A Whirlwind Tour around a Great Cocktail Town with Relatives

It is always fun to have guests come in town, although short visits are MUCH better than long visits - no hint to ANY relatives in particular, simply because you get to "be-bop" around town to many different places in a short period of time. Our trips this week ended up in almost every corner of town from uptown to Lakeview to the French Quarter and even a trip to the Marigny.

We started out the week hosting a party for a group and created what we think are becoming good brussel sprouts as we continue to attempt to recreate our favorite brussel sprouts in the city which reside at CowBell New Orleans. We are getting closer although Brack and Krista still have us beat on the overall presentation and flavor. We're using wine in ours these days(because you can never have enough wine) so we picked Cline Chardonnay. The chardonnay is less oaky than most chardonnays and since we visited the vineyard in the past, we highly recommend their selections.

It was off to the BullDog uptown for free pint day which is Wednesday. You purchase a pint of beer and you get to keep the glassware which makes it fun since there are many comical slogans on the pints including "Daddy's Medicine." You can get a sampler of several beers as well which makes it pretty easy to get a nice flavor taste without having to commit to a single beer.

Susan's Spicer's newest restaurant Rosedale is back on our radar. We have always loved happy hour there simply because the bartending staff are young, fresh and funny and make good cocktails as well. The good variety of small plates on the menu makes it easy to find just about anything that pleases everyone. The favorite table decoration is the collection of ceramic salt and pepper shakers that come in every form from hot dogs to puppies peeing on fire hydrants. We graciously added the fire hydrant puppy for your review.

Morning Call in City Park was our Friday choice and who knew you could get mixed drinks and even Irish coffee here now. Makes you kind of want to eat Beignets all day and never go home until you get carted off to the hospital because of your sugar coma. Note to self - NEVER wear black pants here EVER.

At some point we ended up at the New Feelings in the Marigny which features stunning cocktails from the Elvis bar on the first floor. The food was also spectacular but our favorite things about Feelings is the staff. They continue to be genuinely charming and steer you in the right direction for both cocktails and bites.