Big Easy Come, Big Easy Go

Move over, Mardi Gras.

Hauling mega-banners and belting “When the Rams Go Marching In,” about 100 members of the L.A. Rams Booster Club--decked out in blue-and-gold finery--marched on the French Quarter on Friday night. The message: “Victory! Victory!”

Down Royal Street in they trudged--howling, cheering, thumbs up for the team they’d traveled 1,883 miles to support. (So what if the Rams got tromped by the Saints, 24 to 7, in the Superdome on Sunday? Members of this high-spirited group always come out winners.)

“We turn here!” yelled Jeff Taylor, hanging a right on Toulouse Street. “The river’s this way!”

And there he was--Old Man River himself--aglow with gliding paddle wheelers, just rolling along.

For boosters, the mighty Mississippi represented Phase One of the three-day fling that would begin with a relaxed river cruise and end with some tense moments at the Superdome.

“All aboarrrrrd,” yelled Jim Ort of All Travel Service in Anaheim (coordinator of the $599 per-person junket with his wife, Ronni). One by one the boosters boarded the Cotton Blossom, touted in a slick brochure as “New Orleans’ Only Stern-wheeler on the Bayou.”

But, first things first. Before they dug into the chicken gumbo, the red beans, the rice, the bread pudding--before they even touched a Hurricane (the rum grog traditionally guzzled at Pat O’Brien’s) the boosters hung their banners on the boat’s railing.

“After all, we’re here to make the Rams happy--to let people know they’re here,” said Joanie Faria, head-to-toe in the team’s blue and gold colors. “And it’s not just one player we’re here to support. We’re behind every single one of them.”

Earlier Friday--after catching a redeye out of Los Angeles--Faria and her pals, Linda Moomau and Wanda Hansen, hired a stretch limo to take them on a plantation tour.

“The homes were so elegant, refined,” Faria said with a sigh.

And so were the three women, they thought, sailing along the old river road in a Cadillac. “Until lunch,” Moomau said. “Then we were so tired we couldn’t do elegant anymore. We ended up eating chicken and moon pies we bought at a Texaco station.”

On Saturday night, about 30 boosters dined at some of the French Quarter’s top restaurants with John DeMers, a New Orleans food writer who has engineered a progressive dinner he calls the Astronomical Gastronomical.

DeMers met the group at the Monteleone Hotel, built in 1886, on Royal Street (“The Boosters have been staying here for years,” said Jim Ort).

Then it was on to Arnaud’s on Bienville Street--thought to be New Orleans’ finest Creole restaurant. Here the boosters dined in a private room on French-fried souffle potatoes--crisp, hollow poufs invented for a king of France--and pungent shrimp Remoulade, a specialty of the house.

Stepping into Arnaud’s was like entering “Gone With the Wind.” Everywhere they looked, boosters saw the hallmarks of Southern decorative grace--glittering crystal chandeliers, gilt mirrors, cabbage-rose print wallpapers and gaslight sconces.

Then it was on to Jean Patout’s contemporary-styled restaurant on Royal Street for the main course. Here, DeMers explained, one of New Orleans’ top restaurateurs gives diners the Cajun tastes of his Louisiana boyhood. Boosters had a choice of grilled fish fresh from the gulf and cochon du lait , milk-fed pig that is slow-roasted.

The hands-down hits at Patout’s were a side dish of sweet potatoes drizzled with a praline-candy glaze and the chance to ogle Palm Springs Mayor Sonny Bono, visiting the Big Easy for a hotel convention. (The Orts--who chatted with Bono--had met him when they attended a bash in his home during the Palm Springs film festival last year.)

Dessert was enjoyed in the courtyard at Brennan’s, also on Royal Street. Here, in a building constructed in 1795, brunch was born, DeMers said.

And it was also the birthplace of Bananas Foster, a banana-and-brown-sugar confection that is doused with banana liqueur and flamed before being poured over a double-scoop of vanilla ice cream. This was the treat the boosters enjoyed before they headed for Mahogany Hall on Bourbon Street for a Dixieland jazz fest performed into the wee hours by the Dukes of Dixieland.

On Sunday, boosters such as the Orts and Shirley and Barry Taylor (she’s the secretary of Orange County Sheriff Brad Gates, he’s a private investigator for insurance companies) enjoyed the jazz brunch at Commander’s Palace on Washington Avenue in the posh Garden District. On the menu: Southern gourmet treats that ranged from Eggs Sardou (poached eggs served up on artichoke hearts and a bed of spinach) and turtle soup to bread-pudding souffle soaked with whiskey sauce.

“This is a great taste of N’Awlins ,” said Jim Ort, dipping a silver spoon into a trio of soups served up in demitasse cups. “And I just keep coming back for more.”