few distinct flavors. I'm sure this coffee would have been better served as their traditional cafe au lait, but when you're in New Orleans some "harm reduction" is necessary to control fat intake.

The beignets come in a plate of three. They're light with a wonderful moist texture and buttermilk flavor, and they aren't greasy. There's no way to eat these without getting powdered sugar all over yourself. I had to restrain myself from ordering a second plate. And yes, there's a bite missing.



Here's the menu on their napkin dispenser. I ordered my coffee served in a souvenir cup, which is quite reasonably priced.



I got there at around 6:30 on a Saturday morning. Pardon the blurry photo, but this place is much more intimate during off peak hours.



Mid-day on Sunday the line extended outdoors about 50 people deep. Here's an early morning shot of the exterior before they open up the outdoor seating.

I didn't do an extensive coffee crawl of the city, but did try La Divina Cafe e Gelateria in the French Quarter. Later we found another of their shops on Magazine Street in the Garden District. Divina in the French Quarter was my favorite espresso there. It's sweet and milk chocolatey. The place is quite attractive and they have exceptional sorbets. Here are some photos:







They sell their espresso beans.



These are roasted for them by Specialty Coffee LC.



They have a fun mural of local literary legends.



Here's an explanation of the mural:



I enjoyed their pumpkin bread pudding, which had a home-made taste to it and wasn't greasy, but it wasn't the traditional bread pudding I tried elsewhere.

Just a couple doors away is Spitfire Coffee, which looks more like a serious third wave establishment. It's smaller and tastefully set up. The barista there was happy to talk about coffee. I found the espresso similar to Sightglass in San Francisco, and might have preferred a more ristretto shot to emphasize sweetness.



Their espresso was served in a steel cup.









I enjoyed their sign aimed at hung over revelers:

Although we dined at several fine restaurants,* I was surprised and delighted to find about five coffee selections at Emeril's, and I'm not talking about flavored coffees but different origins and roast levels. Their coffee menu isn't featured online and I didn't photograph the menu card. I didn't want to add another $5.50 to our bill for decaf but did share this banana cream pie for dessert. It looked great but I would have liked a bit more intense flavor and creamier texture.




* Since people will ask, these places were all splendid. Our favorite was K-Paul's for dinner and for their delicious, reasonably priced deli lunch menu that included healthy salads. Of course for dinner we enjoyed their paneed veal, fried oysters and almond crusted drum (fish) with their signature breads that included a jalapeno cheese roll. They were able to pair our dishes with excellent wine selections by the glass.



These other places were right up there with K-Paul's. Muriel's served the most fantastic bouillabaise I've ever tasted. I had a wonderful roast duck breast dish there. On our first night we dined at Irene's as walk-ins and enjoyed their soft shell crab with pappardelle pasta in a creamy and garlicky crawfish sauce and almond crusted drum, as well as salads and bruschetta, finishing with a chocolate mousse dessert.

Our final dining experience there was at Emeril's where I found the special dishes inventive although not as highly flavored as in the other three restaurants mentioned above. The servers had been trained to be friendly and attentive but they were a bit rigid in their routine and the delivery of each course to our table was surprisingly slow.

Of course I'm writing this restaurant description during my first day of a fasting diet after returning home. This is a bit difficult to do, as you can imagine!

Great photo tour Gary! Sounds like there's some tasty places to hit.

I am from New Orleans and I can tell you that until about the past year there were no third wave coffee shops. Nola is not an espresso town. It has a totally different vibe. It's slow, so espresso doesn't really make sense. Cafe du Monde makes sense. There are very few local third wave establishments but I can help you with finding some of the better known shops:

Fairgrinds Coffeehouse - cool theme, near the Fairgrounds off Esplanade
Morning Call - oldest coffee house in the area, basically the same as Cafe du Monde but never grew, located in Fat City
Orange Couch - located in the Marigny, closer to a third wave shop. I like this place.
Mojo - near where you are on Magazine Street
Brigade Coffee - they have a Citroen H-type Van and serve a lot of the movie sets. The van is often on Magazine Street near the Gourmond Bros hat shop, or you can find it via twitter and Facebook. They are 3rd Wave.
Neutral Grounds - near where you are
Sprudge has been highlighting another shop that sells espresso and donuts and is located on Magazine, but I can't remember the name. They just opened.
Angelo Brogatos - located on Carrolton in mid city, oldest Italian bakery in Nola, also has espresso along with some really great treats.

There are many other shops, but most are too new for me to know well.

mmmmm, soft shell crab (drool). No gumbo?
I was born & raised in Southwest La. (Lake Charles, south of I-10 ). I remember that anybody's house you visited would have a pot of dark roasted Community Coffee on (sometimes in a French porcelain pot sitting in a pan of hot water on the stove). If not, there would soon be one (possible excommunication if not! ). I could only drink it with cream & sugar. I still get care packages from down there.
Thanks for posting this Gary!
BTW, if your ever going up I-85N towards Charlotte, my wife makes a mean pot of Gumbo!

@ Paul:

I forgot that I had gumbo at Muriel's. It wasn't the best I've had. I didn't go in for much gumbo in order to avoid all the fat in the roux. I've had/made some wonderful gumbo using the Court of the Two Sisters recipe book. Our hotel served Community Coffee and I found it drinkable, adding a bit of sugar made it nicer.

@ Damon:

Wish we were still there. Thanks for the extra places for others viewing this. We don't know the city well but on our last day there walked around the shops and restaurants on Magazine Street outside the French Quarter, in the warehouse and art district. That seemed like where you would find more businesses like a third wave cafe. Certainly Spitfire meets that description.

Mandina's

Wonderful report, Gary. Makes me want to go back. The biggest revelation, of course, was that people are awake at 6:30 am in N.O. who aren't in the emergency room.