Magazine Street Date Night

Alright, I know it has been one HOT minute since my last blog post, but apparently graduate school is a decent bit harder than undergrad. Guess I should've known 🤷🏼‍♀️ Oh well, finals are finally over now, and I am done with the semester and school for a while (woohoo!!). Anyways, have you ever seen a restaurant that you wanted to try? You keep driving or walking by it but never actually go in?

Well, Austin and I have been wanting to try this restaurant in New Orleans called The Bower. We had heard about it from a few people and had driven by it many times but had never actually gone. A few weeks ago, Austin had made us a reservation, but I got so busy with school and got kind of sick on that day, so we couldn't go. Well, this past weekend, when I came in town, Austin made a reservation, and we finally got to go. They were almost fully booked with reservations, except one at 8:15, so that's the one we did.

Once I got in town, I needed to go to Tiffany's to get a necklace shortened that I got as a gift for graduation. I had gotten it shortened once already, but I needed it to be shorter because I want to wear it with the necklace Austin got me last Christmas. We took the necklace to Tiffany's, and they are shortening it for me right now. I'm so excited to see it! While we were downtown, we decided to go see the Roosevelt Hotel since it is decorated for Christmas. It is so pretty at this time of year. If you haven't been, you have to go! And soon because it won't be decorated much longer since Christmas is just around the corner (yay!). We went last year, and obviously that was before corona. So things were pretty different this year. Inside the Roosevelt, there is the Sazerac Bar, and last year, it was so packed that you could barely move or get a drink (luckily we got one, which was amazing). This year, there wasn't anyone standing in the long, decorated hall, and you had to wait a while to get into the bar. Since we were trying to get to The Bower, we didn't think we could wait for the bar, so we just walked through the lobby of the hotel, which was still nice and fun. Might have to go back again this year for a Christmas drink though.

Once we finished at the Roosevelt, we headed to The Bower. We were almost an hour early, but they were able to seat us, which was really nice. Inside the restaurant, there were plants just below the ceiling and around the tables, and it had a darker ambiance. The Bower is connected to a bar, called Claret, and because of corona, the two have somewhat combined and have a limited menu. It all sounded really good though, but I will have to say that it's a fairly different menu. Some things sounded a little weird, yet interesting. We ordered drinks first (obviously), and let me just say that all of their cocktails sounded amazing. They had a pretty good looking wine selection as well. I got the Inside Voices drink (the pink one in the picture), even though the Mood Ring sounded really good...definitely will have to get that next time. Austin got the Chargarita, which had charred salt on the rim. Both were so good!

One of the first things that I saw on the menu was a burrata, and I knew we had to get it. I think Austin was a little hesitant at first because he didn't really know what it was, but he really enjoyed it. In case you don't know, burrata (pictured on the left) is a type of cheese. It's really creamy and is similar to mozzarella and is absolutely amazing! It came with focaccia bread with salt and rosemary, as well as a orange marmalade. The bread was delicious. I want to learn how to make it. 10/10 recommend the whole thing. Honestly, I think I could go back just for drinks and the burrata, and I probably will. After we had that, we decided to just get two more small plates instead of getting entrees or pasta, even though the thought of homemade pasta sounded delicious. Might have to get one of those next time. The two small plates that we got were the beef tartare and the tuna crudo. Both of these were ones that I thought sounded somewhat weird, but hey, why not try something totally new, right? Both were really good, and honestly, I'm not really sure which one I liked better. They were both really different. The beef tartare was paired with gnocchi fritto and two different sauces. The gnocchi fritto was really good, and all of these things paired really well together. The tuna crudo was basically raw tuna in a lemon vinaigrette with capers and pine nuts (pictured below in the front of the picture). We like this a lot, but there were a few pieces of tuna that seemed almost a little fatty. Other than that, it was delicious.

Overall, Austin and I really liked The Bower and will definitely be going back at some point. I have been craving that burrata since the day after we went, so if anything, I have to go back just to get that. If you are looking for something to eat that's a little different than your typical New Orleans cuisine, you should check out The Bower on Magazine.

~Cheers 🥂~