3 Questions about New Orleans

A house on Esplanade Avenue, New Orleans

We run a New Orleans bed and breakfast inn right in the middle of Esplanade Avenue, equidistant between the French Quarter and City Park.  One of the first questions people always ask us is, "Which way is the French Quarter?"  It is riverside out our front door, about 20 minutes by foot, in the direction of the traffic light on North Miro Street.  

As one of our guests told me this week, the traffic light means go. "When you pointed toward the Quarter, I saw the green light," he said.  "We just followed our nose and ended up at Cosimo's."

One of the second questions people like to ask is: "Is this neighborhood safe?"  We have always found it to be.  We think of our block as more operatic than ominous.

2216 Esplanade Avenue

In a city with a long history of deferred maintenance and picturesque decay, if you aren't from around here, you may be put off by some of New Orleans' streetscapes.  We felt the same way when we first moved here.  

Prior to Katrina, our neighborhood was home to 8000 people.  We currently have 4000 neighbors, give-and-take.  Everywhere you go, there are still a lot of empty buildings in New Orleans.

A sign on Esplanade Avenue

Even if it doesn't always look it, there are plenty of full buildings, too.  Few things are as they appear here.  You will see some things so beautiful that they will break your heart.  You will see other things that will break your heart in another way.  Our neighborhood made a favorable impression on a certain French painter.  We live in Treme.  

Esplanade Avenue is a street that runs through and connects a number of neighborhoods.  Ours is the oldest black neighborhood in America, the birthplace of jazz.  It is home to Mardi Gras Indians and Social Aid and Pleasure Clubs.  It is home to good neighbors.  It is our home, too.

There is never a dull moment in our part of town.  Most of them, like our memories, are pleasant.  That's what it is what it's like to visit New Orleans.  It is also what it's like to live here.  

The third most-most-often asked question is: "Where do the locals eat?"  They eat at Mandina's on Canal Street.

You can't miss it after dark

If you go on a Monday, you'll see the Monday regulars.  If you go on a Tuesday, you'll see the Tuesday regulars.  If you wait for a table at the bar, you'll see the plaque that marks where the high water reached after the levees broke during Hurricane Katrina.  Look up.

Welcome to La Belle Esplanade bed and breakfast

From what we've heard, the water only came up to our front steps.  Esplanade Avenue runs along the city's high ground.  Our address is about three feet above sea level.

There are other neon signs in Mid-City.  One of them is on North Broad Street, a short walk from our house.

In business since Walmsey was mayor and Harding was president

One of our guests walked up to Mandina's for dinner and, as he was leaving, the maitre d' asked where he was staying.  "That isn't a safe walk back, after dark, down Canal Street, right on North Broad Street, and then right on Esplanade Avenue," the maitre d' said as he phoned for a cab.

We were walking back from Crescent City Steaks when his cab passed by.  He waved, then he asked the driver to let him out.  We walked together the rest of the way home without incident except for saying hello to the people sitting on their front porch on Governor Nicholls Street.  

Is the neighborhood safe?  Overall, we have to say yes.  Our guests tend to agree after they stay here.

A votre sante,
La Belle Esplanade bed and breakfast.