Page 347 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - USA

NE W ORLEANS , L OUISIANA  345

4 Café du Monde
Map E2. 6800 Decatur. Tel (504) 525-
4544. v Riverfront. @ 3, 5, 55.
Open 24 hours daily. Closed Dec 25.
7 - = ∑ cafedumonde.com
Everyone who visits New
Orleans stops here for a plate
of sugar-dusted beignets (square
French donuts) accompanied
by their famous chicory coffee,
café au lait. These are the only
items offered at this coffee
house dating from 1862,
where visitors can relax at a
table under the arcade and Jazz band playing in Jackson Square
listen to the street musicians,
or simply watch people as they The square’s gardens and visitors throughout the week.
go by. pathways, as they exist today, The square also hosts formal
During the mid-19th century were laid out in 1848, when events and concerts.
there were 500 similar coffee the beau tification of the A developer, like her
houses in the French Quarter. square took place under the philanthropist father Don
Coffee was one of the city’s patronage of Baroness Micaela Andrés Almonester y Rojas
most important commodities, Pontalba, then one of the city’s (see p346), Baroness Micaela
and the coffee trade helped the most colorful personalities. Pontalba also commissioned
economy recover after the Civil Under her auspices, the the Pontalba Buildings,
War, when New Orleans vied Pelanne brothers designed which flank the uptown and
with New York City to control the hand some cast-iron fence downtown sides of Jackson
coffee imports. Chicory coffee that encloses the square. At Square. Built at a cost of over
was conceived during the Civil the center stands a statue of $300,000, they were considered
War, when the root was used to its namesake General Jackson, the best and the largest
stretch the coffee supply. astride a rearing horse, which apartments of their kind at
was sculpted by Clark Mills that time, in the late 1840s.
for $30,000. The inscription These elegant apartment
“The Union must and shall be buildings are based on plans
preserved,” on the plinth was the baroness brought back
added by Union General from Paris after she separated
Benjamin “Beast” Butler, when from her husband. The design
he occupied the city during the of the initials A and P (for
Civil War. Almonester and Pontalba) in
Today, Jackson Square is a the cast-iron railings of the
lively meeting place, where balconies and galleries is
artists paint and exhibit their attributed to one of the
works, and musicians entertain baroness’s sons, an artist.
New Orleans Ironwork
Taking a break at Café du Monde with
coffee and beignets The shadows cast by New Orleans ironwork add a romantic touch
to the city. Wrought iron, which was used in early installations, was
5 Jackson Square fashioned by hand into beautiful shapes
by German, Irish, and African-American
Map E2. v Riverfront. @ 3, 5, 55. artisans. Cast iron, on the other hand,
Once little more than a bleak was poured into wooden molds and
and muddy field called the allowed to set. As a result, the latter has a
Place d’Armes, where troops somewhat solid, fixed appearance, unlike
were drilled, criminals were wrought iron, which is handmade and
has a more fluid aspect. Both kinds of
placed in the stocks, and ironwork can be seen throughout the city,
executions were carried out, particularly in the French Quarter and the
this square lies in the heart of Garden District, where balconies, fences,
the French Quarter. It was window grilles, and gates are adorned
renamed in honor of General Ironwork on the with decorative motifs such as abstracts,
Andrew Jackson (see p267) Pontalba Buildings cherubs, fruit, flowers, and animals.
who defeated the British at the
Battle of New Orleans in 1815.

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