I spent several days early this past April in the city of New Orleans, one of my favorite places in the southern United States. I stayed at an AirBnB for the first time and this was also the first time I was able to explore more of the city outside of the French Quarter and Bourbon street. Since I was visiting with two of my male friends, I was able to get assistance to visit a lot of otherwise inaccessible places. But most of all I ate some of the best meals of my entire life. I legitimately feel like you could eat three meals a day at different restaurants and spend months in New Orleans without getting bored.
So let’s get started with the bad news…New Orleans is not a very wheelchair friendly city. It’s not surprising given its history. It is one of the oldest cities in the United States (its older than the United States itself having been founded in 1713). In the French Quarter and surrounding areas a lot of the buildings are 150-200 years old and the style tends to be for buildings to have one, two or three stairs leading up to the entrance. The sidewalks and streets are torn up more than you’d expect with lots of cracks and gaps for a wheel to get stuck in.
With all that said, it’s still not that bad if you have the right equipment and some assistance. I used my freewheel literally every time I left my AirBnB and it helped a lot. Out of all the wheelchair toys I’ve gotten the last few years, the freewheel is definitely the most useful. All those torn up sidewalks and small curbs are nothing for a manual wheelchair with a freewheel. I imagine a power scooter would also work well. I would really try to avoid the sidewalks in any kind of manual or even power chair that wasn’t three wheeled (unless you enjoy falling on the ground, maybe it’s part of the charm of visiting Naw’lins).
The best part of New Orleans is how friendly everyone is to visitors and each other. Imagine Southern charm taken to a new level. People are happy to assist in whatever way they can so that you can come in their business and spend money.
If you stay in the right location like we did, it’s perfectly easy to simply walk everywhere. Parking and traffic is disastrous in the French Quarter so forget about trying to drive and park close to a restaurant. If you aren’t up for long walks then consider the public transportation which is remarkably accessible. All buses have lowered ramps. Most of the famous streetcars are also accessible with ramps on each side of the middle of the trolley (hint: red trolleys are modern and thus wheelchair friendly, the green trolleys are originals from the early 1900s and thus not accessible). Most taxis appear to be mini-vans with very friendly drivers who are happy to help store your equipment. And although I didn’t try it, New Orleans is one of the few cities operating with Uber Assist, the Uber service with drivers who are specially trained to assist disabled and elderly people.
AirBNB recently added new accessibility options to their search functionality. It lets people designate their homes with a variety of accessible features such as stair free entrances, wide entrance/bathroom/bedroom doorways, and disabled parking. While most users have yet to update their listings to reflect their true accessibility, it’s to the benefit of those who have. I was able to find a great accessible AirBnB unit in a condo building right outside of the French Quarter and had a really great first experience with AirBnB. While I still prefer the reliability of a hotel room, if you do your research, ask your questions, you can make use of AirBnB a lot easier now as a disabled person.
After getting to New Orleans on Thursday we immediately looked up a top rated restaurant nearby and found Three Muses, a jazz club on Frenchmen Street with modern upscale bar food. When it comes to accessibility, I have to give Three Muses about 1 out of 4 stars – there are multiple stairs at the entrance, the whole place is tiny and crowded, and you can forget about getting near the bathrooms. The one star they earn was lucky for them because with my friends help I was able to get in and enjoy the fabulous atmosphere and food.
We ordered a bunch of small plate food items – things like feta french fries with gremolata, creole tomato brochette, Gulf Sea Trout tacos with pickled jalapeno slaw, cilantro, & peanuts, beer braised pork belly, lamb & goat cheese sliders, and maybe the best tasting thing I’ve ever put in my mouth – dates stuffed with blue cheese, wrapped with bacon, and served with a balsamic reduction.
I also ordered a Sazerac, the official drink of New Orleans – rye whiskey, bitters, absinthe, and a sugar cube – and loved it. Its a super tasty alternative to a normal Old Fashioned.
Afterwards we found a Frenchmen Street coffee shop called CC’s. It hit the spot and had a nice atmosphere with a lot of kids playing chess. We made our way over to Rare Form, a bar with a great outdoor stage and courtyard setup.
We had some NOLA Beers and watched several songs by an amazing artist named Shawn Williams. I could have listened to Shawn and her band play all night. I ordered her CD after I got home and have been listening ever since.
Friday was spent wandering around the city. We found Cafe Maspero on Decauter Street and had calamari for breakfast. I had some white wine sangria that was amazing.
