Tag Archives: downtown

Opening Today: City Greens

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Now that football season is (pretty much) over and there is a slight lag before Mardi Gras kicks in, many people around town will try to get to those resolutions to eat healthier and lose weight they made a few weeks ago. Today, City Greens in the 909 Poydras building (the First Bank and Trust Building), joining a bevy of recent restaurant openings in the area and makes meeting those goals a bit easier. According to the press release:

Most of the lettuce served at City Greens comes from a hydroponics farm located in Florida, which is owned and operated by Kazenmaier [one of the co-owners].
“By growing our own lettuce, we’re offering a higher quality of organic greens to customers,” says Kazenmaier, Co-Founder. “We’re able to maintain a consistent high standard of product throughout the year instead of the ups and downs related to seasonal growing conditions. City Greens only serves the freshest ingredients. If there are products that do not meet our standard of freshness then they will not be served to customers.”

If City Greens can stick to their promise to provide nothing but the freshest greens, I think it will be a welcome addition to downtown dining. City Greens derives its name not just from the salads they serve, but also their approach to eco-friendly operations.

City Greens uses Eco-products, which makes serving containers, utensils and cups made of recycled materials. All salads, soups and wraps are served in these eco-friendly to-go containers. “We made a conscious decision to supply eco-friendly products in an effort to reduce our carbon footprint,” Birtel [the other co-owner] says. “Not only do we want to create better lifestyles for New Orleanians, we want to encourage a healthier environment as well.”

To really capitalize on the eco-movement and helping New Orleans, I’d love to see them move that hydroponic farm into the metro area and outside of Florida.

City Greens is open Monday through Friday from 7:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. and will offer light breakfast to go with the salad/soup menu.

If anyone gets a chance to check it out before we do, please let us know what you think in the comments

Pinkberry Comes Downtown

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I’ll be honest, I haven’t been to Pinkberry yet. I’m not on some kind of boycott because it is a chain, or because it isn’t “New Orleans” or because it is rumored to be overpriced. Nope, I haven’t been because the line has always been crazy when I’ve been in the neighborhood and I’m really not much for lines. One night, Cupcake and I went to Slice with a couple of friends for a late dinner and the line was into the parking lot. I figured for sure that we’d be able to test it out after dinner with most people having gone home for the evening or shifted from cold desserts to cold beer. I was wrong. In fact, I think the line was longer than when we went in for dinner. However, the glowing reviews that Pinkberry has gotten since it opened may require me temporarily increase my tolerance for lines. I mean, it wouldn’t always be packed if it sucked, right?

Well Pinkberry has almost completed step two in its plans to take over New Orleans. Dropped down at the intersection of Canal, Tchop and S. Peters the new Pinkberry location is conveniently located across the street from the Insectarium and the Shops at Canal Place as well as down the street from the river and the Aquarium. Unfortunately, with the sheer number of tourists and convention folk in town, I doubt I’ll have much luck getting in to this one either. At least the close proximity of this Pinkberry will let me drop in on an off-hour, say 2:45 or so. Better yet, I might take advantage of Pinkberry’s online ordering and zip in ahead of all the hot and sweaty tourists. If there is anything I like as much as I despise waiting in line, its finding a legitimate way to skip the line.

The new downtown Pinkberry is currently scheduled to open on August 20th.

Update: Pinkberry opened on the 19th with a nice charity event. Of course, as I passed by the line was out the door and down the block!

Around Town–The Festival Sabbath Period

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Pretty much everyone around the world, regardless of religious affiliation (if any), is familiar with Genesis 2:2:

“By the seventh day G-d had finished the work He had been doing; so on the seventh day He rested from all His work.”

Although lesser known worldwide, most New Orleanians are familiar with Festivals 2:2:

“For the days following the festival of the French Quarter and prior to the celebration of both jazz and heritage the people rested from their festivals, as their stomachs were full and their wallets were empty.”

With this holy scripture (and the ever climbing prices at Jazz Fest) in mind, I bring you a handful of cheap and awesome things to do these next few days so you can still live the high life on a shoestring budget.

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MiLa

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When one travels often, one of the first rules that everyone seems to learn is “Don’t eat at the hotel restaurant.” New Orleans, in its fine tradition of thumbing its nose at the rules, is of course littered with exceptions to the “avoid the hotel restaurant” rule. MiLa Restaurant (817 Common Street, 504-412-2580) is one such exception. With its separate entrance, you could visit MiLa often and never once figure out that it’s a “hotel restaurant.”

As with most restaurants, the bar warmly greets you as you enter. The long and spacious bar area could easily hold many an office happy hour with room to spare. With liquor bottles running almost the entire length, I imagine just about any libation you could dream up would be just an order away. Unbeknownst to us, the cool, contemporary decor of MiLa provided great insight into the meal we were about to have.
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