For first-time visitors or those who may not have spent much time in the Crescent City, the French Quarter presents few obvious scars from the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. Food and drinks are flowing again from downtown eateries and bars, mule-drawn carriage tours wend their way through the narrow streets, and artists and street musicians have returned to the sidewalks of Jackson Square.

Aside from a few exceptions, the areas most visited by tourists are functional, safe, and open for business, as restaurants, bars, shops, and attractions in the Quarter, Central Business District (CBD) and the Warehouse District are up and running again. For those more familiar with the city and its unique culture, there are some minor red flags that let you know that everything isn’t “back to normal” yet.

Conspicuously absent from the downtown scene are the colorful and kitschy Lucky Dog hot dog carts and their equally colorful vendors. The weenie-shaped carts are as much a part of the local culture as gumbo and jell-o shots, as the majority of their carts thrive during late night hours on and around Bourbon Street. Lunchtime diners can usually grab a bite from carts that set-up at Jackson Square or in high traffic areas of the CBD.

Kirk Talbot, son of Lucky Dogs owner Doug Talbot, says all of the colorful carts are safe and sound inside the company’s CBD headquarters and they’re slated to be back on downtown streets in plenty of time for Mardi Gras.

“ We didn’t suffer any flooding, but we did have some damage to the roof and water got in that way,” said Talbot. “We’ve just got to get our vendors back – they’re scattered around, but all of them have called in, so no fatalities. We’ll be fine and ready to go by the end of January,” he added.

Aside from the occasional search-and-rescue hieroglyphics scrawled in Day-Glo orange paint on some of its historic buildings, the French Quarter exhibits few scars from Katrina or the post-storm looting. Along Canal Street, the Quarter’s north-south boundary, only a few boarded-up storefronts remain as a testament to the looters’ affinity for athletic wear and electronics.

Another unusual sight in downtown is the presence of the green St. Charles Avenue streetcars in the middle of Canal Street. The historic cars, displaced by damage to their “home” tracks along St. Charles Avenue, have been put into service along the Canal Street and Riverfront lines, replacing the bright red streetcars that rode the rails prior to sustaining damage during the hurricane. The St. Charles cars ferry passengers along two routes: one runs straight along the riverfront from the French Market streetcar stop to the convention center, while the L-shaped Canal Street route runs from Esplanade Avenue to the intersection of Canal and Basin streets.

While a return to the historic St. Charles Streetcar line is said to be a year away, there are a number of restaurants, shops and clubs in the Uptown/Garden District area that are up and running. Located between St. Charles Avenue and the winding Mississippi River, the neighborhood around Magazine Street, which serves as the main drag, avoided flood waters and suffered only minor wind damage and minimal looting. Once power was restored, the eateries and boutiques that attract a customer base of mostly locals re-opened their doors and welcomed residents and students who have returned to the city. Restaurants such as La Crepe Nanou, Pascal’s Manale, Tanqueros-Coyoacan, and La Petite Grocery offer a variety of cuisines and some unique versions of traditional New Orleans favorites. The vibrant neighborhood, located about 15 minutes from downtown, is definitely back on track.

Speaking of food – and no story about New Orleans can be written without it – the New Orleans Convention & Visitors Bureau says that more than 400 restaurants have re-opened their doors as of December 31, 2005, including such downtown notables as Bacco, Red Fish Grill, Arnaud’s, Emeril’s, K-Paul’s Louisiana Kitchen, Mother’s Restaurant, Bayona, and Antoine’s Restaurant. While there is no shortage of places where one can find the gastronomically-pleasing foods that New Orleans is known for, there are a few new rules in place.

The hospitality industry remains the city’s largest employer, but with much of the industry’s workforce displaced by Hurricane Katrina, many area restaurants and bars are functioning with smaller staffs. Perennial favorites like Pat O’Brien’s, Court of Two Sisters, and the Napoleon House are open shorter hours and offer limited menus, which can translate to slightly longer waits for tables or the ubiquitous Southern hospitality. Even Café Du Monde, which has resumed cranking out its famous beignets and café au lait, has been forced to curb its 24/7 attitude to comply with the city’s 2 a.m. curfew.

Shopping and Conventions

The Riverwalk Marketplace re-opened in December, but several of the popular mall’s shops are empty and appear to be closed. Some of the larger retailers have also struggled to find enough staff to operate their stores, but many of the smaller outlets and New Orleans-specific boutiques are open, along with the expansive food court. From the second-floor deck adjoining the food court, visitors can’t help but notice the Carnival cruise ships, Ecstasy and Sensation. Riverwalk now shares its section of the Mississippi Riverfront with these temporarily docked cruise ships that house New Orleans police officers, firefighters, and other first-responders and their families

Next door, the now infamous Ernest N. Morial Convention Center remains shuttered, but inside, contractors and convention center personnel are working furiously to repair, re-paint and refinish three damaged exhibit halls that will be used for the first post-Katrina event to be held in mid-February. The Helen Brett New Orleans Gift & Jewelry Show will christen the rehabbed era of the center, which is scheduled to return to full occupancy in November 2006. The venue is undergoing extensive restoration work that includes roof repairs, replacing doors and hardware, installing new sheetrock, soffits, glass skylights, and re-carpeting with more than 88,000 square yards of custom-designed floor covering throughout the upper level concourses, ballrooms, meeting spaces, and lobbies.

Currently, a number of city agencies are housed in the facility, such as the Charity Hospital Trauma Unit in Hall J, the City of New Orleans Recorder of Mortgages & Notarial Archives in La Louisiane Ballroom, and New Orleans Emergency Management Services in the center’s Vehicular Operations Center.

Life among the ruins

If anyone ever needed a reminder that things are nowhere near back to normal outside of the French Quarter, Gray Line – New Orleans has begun offering a tour of some of the city’s outlying neighborhoods that were decimated by Katrina. In addition to a drive-by look at one of the levees that breached after the storm, the tour travels through Lakeview, an upscale neighborhood along Lake Ponchartrain, and Gentilly, another upscale area located in New Orleans East. The Gray Line tour does not include trips through the oft-photographed Lower Ninth Ward, an area that was almost completely destroyed by the storm.

Realizing that the general public may balk at a tour company “capitalizing” on the devastation suffered by area resident, the company has posted a statement on their website that reads: “Since so many of our employees, including myself, lost our home and possessions, this tour will be operated with the utmost sensitivity to the thousands of local residents still trying to get their lives back in order.” – Greg Hoffman, vice president, Gray Line – New Orleans. The company contributes three dollars from each tour ticket sold to one of five non-profit organizations “directly affected by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.”

At the conclusion of the tour, customers are asked if they would like to sign a petition in favor of fortifying the city’s levees, and given a form letter that expresses support of rebuilding New Orleans for them to sign and mail to the congressional delegation of their home state.

For visitors whose strongest connection to New Orleans is Bourbon Street and the subsequent party-hearty attitude, you’ll do just fine. For the “foodies” who love to sample the city’s incredible array of menus and dining options no matter what the budget, you’ll do just fine too. Music fans and art lovers won’t have any trouble finding plenty to do, see, and hear during their stay, and history buffs will find that all of the mystique and the magic are fully intact. Indeed, anyone who knows, likes, or just enjoys New Orleans will find more than enough to continue their relationship with the City that Care Forgot, but those who “know what it means to miss New Orleans” may feel the hurricane damage and subsequent cobwebs of red tape is more akin to defacing an American icon.

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