Joie mixes with blues on the eve of Mardi Gras

YOU can rattle around the French Quarter in a horse-drawn buggy or make a fool of yourself on Bourbon Street. You can treat yourself to the crabmeat maison at Galatoire’s, the city’s tabernacle of opulent dining, or people-watch at Cafe du Monde.

You can get your fortune read, your pocket picked, your cocktail to go and pretty much all the other pleasures, delicacies and moral failings this city had to offer before the levees began to bleed.

Just in time for Tuesday’s Mardi Gras, New Orleans is back in the tourist business, at a level beyond what you might expect six months after such an epic disaster.

When I visited here a week ago for a nuts-and-bolts update on tourism, I also found something richer and more poignant simmering beneath the surface. Sentimental, creative, lurid, sublime, resilient and never shy, New Orleans is ready to talk about all it’s been through since Hurricane Katrina. Nearly everybody has a story to share in a place where conversation has always been the smoothest of rums.

It’s part therapy, part living history and, like the city itself, ceaselessly entertaining. Deeply personal, these vignettes of heartbreak, loss and resolve add layers of meaning and discovery to any visit.

At the Ogden Museum of Southern Art, public information officer Mary Beth Haskins talks about losing her home, all the while leading a guest through an exhibit of David Rae Morris storm images. “I’m seeing more and more people coming out here,” she says with measured hope. “I think the locals are saying we have to enjoy this city now because we really don’t know what the future will bring.”

Katrina’s impact on the city and its creative community has been profound, and pieces are showing up at the Ogden and other museums around town, providing another way for visitors to try to understand all that the storm has wrought.

“Katrina has turned my work dark and bird-like -- a style I have not used in some time,” says Jeffrey Cook, whose art is on display at the Contemporary Arts Center.

But the mood here is not all dark and bird-like. The upcoming mayor’s race has residents buzzing, and crime is down, from dozens of armed robberies a week before the storm to two a week now, for example.

Meanwhile, the bourbon is flowing, the clubs are jumping, and the streetcars bump and grind along their ancient tracks.

All told, the city offers an incomparable blend of hope, despair, rebirth and sheer joie de vivre. Here, using Mardi Gras as a milestone, is how New Orleans’ primary tourist draws are faring and what to expect as you wander its courtyards or toast its fortitude.

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Dining out

ABOUT a third of the city’s restaurants have reopened, and most report doing well, despite the disappearance of the tourist base. Owners and managers credit increasing numbers of local patrons, who have helped make up some of the losses from tourism and business travel.

Galatoire’s, a New Orleans standout since 1905, served 12,000 meals in January, just as many as it did that month the year before, says general manager Melvin Rodrigue.

Before Katrina, about two-thirds of Galatoire’s clientele was local, he said. Since reopening Jan. 1, as much as 95% of its business is home-grown, he says.

JoAnn Clevenger, owner of Upperline for 23 years, says the biggest struggle of running a restaurant is looking after staff members as they deal with housing and transportation woes.

“I have one worker who takes the bus in from Baton Rouge each day,” she says, a 150-mile round trip.

Still, she says, business is good. “We’re not seeing tourists in the traditional sense,” she says. “We’re seeing people who love New Orleans who are coming back to support it. It’s very sweet. It’s like big hugs.”

For the most part, the places you love are open or about to reopen. Commander’s Palace expects to reopen in late spring. The Acme Oyster House in the French Quarter is still undergoing repairs but has begun to advertise for staff.

Other name restaurants still shuttered for now: Brennan’s, Cafe Sbisa and Pascal’s Manale.

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The music scene

AT Snug Harbor, the city’s premier jazz club, Ellis Marsalis cast a surgeon’s shadow over the piano keys, using a single note when lesser men would use a dozen. He was playing a Miles Davis tune to a crowd of 200, a significant improvement from two weeks ago when the eminence grise of the city’s jazz scene performed before a smattering of fans only by candlelight.

Likewise, the city’s other prime musical venues are open again, most with full slates. A listing for live music showed more than 40 bands playing on a recent Friday night as anticipation began to build for the city’s second-biggest party, the Jazz & Heritage Festival (this year, April 28-30 and May 5-7).

Across town, Tipitina’s, one of the city’s biggest and most popular clubs, reopened Dec. 29 and has been doing steady business on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. Farther Uptown, the Maple Leaf Bar is booked four to five nights a week, offering an eclectic mix of blues and jazz and a busy dance floor.

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Sights and street life

CUE-BALLING around the French Quarter -- there are few better places to knock about on a rainy afternoon -- turned up a lively mix of cafes, bars, book shops and galleries.

Cafe du Monde was drawing good crowds at its outdoor tables throughout the day. A few blocks away, classical music poured from the sound system at the Napoleon House, a timeless hangout popular with locals and tourists alike.

Even the street musicians were back in force. Near Jackson Square, Hack Bartholomew played a mournful horn, then stood and sang “Amazing Grace.”

