Had a really great stay at Kevin's! He's an awesome host and also in a great neighborhood. I trust him a lot and he took care of me during tropical storm Barry; a bunch of us played board games (he has quite the collection) while we were waiting it out. I was a solo female traveler.
ROOM/HOUSE: Comfy (firm mattress) bed, I like that I could use 2 thin pillows instead of 1 pillow that was too big. The bed has 4 pillows total but it was just me. Everything is very modern and also very pretty, I loved the white painted wood and the fancy black handles/knobs/metal accessories, etc. Kitchen and bathroom were very modern and sparkling clean, and room was spacious and artistic.
LOCATION: Within walking distance from Commander's Palace (16 min) and Jack Rose (10min), in a very safe neighborhood and area. Gorgeous walk through the Garden district with all the mansions on the way to Commander's Palace, so try to do that during the day. New Orleans doesn't have shared Lyfts or Ubers, so it costed around $10 to get from Kevin's place in Central city to French Quarter, which is also a 40 minute walk. It was around $35 between the airport and Kevin's place. Also, everyone in New Orleans on the streets will say hi to you, which took some getting used to. That experience made me less afraid when people say hi to me at night when I'm walking by myself in other parts of the city, in that I'm a better judge of how creepy someone is by how they're addressing me, instead of judging them by the fact that they're addressing me.
HOST: Friendly, brilliant, and very knowledge about New Orleans! It made my trip so much more enjoyable hearing about the recent history of New Orleans, eg how things went down after Hurricane Katrina and how different parts of the city recovered at different rates. Found out he also does tours, which I would have done if I had more time: https://www.sidewalksidetours.com/
His domestic partner is also a connoisseur when it comes to restaurants and bars. She's been everywhere and can recommend a lot of places.
FRENCH QUARTER SIGHTS: In the French Quarter, I did a tarot card reading for $40 for 15 minutes.Celeste at Boutique du Vampyre was generous and we actually went over time and she didn't rush things through since she wanted to give me a good experience and finish my reading, and $40 is the market price from what I saw on Yelp.
Longway Tavern has delicious food and a really pretty courtyard. Their galette is pretty good, as is their wagyu steak sandwich. Their home fries were also divine and perfectly crispy. Also, their watermelon salad should really be called their crispy pork belly + watermelon salad. I'm not a fan of the texture of fat but if you love pork belly, this is the salad for you.
Go to Cafe du Monde for the coffee and beignets of course, and they're known for their cafe au lait, which I didn't know. I got the regular black coffee with chicory, and Kevin was telling me how it's cut with chicory due to how back in the day, coffee was really expensive. The chicory has that dark roast flavor without the bitterness of burnt coffee, which is why it's so popular. And in San Francisco, most coffee places I go to have the Cafe du Monde coffee so it was cool to go to the origin of that and observe how dingy/non-legit the physical venue seemed, haha.
Fifi Mahoney's has really cool wigs and artsy + fabulous/gay accessories. You can also purchase a wig cap for $5 and try on wigs, which was a lot of fun!
Central Grocery is the creator of the muffaleta, which was pretty good. They serve them cold/room temperature and don't toast them, FYI, so having leftovers makes it really easy to have a meal for at the airport. The olive tapenade wasn't that strong which is why it was tolerable for me.
LOCAL (to Kevin's place) SIGHTS:
Walk through the Garden District if you're a fan of architecture and nature. Lots of gorgeous mansions.
You can go to Commander's Palace if you'd like to dress up and to say you've been there/have an opinion on it. It is cool though how everyone's food is served at the same time by multiple waiters. I thought the food overall was only okay. Also, everywhere says to get the turtle soup, but I strongly disliked it. It was WAY too salty, and even when I asked for them to redo it (which was very kind of them), it was still too salty...
If you love tart frozen yogurt/cheesecake, you have to try the goat cheesecake at Jack Rose. It was delicious. Also, the decor inside Jack Rose is a lot of fun and very instagrammable.
OTHER: Willie Mae's has decent fried chicken and reminded me of Asian fried foods. They use a wet batter, and tbh I'd rather go somewhere else and try something new than come back. It's also kind of out of the way
Tbh I didn't do too much because of tropical storm Barry, but I had a lot of fun playing board games and hanging out with Kevin, his partner, and his partner's friend (I'm an extrovert and also love meeting people)--I got to explore New Orleans both in a social setting, and as a solo traveler. Kevin is super awesome and friendly, and I trust him a lot; he made sure I had a good time in New Orleans and he deserves extra stars for going above and beyond!
15/10 would recommend staying here!