Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
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Cross Nashville Avenue and continue down Magazine. Got a sweet tooth?
Stop at Blue Frog Chocolates (5707 Magazine), known for its confections
from around the world. If you're in the market for a New Orleans T-shirt,
check out Dirty Coast (5631 Magazine). You won't find X-rated T-shirts
here—for those, you'll have to head to Bourbon Street. What you will find
are some of the cleverest, most New Orleans-centric shirts in town.
Examples include “One Nation Under Dome” (in reference to Saints and the
Superdome), “504ever” (in reference to the city's area code), and “Death by
Crawfish.”
The mammoth building to your right is Whole Foods Market, which when it
was being developed in 2001 met with a mix of reactions, from euphoria to
rage. Opponents argued the store would be too big for the neighborhood;
supporters liked the idea of developing a blighted but historic building, the
old Arabella bus barn. Today, it's hard to imagine this block without Whole
Foods, where if you're lucky you might just see New Orleans Saints quarter-
back Drew Brees—who lives in the 'hood—pushing a cart. And with so many
movies being filmed in New Orleans these days, celebrity sightings aren't un-
common: Will Ferrell, Emma Roberts, and Sarah Jessica Parker have
shopped here, and Whole Foods was also one of the stomping grounds of the
Top Chef: New Orleans
cast.
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The next two blocks, between Joseph Street and Jefferson Avenue, are chock-
full of unique and fun shops. Among them are Hazelnut, a home-decor store
co-owned by local celebrity and former
Mad Men
actor Bryan Batt; Plum,
which sells “cool stuff for stylish living”; and EarthSavers, known for its lux-
urious spa treatments. Azby's, Mimi, Jean Therapy, and Spring are just a
few of the area's upscale boutiques. If you're bargain-hunting, head to Swap,
a consignment store billed as a “haven for fashionable and budget-conscious
women.” Haus 131 also has reasonably priced apparel.
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Cross Jefferson at CC's Coffee House. To your right is Poydras Home, a
nursing home and assisted-living center founded in 1817 as a home for wo-
men and children left widowed and orphaned by the yellow fever epidemic.
Named for businessman and philanthropist Julien Poydras (see
Walk 3
), it
moved to its present site on Magazine in 1857. The next stretch of blocks is
largely residential, though you will pass a handful of businesses, such as
Guy's Po-Boys, where you can get a roast beef topped with fries and Ched-
dar cheese (we kid you not), and Tee-Eva's Old Fashioned Pies and Pralines,
