At 221 Camp, the International House Hotel is just a couple of blocks from Canal, meaning it’s easy walking everywhere — one night we walked over to 160+ year old Tujague’s (just a few minutes so Av could chat with the owner, who he knows, and is a Bama grad) before a late supper at Irene’s Cuisine, which in all this time we had never been to before, but now that we’ve been, did not have the same fabulous experience so many other people have there. No matter, we had a really great trip.
Very nicely, the gentleman who checked us in comped us a couple of drinks for the hotel bar, Loa. I had the Rosalie, which the menu describes (before actually describing):
Rosalie: Italian saints work overtime; seems they’re always between the Rock and a new hard place. Just as St. Joseph decimated drought she headed off plague in Sicily, and more recently vanquished an anthrax epidemic among the cows of Kenner, for which protection her clients are to this day grateful, toting her life-sized statue lovingly to her home-church at her festival each year.
Sparkling local kombucha, cucumbers, aperol, limoncello, brandy, tangerine, Peychaud’s bitters
The room was a nice size and comfortable, though not especially colorful or memorable — pretty greige.
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Actually the first night we were there (the boys were out of town on their own adventure) we had a celebratory supper at Root as Av’s company had just had a couple of big wins in the span of about a week.
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I was thinking that we might have a really long supper (we used to settle in to those booths when Root was back in the Warehouse District), but perched on these — I think they may be Tolix Marais or cousins — I think the idea is more to snack and go
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Almost always at home, I just drink water, but in New Orleans, if a cocktail looks interesting, every now and then I will indulge. This is vodka, basil, pineapple, oloroso, Mexican vanilla, and (this is what got me) champagne gummies, which…tasted like gummies. hahaha!
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As always, we made up a charcuterie board with some duck prosciutto, chicken liver pate, and a couple other items
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Av had the duck and grits which was amazing
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and I did the snack board: black mission fig (honey-whipped goat cheese, prosciutto), 62* egg (brioche, everything spice, chicken skin), salt cod beignets (pickled garlic aioli, parsley), pimento cheese (cheddar crackers), and wild boar sticky bun (Szechuan peppercorns). I love these little bites — just so much fun to be able to have one or two little bites of such different tastes.
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We had zero intention of getting dessert, but our server was just so friendly that after we were talking for a while and told her why we were celebrating, she insisted that they bring us a baked alaska, complimentary. It had fennel sorbet, pistachio custard, genoise cake, and herbsaint. So so so nice!
We only had a couple of bites but it was so appreciated.
If you’re thinking of making a galette de rois this season, my recipe for that is here.
