A New Englander Moves to New Orleans, Chapter Nine: The Coffee House Hunt

[earlgreytea68]

I have been trying to find a café I like. This place is full of cafes, but I am very particular when it comes to cafes. First, there has to be some kind of acknowledgment of the fact that some people prefer tea. Second, there can’t be too many students in the place, because I don’t want a student coming up to me while I’m trying to edit a sex scene. Third, I have to feel comfortable being alone there and writing. Fourth, there should be an outdoor seating area, because I think most of the point of living here is that you can spend more than a couple of months outside every year.

I have been flitting all over the city trying to find a coffee house that fits these needs (there is no such thing as a tea house here, unless I want to drive something like 45 minutes, which is the entire width of my home state, so, no). I started with PJ’s on Maple Street. I loved it there, but it is way too close to school for comfort, so I decided to keep looking. I tried Community Coffee on Magazine, and the outside area was okay. It's right on the sidewalk, but I don't mind that. There’s enough foot traffic that it feels like you’re in a city, and I like that, but they are doing some kind of roadwork on Magazine, and the fumes are irritating. This place did get a plus for being within walking distance of my house.

I next tried Rue de la Course, also on Magazine and also within walking distance of my house. I didn’t really care for the food there and I felt like the place was expensive. Also, it wasn’t very cozy. The seats weren’t very comfortable, and it just didn’t give me a warm, fuzzy feeling inside. It was acceptable, but not great. Plus, they're cash-only. I really dislike cash-only places, especially now, because I haven't moved my bank account due to wishful thinking about being able to move back home in a couple of years. What this means is that I don't have access to an ATM. Period. So getting cash is kind of a pain and I appreciate places that let me do everything with plastic.

Next I tried The Orange Couch. This came highly recommended by the hairdresser I was using here and was in the Marigny, which is an area far enough away from the universities that I thought it more likely I might not run into a student there. I really didn’t like the place, though. First, it’s on a random side street in the neighborhood, and I didn’t feel quite safe. Second, it’s extremely sleek inside, and I don’t think cafes should be sleek. A friend of mine here, when I mentioned the place, said, "Oh, the IKEA coffee shop?" and YES. That's the perfect description of it! I know some people really like that IKEA look, but I have never been a fan, and I especially don't want it in my coffee shop. Plus, it’s one of those places where, if you’re not a regular, you have no idea what to order, and the people aren’t very friendly. There’s, like, no menu, unless you ask for one, and then I felt like I was being judged for needing a menu. But I don’t drink coffee! I need to see what the tea options are! This is not a tea kind of place. I tried the Thai iced tea, thinking for some reason it would be lemon-y. It was milky—the opposite of lemon-y—and, as I don’t usually put milk in my hot tea, I was thrown off by it being in my iced tea. I did have a scoop of whatever ice cream / gelato thing they were selling here, and it was good, but they were out of coconut, always my favorite flavor, and I should have seen that as an omen. (This was also the day I had to drive all over the city trying to find a Walgreen’s that sells monthly passes for the streetcar. I am the only person in this city, I think, trying to use the streetcar like it’s a subway.)


Then I tried La Boulangerie, which also came highly recommended, this time by many, many people. It's again within walking distance of my house, so that's a huge plus for it, but it has no outdoor seating at all. I thought the chocolate croissant was only just okay, suffering from that affliction that many chocolate croissants suffer from of not having enough chocolate. I had a cup of hot tea my first time here (I was waiting for my car to be fixed at the mechanic's next door, and it was a gross, rainy day, so I went with hot tea), and it was decent. Teabags, not anything unique, but good enough. However, I had an iced tea the second time I went, and they didn't have iced tea, they just had bottled iced tea, and I hate bottled iced tea because it always tastes sweet and fake to me. So that was the deathknell of La Boulangerie for me.

Finally, I tried The Bean Gallery (careful, the website has music, blargh), which is over in Mid-City. I ended up there in a convoluted fashion, which is that I was told Sandra Bullock frequents a bakery near City Park. If Sandra Bullock feels comfortable going there by herself, I figured that area was the area for me. I am always very sensitive to the fact that I do so much as a tiny, solitary woman here. A girl was carjacked at 4:15 in the afternoon right outside the building where I work. Another girl was mugged a street away from where I work at 8:15 in the morning. This is not a city where you let down your guard, ever. (In fact, this is kind of the type of city where, if I told my parents the sort of things that happen in it, they’d never let me live here by myself, even at the age of 31. So there are a lot of omissions that happen during calls home… Like the time there was a murder in the parking lot of my building the last time I lived here… And, I swear, I work and live in perfectly nice places! It’s just a little bit crazy here.) ANYWAY, I Googled “bakery City Park,” and then “café City Park,” and then “café Mid-City,” and eventually came upon The Bean Gallery. I liked its photos on its website: all messy bookshelves and inviting couches. It looked like the kind of place you could curl up and get lost for an afternoon. In short, it looked like my kind of place.

So I went. And I loved it. It’s a little bit ironic, because the last time I lived here I lived Mid-City and I never once tried this place. Now I made sure to live within walking distance of Magazine Street, and I find my ideal café in Mid-City. Ah, well. This place was very cozy. It was full of hipsters, so it reminded me of Cambridge. They have different flavored iced teas, so they're at least trying with the iced tea selection. They have a lovely outdoor area that’s nestled underneath live oak trees but is also right on a busy street, so that you feel like you’re in a city while you’re there, which I really like, while also having some charm, which I also really like.


In short, I am pleased with it. I haven't tried any of the food there yet, but it's been lovely for correcting papers and editing novels so far. It's a bit of a drive, but I use the streetcar to commute to work, so the car hardly gets used, so I figure it's not a big deal to run it every so often.


I did recently have recommended to me the Hey! Cafe. I find its website a tad bit overwhelming, and I have walked by this place on Magazine and never felt inspired to go in. However, they do have a loose tea selection (although it looks mostly herbal from the website) and it is within walking distance, so I'll give it a try.

Comments

[dudewithak.livejournal.com]

When I left Glasgow, the one thing that absolutely threw me for a loop was the difference in tea service. If a cafe has tea bags, at least make sure the water for the tea is damn near boiling (or whatever water temp is appropriate for the tea type.) Finally found a place here in Chicago which serves a full out tea service for $4 which includes water, tea, lemon, biscuits, cream, and sugar.

Good luck with your cafe hunt!

[earlgreytea68.livejournal.com]

Ugh, yeah, frequently they just make tea using coffee makers, which don't boil water, so the water never gets properly hot enough. That place in Chicago sounds AWESOME!