Jessica S.
Yelp
There's a surprising lack of restaurants at *this end* of the city. At least, that's the way it felt the day we stumbled around under the oppressive heat and humidity. We'd already found the French Market lacking and had spent a ton of time (and a bit of money) in the Dutch Alley co-op and wanted to find a filling lunch before making our way back to the hotel.
The Market Cafe had a jazz trio on their patio, a lot of open seating and the friendliest server we ever met in Bridget. She welcomed us in, got us seated on the patio (my choice, I wanted to enjoy the live music, despite the heat and humidity) and got our orders in right away.
I went with the Gator Po'Boy ($16.95) and my husband got the bowl of gumbo ($11.95). We also decided we needed to share the shrimp boil ($21.95 for a pound), because that was pretty much all we scented on the wind while we were wandering the streets.
We were very aware that the heat and humidity (have I mentioned it was August in New Orleans?) were sucking our strength, so we opted for water and iced tea instead of an adult beverage. Plus, we knew we'd have ample opportunity to get our booze on later that night.
At any rate, the po'boy and gumbo came out first. The gator sausage was spicy and meaty and had a good snap to the skin. The bread was fluffy on the inside and crunchy on the outside, and the po'boy was perfectly dressed.
My husband wasn't a huge fan of the gumbo - again, it didn't exactly fit his image of "the perfect bowl", but he liked the flavor and how everything melded together. His only gripe was that it was a thinner sauce than he'd prefer.
It took a hot minute for the shrimp to arrive. It actually got to the point where we were thinking of asking Bridget to cancel our order, but she arrived with the pound of shrimp, super-hot and steaming, and a lot of apologies. Apparently, she grabbed the shrimp out of the pot the second the kitchen said it was ready, because she knew we'd been waiting on it for a while. That was totally unnecessary but so appreciated.
The shrimp boil was good and messy, as you'd expect from something like that. The shrimp themselves were huge, juicy and perfectly cooked. We made a right mess on that table, which we tried to clean up to make it easier on Bridget.
The jazz trio added a nice soundtrack to the afternoon, which we enjoyed while dining. We took a couple pictures and a quick video of them before dropping in a tip and closing out our tab.
Bridget was by far the nicest and funniest server we had the pleasure of meeting during our week in the city. Ask for her if you happen to stop in for a bite!