Friday, March 27, 2026
Day 3 of 6 of Saints and Sinners Festival in New Orleans with Patrick. Patrick and I walked to breakfast at Cafe Beignet. Patrick had an order of beignets and a latte. I had a breakfast sandwich on croissant with a chai latte. The beignets seem larger than we remember on our last visit here many years ago. The beignets here taste different than at Cafe du Monde. Not wrong, just different. Patrick was too full to finish his third beignet. My meal was delicious, filling, and the correct temperature. We sat outdoors. A saxophone busker played on the sidewalk just beyond the fence. Back to the hotel. Rested. Patrick dropped off copies of his books with a bookseller and chatted briefly with Tracy C. We registered for the festival then returned to the room. Patrick attended a pitch meeting with a publisher. I visited the sunny pool and sat poolside reading the festival guide and my journal notes from our last visit to the festival in 2024. Returned to the room. Patrick had returned from his first pitch meeting, resting before his second. He returned from the second, and we walked to lunch on the sidewalk at Mr. Ed's Oyster Bar and Fish House. Patrick had unsweetened iced tea with a bowl of gumbo with rice. This was the first meal in the past two days that Patrick finished. We learned that Mr. Ed's is a small chain of restaurants in the French Quarter, all with different logos and brand styling. Afterwards we walked around just to walk, and we checked off a few other unvisited places on Atlas Obscura. Back to Hotel Monteleone. Rested. Walked to dinner at MaMou with the wooden mirrors reminescent of art nouveau and the probably-custom fluted red banquette and the ivory handle Laguiole steak knives. Drinks: la vie en rouge for Patrick, ginger cream soda (non-alcoholic) for me. We shared: salmon mi-cuit with dill, cucumber, and horseradish; risotto with shrimp, crab fat, and radish; bread service: pretzel batard with smoked butter, esplette, and herbs. The mi-cuit sauce is poured at the table. The two dishes we had were the most visually beautiful of all the dishes we ate on our trip and were also very delicious. Too full for dessert. Afterwards we walked to the SASFest opening party at Mr. Gregory's. We checked in at a side gate then did a U turn into a bar to get drinks then explored the bar's back patio and realized it was not connected to the garden where the gate was then returned to the gate and entered the garden. The event was well-attended. A tattoo artist and palm reader were working. A voodoo museum was adjacent and offered as part of the evening's activities but closed before we could visit. We encountered and chatted with Patrick's cousin Albert, Terence D, Timothy, Jim, Rodney, Dave A, Daniel L, Karl S, and more. Walked back to Hotel Monteleone. To bed.