Monday, March 25, 2024
Vacation day 7 of 9. In The Old 77. Breakfast in our room: cereal with milk, water to drink. I also ate a navel orange. Patrick and I walked to and visited Mardi Grad World. After the introductory film we received a pleasant surprise. While leaving we had to wait for a long train to pass. Then we walked to Dickie Brennan's Commissary (aka The Commissary Market + Kitchen) which to our disappointment we discovered was closed. We walked to Race Street and found the building where Patrick and Sam had lived. We stopped for rose limeade and greeting cards at Mojo Coffee House. We walked to lunch at Turkey and the Wolf, Bon Appetit's best new restaurant of 2017. We shared a fried bologna sandwich (leighann’s bologna, via’s mom’s hot mustard, potato chips, shrettuce, mayo, and american cheese on big toast) and a side wedge salad (bacon, everything bagel crunchy stuff, tomatoes, blue cheese dressing, fresh dill). The sandwich is tasty and very Instagram-worthy. The salad, also tasty, is drenched in blue cheese dressing and everything bagel topping. We loved everything. Root beer for Patrick, iced tea for me. We walked to Parish Parlor where Patrick got two kinds of ice cream: cardamom saffron and double chocolate. We returned to The Old 77 and napped before dinner at Pêche: gintilly shakedown (gin, rosemary, ginger, cucumber, lemon, cava) for me, the scarlet letter (rye, dry vermouth, aperitivo, benedictine, angostura) for Patrick, tuna crudo with miso, radish, shallots, and crispy rice; fried bread with sea salt; seafood gumbo; griller grouper with coconut-creamed greens and cauliflower. Dessert: salted peanut pie with salted peanut ice cream and chocolate sauce. During the meal we each received a glass of complimentary champagne for seemingly no reason at all. The shape of the fried bread—a small ball—was a nice surprise. We enjoyed everything, and Patrick particularly loved the salted peanut pie, which we agreed does not appear on menus that often. We returned to The Old 77 to brush teeth. We joined Felice P and Dave A, meeting the latter for the first time, at Mahogany Jazz Hall for an hour or so of drinks and a rousing performance by The Original Tuxedo Jazz Band.