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Tags: Clean Streets / Ray Nagin / French Quarter / Travel News / → All Tags
Near Miss For French Quarter Cleanliness
If you're planning a trip to Mardi Gras in New Orleans this year, make sure to inhale the streets deeply. We're not putting you on: That's the sweet smell of seduction, and you are the one being seduced.
City officials recently amended a 2009 budget passed in December in order to continue what the New Orleans Times-Picayune called a "Disney-like" cleaning service that clears debris from and pressure-washes the much touristed French Quarter. In 2006, the city plunked down $8.9 million for a seven-year contract to clean the Quarter and another downtown district with private company SDT Waste, money Mayor Ray Nagin couldn't find in his cash-strapped coffers--especially with a spending freeze after Hurricane Gustav.
In the ensuing uproar after Nagin ordered SDT to stop working at the end of January, the New Orleans City Council reached a compromise which will keep the company working at least until October. But it's a testament to the outsize importance of NOLA's tourism industry--or at least our expectations--that every place we visit be neat and tidy. New Orleans is willing to cut back in other areas for now to keep people coming, but it's a trade-off that can't continue forever.
Related Stories:
· City Council Reaches Deal to Keep Enhanced Sanitation Services [New Orleans Times-Pic]
· No Cash for Trash? French Quarter May Stink Again [AP, via Yahoo!]
[Photo: SamHindman]
Tags: New-Orleans-Field-Trip / Restaurants / French Quarter / Jaunted Field Trips / → All Tags
Jaunted in New Orleans :: Iris
Even though my hotel was smack in the middle of the French Quarter, I trucked out to Carrollton to have dinner at Iris restaurant. Chef Ian Schnoebelen was just named a Food & Wine Best New Chef, and 20-minute cab ride or not, I was gonna try his grub.
The restaurant itself is set in a cozy home just off Carrollton Ave., and the dining room is quite simple: green paint, a mirror, a chalkboard and a small bar are pretty much the sum of the decor. A few tables are outside on a small porch, but you'd have to be southern to stand the humidity out there.
I started things off with a basil blood orange martini and an amuse of red Russian kale and a mussel. Pristine. The menu for the day was lengthy, with eight first courses, two soups, three salads and nine entrees. Though everything looked good, I picked the veal sweetbreads with baby leeks, sunchokes and mushroom-sage jus to start. For a main, I went with a duck breast served with Napa cabbage, Spanish chorizo, olive jus and honey.
After stuffing all that food down, I didn't have room for dessert, which is too bad. Chef Schnoebelen definitely deserves his Best New Chef title.
Related Stories:
· New Orleans Field Trip [Jaunted]
· Hotels in New Orleans [HotelChatter]
· Iris restaurant [Official Site]