At the far end of Bourbon Street, customers ducked in and out of Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop, the teetering drinking hole where playwright Tennessee Williams hung out while writing “A Streetcar Named Desire.”

Meanwhile, Canal Street is hopping again now that Harrah’s casino has reopened.

The National D-Day Museum is also open again, after repairing post-storm vandalism. Audubon Zoo is sticking to a weekend schedule; the Aquarium of the Americas, a family attraction, is hoping to reopen this summer. Most of its exhibits perished in the post-Katrina power loss.

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Getting a room

OF THE 36,000 hotel rooms the city had before the storm, 27,000 are now available, and more open up daily as contractors and recovery workers leave, according to the New Orleans Metropolitan Convention & Visitors Bureau.

Fourteen of Marriott’s 15 hotels here have reopened (the Ritz-Carlton is the straggler), and about 65% of the pre-Katrina workforce has returned.

Mark Sanders, area general manager for Marriott, says that convention business has evaporated but that the 1,300-room Marriott on Canal has maintained occupancy rates in the upper 80% range. “We only have a few rooms left for Mardi Gras,” he says.

Two blocks away, the grand and brassy Hotel Monteleone has reopened but about a quarter of its rooms are still being renovated, says Damon Ortiz, guest services manager. On my two-day stay, I found the opulent old hotel in fine form.

Meanwhile, small inns in the Quarter are struggling.

“It’s very slow,” says Jane Morell, whose family has operated the Nine-O-Five Royal Hotel for 75 years. “There is no tourism.”

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Getting around

YES, you can catch a cab any time of the day or night, and the streetcars are running along the riverfront and Canal Street. The venerable St. Charles Avenue line is still down but is expected to be back in business by December. The transportation grid is largely functional in tourist areas.

Jaunts are widely available to most of the usual places -- plantations, riverboat cruises, haunted sights, even a controversial devastation tour. Companies are struggling with staffing and customers, and many tours depart only if they draw enough people.

On Decatur Street, meanwhile, Haunted History Tours operator Sidney Smith talks about confronting a post-Katrina looter in his Uptown home, who proceeded to get Smith’s phone working for him before fleeing the floodwaters. Smith is struggling to repair his house while trying to keep his small business alive.

“It depends on what you’re interested in, vampires or ghosts,” he eagerly tells customers who have just walked in. “They’re both good tours.”

Then Smith turned back to describe how, during the turmoil after the storm, he stood on his roof and watched his hometown go up in flames.

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Crescent City crawl

GETTING THERE:

From LAX, nonstop service to New Orleans is available on United, and connecting service (change of planes) is offered on American, Northwest, Continental, Southwest and Delta. Restricted round-trip fares begin at $238.

WHERE TO STAY:

Hotel Monteleone, 214 Royal St.; (504) 523-3341, www.hotelmonteleone.com. Graceful and lively French Quarter hotel two blocks from Canal Street. Doubles from $199.

Renaissance Arts Hotel, 700 Tchoupitoulas St.; (504) 613-2330, www.renaissanceartshotel.com. Beautiful, art-filled contemporary hotel in the heart of New Orleans’ arts district. Doubles from $189.

Nine-O-Five Royal Hotel, 905 Royal St.; (504) 523-0219, www.905royalhotel.com. B&B; offering great location and value in the quieter, residential end of the French Quarter. Doubles from $99.

WHERE TO EAT:

Brigtsen’s, 723 Dante St.; (504) 861-7610. One of New Orleans’ finest eating experiences, in a converted cottage at the far end of Uptown. The seafood platter alone is worth a trip to the city. Entrees from $18.

Upperline, 1413 Upperline St.; (504) 891-9822, www.upperline.com. Bustling and very popular Uptown dining spot run by one of the city’s most-personable restaurateurs. Entrees from $18.50.

Parasol’s, 2533 Constance St., (504) 897-5413, www.parasols.com. Slice-of-life po’boy emporium. Sit at the bar and you won’t have to wait in line at the sandwich window. Renowned roast beef po’boy $6.59.

TOURS:

Haunted History Tours, (504) 861-2727, www.hauntedhistorytours.com. Explores French Quarter’s eerie past, with an emphasis on ghosts, vampires and voodoo. $20; 12 and younger, $10.

General sightseeing, Gray Line (504) 569-1401, www.graylineneworleans.com. Steamboat cruises, walking tours and plantation jaunts. Rates vary according to the tour.

TO LEARN MORE:

New Orleans Metropolitan Convention & Visitors Bureau, 2020 St. Charles Ave., New Orleans, LA 70130; (800) 672-6124, www.neworleanscvb.com.

Louisiana Office of Tourism, Inquiry Department, P.O. Box 94291, Baton Rouge, LA 70804; (800) 99-GUMBO (994-8626) or (225) 342-8100, fax (225) 342-8390, www.louisianatravel.com.

-- Chris Erskine