Some places I like: La Madeleine French Bakery (547 St Ann St) A great French bakery located in an old ice cream parlor. Get a tart or whatnot, and sit around and drink coffee. A good long walk from just about anywhere. Mother's (401 Poydras St) A great and inexpensive Po Boy with charming (if you're a tourist) service. In the CBD, across the street from the W hotel, only about 2 blocks from your hotel, IIRC. The best bread pudding I've found, anywhere, and they give you like a pint to an order. Herbsaint (701 Saint Charles Ave) Also in the CBD. Great French-Creole food, try the Duck Confit or for a snack the Charcuterie Selection. The chef there was sous chef at Bayona for a long time, and I think Susan Spicer owns the place. (See below) Bayona (430 Dauphine) A block or so away from Bourbon, this is one of my favorite restaurants in the USA. Definitely get the sweetbreads, the black bean cake, and the quail salad. Go here for dinner. I can't get enough of chef Susan Spicer's cooking. Also, any of Emeril's restaurants are excellent, just try to ignore the obnoxious Emeril groupies. Finally, I hear Peristyle (1041 Dumaine St) is awesome, but I won't be there until the end of November, but I can report after that. Note that if you want jambalaya, gumbo, blackened XYZ ("cajun food"), you should go someplace like K-Paul's Louisiana Kitchen (416 Chartres). If I were you, I would cancel my reservation at Brigtsen's and make it Bayona instead. It's romantic, charming, and utterly scrumptious. They have a website here.
