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There’s way more to the Big Easy than oysters and Sazeracs

Wandering Chef: Justin Simoneaux in New Orleans

A trip to the Big Easy isn’t complete without a muffuletta (or two).

Bayou Rum is a find along the I-10 Frontage in Lacassine, Louisiana. What’s more this spirits distillery is reviving sugar cane as a farm product in these parts and creating a niche-market fine rum. One of the owners, Trey Litel, gets positively giddy when he shares the story of this sugar cane spirit, from the earth to the bottle. Tours start with a short video presentation on a screen framed by some alligator skulls, lest you forget where you are. The bayou friend. The bayou. From gleaming copper kettles, a peek into the distiller’s laboratory, a look into a super clean bottling room, and working your way to the tasting bar, Trey keeps it interesting as the Bayou Rum story unfolds. And the rum? Delicious. The Silver is clean and pure, the Spiced is perfect to sip or mix with drinks, the new Satsuma is from local citrus and really great in a summer cocktail balanced with bitters and lime juice. Local chefs, restaurants and bars love this booze. Really good stuff!

Houston has an overwhelming list of cool stuff to do, including world-class parks, street art, live music, the famous Johnson Space Center, and so many museums the city named a whole neighborhood for them: The Museum District. Finding the heart of a metropolis this big can seem daunting but add these top things to do in the Texas city to your Houston bucket list.

Authentic margaritas, well-balanced craft beers, and carefully mixed cocktails have found a home in the Bayou City. Great bars, cafés, and lounges scattered throughout downtown and Houston’s neighborhoods mean that locals and visitors are never far from some of the best drinks in town.

Where can you find an island rising above a wetland marsh that provides for thousands of snowy egrets nesting on man-made stilt platforms and a historic factory producing over 700,000 bottles of a fire-hot red sauce a day? Only one place in world, Avery Island, Louisiana, home to the world-famous Tabasco sauce. Located about 3 hours west of New Orleans, Avery Island is where Tabasco sauce was created in 1868 by Edmund McIlhenney. Still family-run, the factory (open for tours) produces over 700,000 bottles a day of the hot stuff after aging the pepper “mash” in white oak casks for 3 years. The factory tour (free of charge) includes a video about how Tabasco sauce is made, a view of the bottling room, and a chance to see a oak cask up close filled with the pungent smelling pepper mash. After the hot stuff, it is time for a little nature. In the late 1890’s the founder’s son, E.A. McIlhenney created what is now known as Bird Island to encourage the nesting of the beautiful snowy egrets which had been hunted for their plumes nearly to the point of extinction. Over 120 years later, thousands of snowy egrets mass each spring in a squawking community of white to raise their young safely on man-made stilt and reed platforms. Bird Island is located within the 170-acre Jungle Garden along the Bayou Petite Anse just a two-minute drive from the Tabasco Factory. The gardens include bamboo forests, camellia and azalea gardens, massive oak trees, gators, deer and raccoon.

This is the site of a former drinking-water reservoir built in 1926 and decommissioned in 2007 after a leak was discovered. The site, which spans 1.5 football fields and once could hold 15 million gallons of water, lay dormant for nearly a decade until the Buffalo Bayou Partnership, with help from the Brown Foundation, decided to reopen it as a public space. Its stunning and sometimes haunting visuals make it among the new must-see attractions in Houston—don’t miss the nearby art installation, Down Periscope, which offers a peek into the cistern from aboveground. Schedule a tour to see it up close—tours last 30 minutes and are held from 11 a.m. to 5 a.m. Wednesday through Sunday. Reservations required.

