When it comes to visiting a new city, nothing beats getting recommendations from locals. Locals know which tourist spots are overrated, and know the spots you’ve never heard of (and never would have). On our recent trip to New Orleans, we got lucky enough to get picked up from the airport by an Uber driver who was a born and bred New Orleanian. Once she learned it was our first time in New Orleans, her eyes lit up.

So here it is. From breakfast to live music spots, here is the list of recommendations from a New Orleans local:

Breakfast/Brunch

☐ French Toast

☑ Cafe Beignet

☑ Ruby Slipper

☐ Up & Adam

☑ Drag Brunch at The Country Club

Other Meals

☐ Marrows (Sunday brunch or dinner)

☐ Daisy Dukes (24/7 breakfast lunch and dinner / really good wings)

☐ Nice Guys NOLA (brunch + lunch / great vibe)

☐ Neyows (creole)

☐ Atchafalya (creole)

☑ Acme Oyster House (oysters and seafood)

☐ Dragos (seafood/steak)

☐ Peche (seafood)

☐ Superior Seafood (great drink! and seafood)

☐ Fraddys (poboys / hot sausage)

☐ Parkway (shrimp poboy)

☐ Superior Grill (Mexican / really good margaritas)

☐ Cochon (good meats)

☐ Katie’s (something for everyone)

☐ Lil Dizzy’s (southern comfort food)

☐ Brown Butter (Mid City)

☐ Blue Oak BBQ

☐ Banks meat market 24/7 (cheap drunk people food / NOT A DINE IN)

Drinks/Desserts

☐ Gazebo (ice cream daiquiris)

☐ Tropical Isle (hand grenades – frozen or on the rocks – GET BOTH)

☑ Loretta’s (praline beignets and sweet potato cookies***** / order them individually wrapped so you can take some home)

*****she specifically told me to put stars next to the sweet potato cookies because they were one of her top recommendations

☐ Stuph’d (stuffed beignets 10/10)

☑ Beignets at Cafe du Monde

Bars/Clubs

☐ Hot tin (rooftop)

☐ Tchoup House

☐ Wrong Iron

☐ Apres

☐ Treehouse

☐ Bayou Beer/Wine Garden

☐ Bacchanal

☐ Ace Hotel Rooftop

☐ House of Blues

☑ Preservation Hall (Music)

Tram

($1.25 one way or $3 for day pass)

☐ Garden District – Green street car (Garden district tours are nice)

☐ Cemetery – Red street car

☐ Magazine street (get dropped off at Dat Dog)

☐ Frenchman street (live music) (get dropped off at Dat Dog)

I was pleased to see a few things that were already on my itinerary (validation!), and curious to check out the rest.

One afternoon we were strolling the French Market and I saw Loretta’s booth. “Wasn’t that on the list?” I thought. And so I checked my screenshots, and there is was! So we stopped and ordered the sweet potato cookies…and I now understand the asterisks. Exquisite. And we probably never would have stopped if I hadn’t remembered seeing it on that list.

We obviously didn’t get to go to everything on this list, but if those cookies were any indication of what else is on here, I thought I had to share it with you all. Enjoy!

The AirDrop.

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