We walked around the Waterfront area and saw the the New Orleans Holocaust memorial in Woldenberg Park. We made it over to Jackson Square, the largest public park in New Orleans, as well as Lafayette Square and Louie Armstrong Park. I bought a painting of a UFO in the sky over Jackson Square from a local artist.
We went to Ray’s on the Avenue in the Treme district. It was seemingly popular with locals and I had a great fried shrimp po’boy. We had some cheap drinks and played pool at a bar in the gay district.
After resting awhile we went to Cajun Mike’s and I had some amazing gumbo with alligator sausage. Cajun Mike makes some great food, but his place is also about the size of a studio apartment, so don’t expect much wheelchair access. There are tables outside, however, so make someone else go inside to order.
Saturday morning we went to Hobnobber’s Cafe. We had tried to go the night before, but only found the bar. We didn’t realize that if you walk through the bar and down a hallway there is an interior restaurant with an amazing variety of original cajun dishes. I had the Hot Beef Poboy, shredded beef covered with gravy, and it was perfect. If I lived in New Orleans I think I’d be at Hobnobber’s several times a week.
After Hobnobber’s, we made it over to the New Orleans Convention Center where the Wrestlemania superstore was setup. They had thousands of every kind of WWE related merchandise you can imagine and it was tons of fun to just walk around and browse. I got a New Day Voody-O’s New Orleans style shirt along with some other toys.
After the convention center it started to become rainy outside, so we got pizza, talked to other wrestling fans, and went back to our room to rest for awhile. Around this time I also saw wrestler Jimmy Jacobs walking around. Since it was raining, we grabbed a mini-van taxi to take us back.
After resting and letting the weather improve, we headed back to Frenchmen Street in search of live music. We found a bar where Steve “Uncle” Yocum and the Catahoula Music Company were playing. The place was surprisingly not crowded for a Saturday night and we basically had our own private concert. I had some great jambalaya and a couple more NOLA beers.
Sunday morning I dragged everyone to a Starbucks inside a hotel so that I could get a flat white. Those things are so addictive. We made our way over to Rampart Street and found Central City BBQ, where you can literally get a metal tray full of different barbecued meats. Sauces are on the table, help yourself. It was totally no frills food, but amazingly delicious. Definitely try the sweet corn spoonbread. Its something between cornbread and a bread pudding. Enough said.
Sunday night was Wrestlemania at the Superdome. Getting to see a show in such a historical building was fun. It really is surreal being inside a building with such a large volume. Given the age of the building, now more than 40 years old, it wasn’t surprising that the accessibility features were minimal. There is only one accessible entrance to the building and that that leads to seemingly a single elevator. The elevator is also only accessed after going through back areas, past staff, and in this case even through the backstage WWE area. We got see “Broken/Woken” Matt Hardy right after he won the opening battle royal. He walked by and said “excuse me, gentlemen” as he went through the curtain. It took us forever to find our seats because the ushers had no idea where the accessible seats were. They even sent us back to the ticket office multiple times trying to claim our seats didn’t exist.
Despite all this we had pretty good seats, the show was fun, and we had a great time. The show ended on a hilarious note as the crowd brought beach balls out during the main event to entertain themselves. After the show, the crowd exited into the very rainy streets of New Orleans. Everyone was happy and excited after the show, but people all behaved well and the New Orleans police did an amazing job at keeping everyone safe in an unobtrusive fashion.
We walked around for a long time trying to find somewhere to eat, but it was impossible. Everywhere was packed. Even the Dominoes Pizza had a line out the door and around the block. Eventually we gave up and settled on just buying a bunch of snacks and booze at a convenience store. We went back to the AirBnB and I read through the various Wrestlemania reactions on Reddit.
Monday morning we walked around for a bit and found a great breakfast place, where we ordered a huge table full of breakfast food for seemingly only a few dollars. I wish I could remember the name of the place we went to, but I assure you there are dozens of similar places throughout New Orleans.
After breakfast we said our goodbyes and I hit the road back to Florida.
New Orleans has got to be my favorite place to visit in the United States. It’s the most culturally unique place in the country, where you can get food and music that hasn’t changed in a century. It represents a great metaphor for the history of the United States with its heart attack inducing amount of food options. I am very excited to return back for a visit soon and am thinking about even buying some property there in the future. How fun would it be to have a small vacation place in the French Quarter to visit a few times a year?
I bought a couple boxes of beignet mix and made a batch after I got home. Not too shabby!
