Dining like a local in New Orleans: Check your sneakers at the door

It was not until I arrived at Cafe Du Monde that I realized you now have to stand in line to get your beignets and coffee with chicory. The beignet — a puffy, fried doughnut swimming in powdered sugar — has been a New Orleans tradition since the city was French. Cutting Colombian coffee with chicory (a locally available plant) has been a New Orleans practice since the Union blockade during the Civil War made it a necessity.

Another tradition is table service. Although confectioner’s sugar still flew around the open-air seating area like hundred-euro notes in the back room at the Casino de Monte-Carlo, for the first time, I had to carry my coffee and beignets to the table myself. New Orleans dining is as much about hospitality as food and drink, and here was a city culinary landmark behaving like a McDonald’s with a great pastry chef.

I was in town for my high school reunion, and as I swatted sugar off my