Why Are Hats So Popular in New Orleans?

Promoting colored straw fedoras all over the city

Last episode, I promised to provide an online tour of the statues that are in the Poydras Street neutral ground, and I know that regular readers who follow this blog have been sitting on the edge of their futons waiting to read my modern public art critique.  Sorry to disappoint, as we sometimes do here on the 2200 block of Esplanade Avenue.  Just read our reviews.  

If you don't mind, not that you have any choice in the matter, I'd like to pause in our overall narrative arc, such as it is, to discuss the popularity of hats in New Orleans.  You'll see a lot of men wearing hats if you come to visit.  You'll see a lot of women wearing hats, too, but men in New Orleans love hats.  Your humble narrator is one of those.  I always wear a hat.

We had brunch at La Crêpe Nanou this afternoon and a couple came in who had dyed their hair the same color.  I didn't have my camera with me, and it would have been rude, anyway, to snap a pic of them, so I'll give you a picture of the outside of La Crêpe Nanou instead:

Yummy Yummy, North Carrolton Ave, New Orleans, La

Well, I looked through my files and I couldn't find the Crêpe Nanou pictures.  Here's a picture of the Yummy Yummy Chinese Restaurant on North Carrolton Avenue instead.  You'll have to use your imagination.  Pretend it's La Crêpe Nanou.  I wrote about La Crêpe Nanou a few weeks ago.  You can read that scintillating illustrated post here.  

The couple who had dyed their hair the same color looked like darned fools, if I can be excused for observing so.  I'm very accepting of eccentricity, being a crank, myself, but something wasn't working with the magenta hair pairing.  I figured one of them had bought the bottle of dye at Walgreens and there was plenty left over---why can't we both do it?  "---Sure, I love ya, baby."

Plenty of people look like darned fools sometimes, your humble narrator included.  That isn't something we should hold against anyone when we meet them.  Foolishness is something that needs to be proven.  Some people may be misguided, but that isn't a black mark against them, even if they have dyed their hair magenta in solidarity, or love, or mutual respect, or whatever tomfool I-Dream-of-Jeannie reason they might claim.

I said to Frau Schmitt that we should do that, dye our hair the same color.  This way people will know we're a couple, as if our wedding rings weren't proof enough.  Plus, it would be a kind of branding.  If our guests see somebody with hair of a color not found in nature (magenta) they would know they were bumping into one of their hosts.  The La Belle Esplanade Magenta Squad (TM)!!

"This isn't one of your best ideas," Frau Schmitt said, and she is usually right about these things.  She is especially right because it would be her walking around with magenta hair all day.  Me, I'd be wearing a hat.  I love to wear hats.  

For me, it would be like having the word 'KICK' tattooed on one buttock and 'ME' tattooed on the other.  Who would know?  It's not like I walk around New Orleans without pants.  It's the same way I wear a hat.  My hat covers my microencephaly.

A trio of jokers

When people ask me where to buy a hat in New Orleans, I always send them to Meyer the Hatter.  It is the oldest and largest hat store in the South.  The shop is on the first block of St. Charles Avenue, just off Canal Street.  They don't have the least expensive selection, only the best.  If you want to buy a flimsy cheap hat made in China, there is always the French Market at the end of our street.  If you want to buy a Mexican-made straw hat, of which I own one, there is a shop for that.  If you want a Goorin Brothers hat, there are two Goorin locations in New Orleans.  I can tell you where to go.  If you want a quality hat that will fit you, and suit you, and last you a lifetime: go old school.  Go to Meyer the Hatter.

Why are hats popular in New Orleans?  It isn't because people are ashamed of their bad dye jobs.  It isn't because most New Orleans men are bald either.  It's because people like to dress up in New Orleans.  This is a city that hews to tradition.  Nobody in New Orleans stopped wearing hats because JFK had a good head of hair.  They never stopped wearing hats.  When you look good, you feel good.  Everybody knows that.  Not everybody knows how to look good, but people who live in New Orleans know exactly how to do just that.  It's a way of life.  Je ne c'est quoi, bébé.   That's why hats are common in New Orleans.  They shade the eyes and enhance a person's profile and public persona.  

Why wear a hat in New Orleans?  Because that's what people here do.  When in New Orleans, forget your cares.  You may look foolish anywhere else, but you won't look foolish here.  New Orleans loves you.

À votre santé,

La Belle Esplanade bed and breakfast.

New Orleans Hotel vs. New Orleans B&B (Part IV)

2216 Esplanade Avenue, New Orleans

Today we reach the conclusion of the series of blog posts that many people have been waiting for us to conclude.  I can't blame them.  We like to save the best for last.  Then, we follow up with something else.  Life is good in New Orleans.

Our Iowa correspondent ended her list with one final comparison of what it is like to stay at the Hyatt in the Central Business District and La Belle Esplanade, what many people call: The most unique B&B in New Orleans (TM).  Who says that?  People.  The same people who are waiting for me to finish this series.

So, what is this last comparison?  Okay, I'll tell you:

Hotel:  Staff doing their job.

B&B:  New friends making you feel welcome!!

Sort of a damp squib of a denouement, don't you think?  I didn't add those two exclamation points.  She did it and she's right.  You have two friends in New Orleans.

