I Love Memphis GLOs To New Orleans

I Love Memphis GLOs To New Orleans

No matter how much we love Memphis, we all enjoy a change of scenery from time to time. A few weeks back, I traveled with a few of my colleagues down to New Orleans on an exploratory mission. Our objectives:

1. Experience GLO airlines. GLO is a relatively new airline that offers daily flights to regional destinations. Who knew? (Not many of you, apparently, judging by the Twitter questions I received.)

2. Check out the Moxy Hotel. Memphis is slated to get one of these boutique hotels in the next year, and we wanted to get a sneak peek of what we might expect.

3. Gather ideas for a weekend getaway.  This post is a recap of our trip, and might be a starting point for your own five day New Orleans itinerary. If you're a New Orleans resident who found this post, welcome to the blog! Check out this post to help you get started on your visit to Memphis, and then peruse the rest of this site. Hit me up if you have questions.

4. Get the attention of some New Orleans folks. We met with several NOLA bloggers, writers, and travel pros invited them up to the 901.

glo-airplane

First, About GLO Airlines

Thanks to GLO airlines, who made this trip possible. Our experience on the up-and-coming airline was great. Check them out. Also, don't think GLO is another "budget" airline with a la carte charges for bags, seats, etc. While they did pay for my flight, as always, providing services does not guarantee a positive blog post. Fortunately, GLO was great.

The service was excellent, and although it was a smaller plane, the seats were plenty comfy. When you buy your ticket, it includes three bags (what?! no one does that), a personal item, and refreshments. Get more info at flyglo.com.

Now, on to our trip recap. I'm not going into extreme detail here, but I've included plenty of links so you can get more info. This isn't every single thing we did, I left out our meetings with media and other travel pros.

Day One

I won't lie; after years of making the five-ish hour drive to New Orleans, it was amazing to be there in just an hour and a half. We took a cab to the French Quarter and checked in to The Saint Hotel.

josephine-estelle-new-orleansFirst course at Josephine Estelle.

For dinner, we went to Josephine Estelle at the Ace Hotel, which is owned by Memphis chefs Andrew Ticer and Michael Hudman and is similar to Andrew Michael Italian Kitchen. A note about the Ace Hotel: it seemed to be one of the top hot spots in town. People kept recommending we go there.

After dinner, we made the obligatory stroll down Bourbon Street and were enticed by a sign proclaiming "The Best Mojitos In The World!" at a bar called Napoleon's Itch. I'm not sure if the mojitos were the best the world, but they were a great way to end our first night.

Moxy Bar/Check-In Desk Moxy Bar/Check-In Desk

Day Two

The Moxy Hotel is a boutique property, and there are plans to renovate a hotel in downtown Memphis into a Moxy some time in the future. The kind staff gave us a tour. This hotel is very clearly geared towards millennials. Think pared-down IKEA-inspired rooms, a vending machine with things like USB chargers, common areas with game nights, and a bar that serves as the front desk.

For lunch, we went to the highly-recommended La Petit Grocery on Magazine Street, then took a stroll looking into the shops and boutiques along that street. After that, my friend Andy Kutcher was kind enough to give us a sneak peek of the not-quite-open-yet NOLA Distillery. 

NOLA Brewing and Taproom NOLA Brewing and Taproom

She then led us to NOLA Brewing - one of the first craft breweries in the city to open after Hurricane Katrina. In their taproom, you can take a tour, eat at their in-house BBQ restaurant, and hear live music.Their free tours are pretty legendary and are Friday 2 p.m. - 3 p.m. and Saturday 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. The Friday tours include two free beers.

Then, we spent our evening on Frenchman Street for dinner and live music.

yuki Yuki noodles with a veggie cake. So delicious.

The dinner at Yuki that night might have been my favorite meal of the trip. It's a tiny Japanese dive bar and it was absolutely delicious.

Day Three

We played tourists for most of the day, with breakfast at the crowded but quintessential Cafe du Monde, walks around Jackson Square and the French Quarter, and visits to two museums: the World War II Museum and the New Orleans Museum of Art.

Somewhere in there we took a super-convenient trolley to Parkway Bakery for poboys (take a look here, also at the top of this post). We also toured Napoleon House, an historic home of the Emperor that's now a restaurant.

fries-at-parkway Fries at Parkway Tavern

That evening, we had drinks and a snack at the super posh Domenica before heading to the Moxy Hotel opening party, which was one of the craziest events I've ever attended. The theme was "Sexy Circus" and oh boy, was it a sexy soiree.

I think young Memphians would be all about some fun events in the communal areas of a boutique hotel downtown; here's hoping we get something with as much energy and pizazz.

Day Four

Our fourth day in New Orleans was all about the food. I had already gained three hundred pounds by this point, so I just went for it. Luckily, we started off the day with some much-needed eggs and a bacon Bloody Mary (seriously, it saved my life) and a walk through the impressive Aquarium of the Americas (a must-do if you have kids) and a longer walk through the French Quarter.

New Orleans Aquarium
New Orleans Aquarium of the Americas

Next, we had lunch with the delightful Scott Simon, who runs the I Heart NOLA blog and social media. Naturally, he and I had a lot of talk about. We had barbecue at The Joint, was great and reminded me a bit of Central. Except pickles. They do pickles on their sandwiches…to each their own.

the-joint-bbq The Joint

Also, 10/10 would recommend that you follow Scott on I Heart Nola's blogInstagram, and Twitter. Somehow, we managed District Donut for dessert.

peche Peche

Not surprisingly, we had a nap after this. So that we could eat more food. Our dinner was at Peche, which nearly everyone everywhere had recommended to us. And they were absolutely right. We finished our evening with a jazz show at the historic Preservation Hall.

preservation-hall

Day Five

For our final morning in New Orleans, we had brunch at the Court of Two Sisters. Our flight was delayed a bit. This happens on pretty much every airline all the time, but I appreciated that GLO was communicative and keep us up-to-speed on our flight status. Then it was another quick, comfy flight (with snacks! and popsicles!) and back home.

court-of-two-sisters Court of Two Sisters

My Favorites/Recommendations From The Trip
- Tours at NOLA Distillery and NOLA Brewing
- Yuki Japanese Restaurant on Frenchman
- NOMA and the park around it
- Domenica for fancy drinks
- Peche for dinner

If I Went Back, I Would...
- Fly on GLO (seriously, y'all, there's a Grizz v. Pelicans game in NOLA on Dec. Thoughts?)
- Stay at the Moxy
- Check out the Ace Hotel rooftop
- Find out where the locals do brunch
- Find a late-night/after dark cemetery tour

Thanks again to GLO, the Moxy Hotel, and the CVB for making this trip happen. See more from the trip here.

screen-shot-2016-09-14-at-11-21-14-am

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Thomas w.
Also Tigers play Tulane Friday, Oct. 14
September 14, 2016 2:10pm
Holly Whitfield
Yes!
September 14, 2016 2:26pm