Cafe du Monde - Beignets by the Square
Photo: JasonParis, CC BY 2.0 (cropped)
A stop on New Orleans French Quarter Walk, a free self-guided tour.
Your loop ends where many visitors' trips begin, at the green-and-white awnings of Cafe du Monde. This coffee stand opened in 1862 at the upper end of the French Market and keeps a famously short menu.
The star is the beignet, a square of fried dough buried under powdered sugar and served three to an order. The French brought fried dough to Louisiana, and New Orleans made the beignet its own. To drink, try cafe au lait, coffee blended with roasted chicory root and mixed with hot milk. Stretching coffee with chicory was a French habit that took hold here, especially when blockades and shortages made coffee scarce during the Civil War.
Find a table, watch the street musicians and the mule carriages along Decatur Street, and try not to wear too much sugar. Across the street is Jackson Square, where you started, so you have come full circle through three centuries of the Quarter.
Getting here: Walk upriver through the market along Decatur Street until the green-and-white awnings appear across from Jackson Square.
Did you know?: After Hurricane Katrina, Cafe du Monde reopened on October 19, 2005, and its return was celebrated as a sign the city was coming back.
Photo op: From the sidewalk on Decatur Street, frame the striped awnings with the cathedral spires rising over Jackson Square in the background.
More on Wikipedia: Cafe du Monde · Beignet · Chicory
Stops on this tour
- Jackson Square - The Old Parade Ground
- St. Louis Cathedral - Three Spires on the Square
- The Cabildo - Where Louisiana Changed Hands
- Pharmacy Museum - America's First Licensed Pharmacist
- Royal Street - Galleries, Ironwork and Street Music
- Preservation Hall - Jazz in a Plain Room
- Congo Square - Where the Drums Kept Sunday
- Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop - A Legend in Brick and Timber
- Old Ursuline Convent - The Quarter's Oldest Survivor
- Old U.S. Mint - Coins, Then Jazz
- French Market - Two Centuries of Trading
- Cafe du Monde - Beignets by the Square