Staycation | Uptown, New Orleans
Staycation. It's something people who like cute hotels and spending lots of money on fancy cocktails do for fun! With summer coming to a close, we're probably not going to have the time to go on big vacations for a minute. Sure, we work from home and can pretty much travel whenever we need to, but with fall coming up our work load is about to increase and it's really hard to handle a bunch of projects *and* twerk around every desert in the Southwest like we did a few weeks ago.
For now, it's time to get back to reality, so we're gonna just take advantage of doing our work in fun locations around the city and getting a break from our house for a bit. This past weekend we traded in our little Bywater shotgun home for THE CUTEST hotel room in uptown New Orleans at the Henry Howard Hotel. There are a million reasons we loved it, but most importantly there were complimentary salted chocolate chip cookies and the whole place was quiet and quaint as hell, meaning we could get a lot of work done from our room.
Given that pretty much all of our travel is now a combination of work and play, we were pretty pumped when SWISSGEAR reached out about their new ScanSmart laptop backpacks which are TSA friendly AND spacious enough to comfortably fit our laptops while not hindering our bikini collections and personalized piña colada glasses. See, work and play you guys, work and play. We immediately scanned the website and ordered one in grey and one in black, along with a 24" hard-side rolling suitcase to smuggle Fox onto airplanes with. Not really, he wishes though.
While we were hanging out around the hotel and drinking wine from the parlour, we got to thinking about our home town and realized we never really talk about what there is to do in uptown New Orleans. We're always discussing our favorite Bywater, Marigny, and French Quarter hangs (we're downtown girls for the most part, OK!) but don't really get into what our chill spots are on the other side of Canal St. So today, we're gonna offer up our favorites of uptown New Orleans, a part of town we called home for quite some time before we stopped wearing deodorant and moved to the Bywater (kidding, kind of). If you're visiting New Orleans or going on your own uptown staycation, all of these stops below are just a short bike ride or Uber away!
Ask any Nola cutie what's fun uptown, and you'll likely be told to hit up District Doughnuts for micro-brew iced coffee and wacky doughnut flavors reminiscent of Voodoo Doughnut Co. in Portland, The Rum House for margaritas and dope Caribbean food in a polished fast casual setting, Shaya for dinner, and Sucre for gelato and prepared desserts. We totally love all of the places above and if you're going and want to take us out for a ladie's night as a thank you for these recommendations, we'd drop everything and go in a heartbeat; however, our favorites list below highlight some of the spots that made our lives spectacular back in our uptown days and maybe don't get as much attention as they deserve.
Staycation | Uptown New Orleans
for a cafe and makeshift office
HiVolt Cafe is the bomb, and has a huge assortment of gluten-free and not-gluten-free pastries!
for casual but dope af French breakfast
Tartine!!! A hidden gem near the universities, Tartine has some of the most amazing French breakfast options at super cheap prices. The best.
for weekend brunch
Coquette has one of the best uptown brunches in one of our favorite atmospheres in the city. Check it out for Sunday brunch for sure!
for mid-day antiquing
Magazine Antique Mall is like walking into a time-and-space vortex. You're going to want to set aside at least an hour to look through the huge assortment of antiques of all types they've got here. It's like going on a treasure hunt except itss all treasure and you just have to pick which one you want.
for Saturday shopping
Little Flea Nola offers a huge selection of crafts, wares, and eats from local New Orleans vendors. Check out their website to find the schedue!
for a drink or three
Delachaise is our absolute favorite spot for grabbing a glass of wine and a plate of fried frog legs. It's where we spent like half of the first year of our relationship and it's an amazing spot for a first date as they have nightly $5 glasses of wine and small plates, making it both delicious and non-committal, as any first date should be.
for small-bites
Cavan offers an entire list of different toasts to snack on, as well as a selection of seafood starters and small plates to lose your mind on - all set in an old New Orleans mansion that is maybe a lot haunted. If you're a grown ass man like us and need more than a snack, they've got a full menu, don't you worry.
our favorite off-the-beaten-path dinner
Cafe Abyssinia is literally at the end of a gravel alley way and impossible to see, so like, def off the beaten path. Inside, you'll find a small warm little bungalow of joy incarnated as delicious platters of Ethiopian food and endless roll of fluffy injera, all for like pretty freaking cheap.
after-dinner drinks
Bouligny Tavern is basically a Mid-century dream on the inside, and they nail that whole craft cocktail thing - also, a cozy af patio!
after after-dinner drinks (no judgement)
Milan Lounge is definitely the dive bar you need in your life to end the night. Grab a beer, do the things, sit at the bar, relax, you're all good.
late-night movie
The Broad Theatre is one of the newest and cutest things to hit New Orleans, and while it's technically not uptown, it's worth the (very short) drive to catch a movie and some popcorn.
Thanks so much to SWISSGEAR for sponsoring this post! As always, all opinions are our own!