Louisiana
Café Du Monde
SEPTEMBER 2017
I made it down to New Orleans for my bachelor party and my brother/best man had quite the weekend planned out for us - including two of the top donut shops in the area.
What a fun trip to the big easy!! My brother put together a fun-filled weekend for our group. He of course knew better than to not include donuts on the itinerary, so we had multiple shops on the list which we stopped at multiple times. The highlight was of course Café du Monde with their famous beignets! Now let me first get this out of the way, I have heard from some people questioning the legitimacy of the beignet being included as a donut but I will argue all day long that it qualifies. Dough - check! Fried - check! Sugar topping - check!
I had heard a lot about this shop and the beignets in general being a classic food item in New Orleans. One of the things I had heard was that this place was open 24 hours which meant you could start and end your day at Café du Monde (more on that later)! In order to get a fair shake, we planned our first visit in the morning to make sure we got them piping hot and fresh. The restaurant is essentially a massive outdoor covered cafe. It’s first-come-first-served with lines that apparently span more than the block at times. My brother was nice enough to head over there early on a Saturday to scope it out and get in line. He said there wasn’t too much of a wait (10-15 minutes) and was seated at a small table that we then all joined him at. It’s a pretty large space and a major tourist hot spot so a fantastic spot for some good old-fashioned people watching. There are waiters floating and scrambling all around to turn over tables and get orders out quickly. It’s a bit of a hectic atmosphere. As soon as we sat down we were ready to order what everyone else was there for as well - a plate (or more accurately a bowl) of beignets! We flagged down a waiter and placed three orders that took just a few minutes to come out to us piping hot with a pile of powdered sugar on top of each.
I entered this Donut Bucket List spot with pretty high expectations because of how much I had heard about the restaurant and the beignet. My expectations were certainly met!! This donut was fantastic. Right off the bat huge points for piping hot donuts even in a big crowd, but more importantly a light and fluffy masterpiece that was sweet with the powdered sugar but not overpowering. I knocked down a few no problem and enjoyed every bit of it. The five of us quickly finished the 3 bowls (containing 6 each) leaving behind just a couple mounds of powdered sugar.
I can totally understand why this place is an institution and has been around since the 1800s! Just the tourist aspect of it is fun and worth it to see (crowds of people, classic diner/waiter apparel, etc) but this is a must-visit because of how good the beignets are. We made our round #2 stop around midnight, and while the place wasn’t as crowded and the quality in the morning seemed a bit higher it was quite an enjoyable ending to our night!
Other LA locations that we visited:
District Donuts Slider and Brew
Our first stop in the state was actually to District Donuts Slider and Brew, which is exactly what it sounds like: a fun bar spot that serves great food and donuts. Everything we had here was great!! They have both sweet and savory donuts so I tried a bit of both. They are the more typical artisan-style donuts you would expect to see in big cities. The donuts are good-sized and have a nice heft to them so you definitely aren’t going to be downing these like beignets. The flavors were exceptional though and probably exactly what I would start with if I opened my own donut shop. Cookie dough, Oreo, and then a savory option, their take on a monte cristo. They all looked phenomenal and tasted great as well. The only thing that I was disappointed with was that it looked like they were filled donuts but were actually classic ring donuts with toppings that covered the hole. I’m a sucker for a delicious filled donut, so I felt tricked (as I have been at other shops before) by this. The topping was still delicious though and the dough was both hearty and fresh. I really have to applaud them for this business model and fully support what they are doing here! More people should take notice because it was delicious and works!! If not for Café du Monde this would be my Louisiana spot!
