Where to Eat and Stay in New Orleans
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A favorite restaurant with the gay community, Feelings Cafe is set on a quiet street in a charming old building with a leafy patio. It's best known for its Sunday brunch (try the crab cakes with poached eggs and Hollandaise sauce) but serves first-rate Creole and Continental fare at lunch and dinner, too. For a sublime blend of soul and Creole cooking, drop by the Praline Connection, famous for both its crawfish etouffee and its bread pudding dessert. Down the street, Marigny Brasserie is a slick modern space whose kitchen puts a contemporary spin on both Louisiana and French ingredients and recipes. If you're a music fan, definitely check out Snug Harbor Jazz Bistro, which books some of the most talented musicians in the city.

Friendly hosts Leigh and Jim Crawford operate one of the neighborhood's best lodging choices, the nine-room Elysian Fields Inn, a handsome old mansion filled with fine antiques, music memorabilia, and local artwork. Other good bets include B&W Courtyards, which comprises a handful of intimate, charmingly furnished guest rooms, all with private entrances and most opening onto a landscaped courtyard, and La Maison Marigny, a gorgeous gay-owned 1898 B&B whose sun-flooded, impeccably decorated guest rooms have 12-foot ceilings and polished hardwood floors. The most popular room has access to a small balcony overlooking the street below.

The Central Business District
Just upriver from the French Quarter, you'll find the city's downtown business center, which is also rife with large hotels and a number of exceptional restaurants. The gay-friendly gaming and hospitality company Harrah's played a visible role in New Orleans' comeback, having morphed from merely a downtown casino into a full-service upscale resort, complete with a first-rate hotel and a handful of noteworthy restaurants. Rooms in the sleek, 26-story high-rise offer panoramic city views and are elegantly furnished with comfy sofas, plush bedding, and marble bathrooms. Among the property's stellar dining options, don't miss Bambu for innovative Pan-Asian food and the outstanding John Besh Steakhouse, which is tucked discreetly into a relatively peaceful corner of the otherwise boisterous casino. Inside this modern, whimsically decorated eatery you might sample cast-iron roast rib-eye of beef with peppercorn sauce, or 30-day aged Prime New York Strip with blue-cheese butter. From the restaurants to the gaming floor to the hotel, Harrah's provides some of the friendliest service in town.

Diagonally across from Harrah's, the Windsor Court has been one of the South's great emblems of luxury and hospitality since it opened in the early 1980s. The large rooms, many of them full suites, contain high-quality European furnishings and Italian-marble baths, giving them the feel and look of a posh English country home. Amenities include a full health club, a pool, and a wonderfully swish bar called the Polo Lounge, as well as one of the most notable restaurants in the city, the New Orleans Grill, which is worth experiencing even if you aren't staying here. Noted chef Greg Sonnier turns out such stellar fare as grilled rabbit tenderloin with grits and a honey-lavender-Dijon glaze, and oyster-artichoke-crusted redfish with white beans and a roasted-red-pepper sauce.

Uptown
Comprising the Garden District and its ornate mansions, the fine shopping and dining along Magazine Street, and the verdant scenery of Aububon Park, Uptown is a broad swath of the city upriver from the Quarter and Central Business District, an area best reached via the historic St. Charles Streetcar.
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