Tammie the Housekeeper

We had a consultant visit us recently, a real expert in the hospitality field.  This guy knows his stuff.  He was passing through town and stayed with us for a night.  He was a nice enough chap and he didn't want to bother us, even when the smoke alarm battery was low in his room.  Every minute for a couple of hours:  Beep.....Beep.... Beep.  

I asked him, "Why didn't you call us?  Didn't I say that you aren't bothering us if you need to call?  Frau Schmitt and I are only fifty feet away, even if we can't hear the alarm going off."  He said he didn't want to bother us.  That bothers us. A guest's comfort is our primary concern.  We're professional innkeepers, after all.  The worst part is that I changed that battery last month.  Duracell isn't all it's cracked up to be.  

Anyhow, he pulled me aside on his way out to tell me, "Don't tell Frau Schmitt I told you this, but you two should teach classes on how to be professional innkeepers.  You two are what every innkeeper aspires to be.  You're good.  You're two of the best."  I promised not to tell Frau Schmitt but why he didn't want me to, I have no idea.

I have a pretty good idea why he told me the next thing.

He pulled me further aside and whispered, "Don't tell Tammie the Housekeeper this, but she's a housekeeper's housekeeper.  She's discreet and attentive to details.  She deserves a raise."

Believe me, I'm not telling Tammie the Housekeeper that, especially that last part.  

Tammie the Housekeeper is certainly discreet, though.  Even when she's supposed to be around, I don't know where she is half the time.  She's like a ghost.  I found her this afternoon reading a comic book in the dining room.  "Did you clean Le Pelican Suite yet?" I asked.

She looked up.  "I did it about a half hour ago," she answered before she went back to reading.  "Where do you get this old copy of The Brave & The Bold?" she asked.  It was the issue starring Batman and Wildcat---I know you don't care.

Sticker from Crescent City Comics on Freret Street, New Orleans

There's no point in lying.  I get them at Crescent City Comics on Freret Street.  They have boxes of old comics books, 20 for $10.00.  Most of them aren't worth reading, but the new ones are even less so and those cost three bucks or more for one.  Very, very few of our guests are interested in comic book shops, but when they are, I send them to Freret Street.  Nice guys.  Professionals.  I visit every two months or so just to check in.

No matter what you're looking for in New Orleans, remember, you have two friends here...and then there's Tammie the Housekeeper who you will probably never see.  There's something to be said for that.

Want to know what else that professional innkeeper told me when he pulled me aside?  He said, "This was the most unique breakfast I've eaten in months.  It's tops."  Then, he asked me for the address of the Buttermilk Drop Bakery where I got the donuts that morning.  It's a few blocks away from our house, on North Dorgenois Street.  They have a new website.

A votre santé,
La Belle Esplanade bed and breakfast.

Strange Adventures in New Orleans

Strange Adventures #147.  Copyright DC Comics

Sometimes, when I've got nothing interesting to read, I head Uptown to Freret Street to Crescent City Comics.  Like many nodes of vital activity in a big city like New Orleans, Freret Street is a place that mostly the locals visit.    

You can walk to Freret Street from St. Charles Avenue, but it is usually considered too far for tourists to venture.  If they stay at La Belle Esplanade bed and breakfast, guests take a complimentary bicycle and discover all sorts of things.

I rode my bicycle up to Crescent City Comics yesterday and I was looking through the old comic books they have for sale.  I saw Strange Adventures #147 and the top of the cover caught my eye.  Look closely: "An Atomic Knights Adventure...The King of New Orleans!"  Who could resist?

Here is the splash page of that epic story:

It isn't odd to see people dressed as either knights or cowboys in the Vieux Carre

To make a 16-page illustrated story even shorter, I'll just tell you that the Atomic Knights go to New Orleans where all the doctors have been hypnotized and jazz music has been outlawed.  In New Orleans!?!  Someone has to set the world aright.  Call in the Atomic Knights.  They wear suits of armor down Bourbon Street and are pursued by villains dressed as cowboys.  Nobody does a double-take. 

I provide this link to provide a description of this issue and its heroes.  The Atomic Knights fought crystal monsters and sentient plants.  Their most challenging mission, however, was bringing jazz back to New Orleans.  I am not going to let the cat out of the bag.  You can scroll down the linked page to find out how they rescue the brainwashed physicians.  As usual, the spirit of New Orleans saves the day.  If the Atomic Knights hadn't done it, somebody else would have.  Every day has a reason to join a second line parade.

Speaking about Crescent City Comics, located at 4916 Freret Street, down the street from Dat Dog and Midway Pizza in one direction, and Ancora Pizzeria and the High Hat Cafe in the other direction, the staff here is professional and friendly.  You don't need to be a comic book geek to gain admission.  

We've been to a few comic shops in New Orleans.  This one is the best.  If you are thinking about staying in New Orleans, stay at La Belle Esplanade bed and breakfast.  We'll give you a bicycle and we'll give you directions to Freret Street.

The French Quarter is surrounded by a big, plump city ripe to deliver the stuff of which good memories are made.  If you are in town and looking for a graphic novel about New Orleans, you don't need to shop on Amazon.  You can visit a real, freindly brick-and-mortar comic shop.

A votre sante.