After the Hot 8 Brass Band performance was over, I wanted coffee and beignets, and since I heard that
Morning Call had opened a new location of their coffee stand in New Orleans’ City Park, I decided to drive out to it instead of paying to park in the Quarter for the Cafe du Monde. The distance from far Uptown New Orleans to the French Quarter seems significant (and actually is, due to the bends in the Mississippi River), but at the lake end, New Orleans is not all that big a city, and one of its peculiarities is that following Carrollton Avenue north from Uptown leads to an intersection with Esplanade (yes, the one from the Quarter) at the entrance to City Park. The park itself is monstrous, large and dark, seemingly bigger than Memphis’ Overton Park, or New York’s Central Park, full of winding roads, lagoons and forests, but the one building lit up with a couple of cars nearby proved to be the Casino (likely an old dance hall rather than a place to gamble) and in this building Morning Call has decided to operate. WWOZ radio was playing when I entered, and a couple of employees were sitting down waiting for customers. A 24-hour location in City Park actually seems a little strange, but the coffee and beignets are exceptionally good, slightly cheaper than the Cafe du Monde, and I was heartened to see a trickle of other customers come in while I was there.
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