48 Hours in New Orleans

By Susan CraterApril 25, 2025

New Orleans is a city of storytellers. It's where my own story took a significant turn as I met my husband there in my twenties - in a bar no less. As a teenager, I inhaled Southern writers, whose emotional tenor took me out of my New England roots and brought me into a world that was foreign and filled with romance and pathos. Lillian Hellman and her book Pentimento ( no one knew half of it was made up at the time) captured me immediately as did the city's architecture the minute I saw it.

I regret not taking up the fabulous Suzanne Reinstein, a native New Orleans designer, for a weekend party after Katrina where she and Julia Reed, another legendary native, opened the doors to their city to help bring people back. It was an invitation from The New Orleans Museum of Art to speak on a panel with Eliza and our good friend Mieke ten Have for their spring event aptly titled "Art in Bloom" that finally lured me back.

Eliza, Mieke, and I had two full days there, which cemented our relationship as fellow travelers. From Mieke's pursuit of the perfect muffaletta to Eliza and Mieke's keen instincts on antique shops and architecture, we covered a lot of territory. Hotel Peter and Paul was the perfect setting for us to be.

We settled into Peter and Paul with delight. Set in an old convent and rectory, it is in the historic Marigny, a mixed-use neighborhood, just off the Mississippi, known for its painted Creole cottages. It is a quiet but also happening part of town.

We were obsessed with all of the gingham throughout the hotel.

The first night we went to the New Orleans Museum of Art benefit party and were happily hit with a giant dose of southern hospitality. At breakfast the next morning, Mieke pivoted from her trip to the flower market to literally enlisting a workman at a remodeling site across the street to assist in cutting off giant branches from a massive Chinese Fringe tree. Mieke's message outlined in her amazing book Interiors: Styled by Mieke ten Have is always forage first, which resonated in real time as her cut branches arrangement on the museum stage was spectacular. The panel went well - we had lively discussions of visual storytelling and then we were set loose in one of the most romantic, layered, enriching cities on the planet.

Mieke doing what she does best.

Highlights we will return to were the Faulkner House Bookstore. Formally a building housing French prisoners in the 1840s, it is where Faulkner lived in the 1920s - his exact bedroom on Pirates Alley. The gentleman managing the bookstore provided the details of Faukner writing his first story there, A Soldiers Pay. This segued into Tennessee Williams and his life in the quarter and we honestly could have listened all day.

Next up was Lucullus Antiques, which describes itself as "Carrying on our tradition of eccentric taste and high style in our old Bywater Warehouse." Again, we were met with a master storyteller Patrick Dunne , who regaled us with stories, not only of the antiques, but his shopping trips to France and other bits of gossip and spice. He specializes in antique copper, among other magnificent pieces and is a favorite for antique cookware. The giant black cat in the back of the massive warehouse was only one of the startling visual aspects of the store. Magazine Street was next and our visit to Sud another stand out. Owned by architects, William Brockschmidt and Richard Dragisic, who have been traveling to Sicily for over twenty years where they have restored a beautiful house, they have amazing offerings from paintings to ceramics to insanely beautiful jewelry Eliza could not resist.

Faulkner House Books and a snap from SUD.

Riding on the high of beautiful objects, epic storytelling and delicious food, we headed to the Garden District for a dinner party hosted by Permele Robinson and her husband Garner, old friends of Mieke's and the owners of Faulkner House Books. Set in an amazing house where Jefferson Davis famously died, we were wined and dined by an incredible group of New Orleans natives and creative transplants. Needless to say, it was a night to remember. The romantic charm of the Garden District architecture with its lush surroundings and eclectic styles dazzled and comforted us as grateful outsiders catching a glimpse of part of the heart of the " Big Easy"

The city of New Orleans is a 'gumbo" (as locals would say) of resilience, creativity, and complexity and we left a little altered and very much eager to return.

Cheers, Susan