Two broad snouts snuffle up from the water at the edge of the walking path along Coffee Pot Bayou. A manatee and her baby drift over to the storm drain to drink fresh water coming down from nearby Lake Crescent. The baby cuddles close. A small group of locals lean over the edge of the concrete bulkhead to watch “their” manatees. They speak in happy whispers and take photos with their cell phones to send to friends in colder climes. Common to the bayou for most of the year, manatees are almost an everyday sight during the cooler winter months when colder waters of the Gulf of Mexico and Tampa Bay drive them to the shallow warmer waters of Coffee Pot Bayou. As spring approaches groups of courting manatees can be seen rolling around each other in the shallow waters. Keeping them company are statuesque Great Blue Herons and Great Egrets, shy Green Herons, and gregarious Laughing Gulls. Red-ear slider turtles can often be seen popping their heads up in the water or sunning themselves on boat ramps. Even a dolphin or two join in on the fun. The broad sidewalk along Coffee Pot Bayou is part of a 2-mile walking/biking path that extends from downtown St. Petersburg and follows the edge of Tampa Bay before entering Coffee Pot Bayou. It is a safe, well-lit path with fantastic views, comfortable benches for resting, access to a small beach off of North Shores Park, and opportunities for fishing. Our manatee spot is at Coffee Pot Blvd and 23rd Ave NE.

There’s a really cool jogging and biking trail that runs from River Oaks all the way to downtown along the Bayou. This is next to Eleanor Tinsley Park. Check it out for some nice views of the Houston skyline.

Eleanor Tinsley Park in Houston is a great place to spend time outdoors. There’s the Waugh Bridge Bat Colony, hiking and biking trails, and tons of green space to enjoy.

Whether you want to walk, bike, skate, fish, or just enjoy the view, you can do it on the North Bay Trail. Stretching from Demen’s Landing Park (south) to Rio Vista Park (north), The North Bay Trail provides a paved, scenic route where you can enjoy views of Tampa Bay, downtown St Petersburg, wildlife, boats, and beautiful old homes in the Old Northeast section of St Pete. We often walk or bike the 1.5-mile stretch of the North Bay Trail that runs from our home in the historic Old Northeast along Coffee Pot Bayou, through North Shores and Vinoy Parks, around the Vinoy Yacht Basin, St Pete Waterfront and St Petersburg Marina, and out to Demen’s Landing. Here we can watch boats sail into the harbor or planes land at Albert Whitted Airport. Along the way we stop to watch the egret, pelican, and heron rookeries on Bird Island in the middle of Coffee Pot Bayou with the hopes of catching a glimpse of the elusive Roseate Spoonbill. We sit on a bench and watch egrets and herons fish along men fishing in thigh deep water. There is always a friendly dog to pet as St Pete is filled with dog lovers who regularly walk their dogs along the North Bay Trail. Once downtown, we can stop for a gelato at Paciuga’s, a croissant at Cassis, or a chocolate at the new Kilwin’s. The we head home enjoying the views once more.

Everything Cajun diverges at Randol’s Seafood Restaurant. Order a dish made of locally sourced seafood like crawfish etouffee or fried catfish washed down with a beer from Bayou Teche. Then take a spin on the dance floor, where zydeco musicians play every night. It attracts some locals who are smooth on their feet. The music is over by 10 or 11 pm, so it’s easy to head down the street to Blue Moon for more music into the night.

While visiting this busy, entertaining, shopping and restaurant-filled metropolitan area reserve time to enjoy the city parks and public art works including the “Seven Wonders.” The ‘Seven Wonders” are 70 feet tall stainless steel pillars located in Sesquicentennial Park. This is designed to highlight the banks of Buffalo Bayou. At night, these glowing columns reflect the water illuminating the home of Houston’s own internationally-exclaimed opera and ballet companies at the Wortham Center. The entire project was a way to celebrate and remember the 150th birthday of the region while providing a lovely, enchanting piece of work to admire and enjoy for another 150 years to come. The seven pillars represent different aspects of Houston’s history. The pillars signify the following industries and Houston’s dominants in each field: energy, manufacturing, agriculture, medicine, philanthropy, technology and transportation.

Chef Kelly English trained in some of the best kitchens in New Orleans before opening Restaurant Iris, where he now serves his homey take on French-Creole cuisine. Here, dining spaces are spread throughout the rooms of a cozy bungalow, encouraging diners to interact with other tables like guests at a convivial dinner party. A recent remodel added more modern decor and an expanded bar area where patrons without reservations can dine under a large, bayou-inspired mural that harks back to English’s Louisiana roots. On the menu you’ll find Southern classics, prepared with French techniques and international flavors. Don’t miss the corn bread–stuffed quail and the crawfish beignets, which come with a heavenly sauce ravigote.