Saturday in New Orleans

(The KMZ map is here.)

Paris and I arrived in New Orleans this afternoon. As always, she's here for work, and I'm here for beer. This isn't really known as a beer town, but we'll see what I can find.

Canal Street

We stopped at Crescent City Brewhouse for a late lunch (catfish) and a quick beer (unfiltered Oktoberfest). Good stuff, better than I remember it, but still really pricey. I'll come back later this week to take more notes.

We met up with Paris' colleague Brian, a Birmingham native and lover of real ale who now lives in London. The St.Charles Streetcar took us across town to Cooter Brown's Tavern. Here you'll find some 40 taps and hundreds of bottled beers. There are even 20 or so that I haven't yet tried. I managed to tasted two each from Mississippi's Lazy Magnolia, Louisiana's Abita, and Lithuania's Rinkuškiai. (Pictures and notes to follow.)

Back on the streetcar for the five-mile ride to Canal Street, then a few blocks' walk up Bourbon Street to meet more of Paris' colleagues at Pat O'Brien's. Bourbon Street at night is less a street and more of a Schwemme.

Saturday night on Bourbon Street

I'm not a hurricane drinker; the bottled beer choices were Abita Amber and Miller Lite. Three Ambers were enough at that place, although at $4.50 a pop, they were the cheapest beers in town.

Well past midnight, Paris and I split from the rest of the group for a nightcap at Beer Fest. Hers was Abita Andygator, mine was NOLA Blonde Ale. Eight-fucking-fifty for a plastic cup of beer. Arena pricing without the inconvenience of a game.

Back at the hotel at 2:00am, setting the alarm for 9.