Coop’s In The French Quarter Tops Daisy Duke’s Drink In NOLA
If there’s one drink you need in New Orleans to get you going in the morning after the night before, it’s a Bloody Mary.
And so I went searching for one and found it.
It is at Coop’s Place, a dive bar and restaurant if ever there was one, in the French Quarter two blocks toward Bourbon Street from the French Market and across Decatur Street from the former Margaritaville (now BB King’s blues bar).
This is one strong Bloody Mary folks, just what one needs after a night out in New Orleans with another night out in New Orleans ahead of you. Just one will have you walking out of the place a little disoriented, shaking your head a few times to the left and to right in an attempt to shake it off a bit.
But then it settles into your system and you’re on your way again to New Orleans nirvana.
The Bloody Mary at Coop’s comes in a highball glass. It is spicy but not over the top – just right. It has so much alcohol in it you can practically taste the vodka. This is one drink you want to savor and sip, not gulp. It cost just $7.
For food, it serves breakfast, some overly-Cajun items like rabbit jambalaya and a half-pound Coop Burger, in a price range of about $10-20.
I found the Bloody Mary to be better than one recommended to me by a good friend who – like me – is also a New Orleans veteran at a place called Daisy Duke’s.
The Bloody Mary at Daisy Duke’s looks like something you’ll find on a cruise ship or at a tourist restaurant.
Here, it is served in mason jars with a crawfish on the rim. Like Coop’s it is strong – “they are definitely not for wimps” my friend says – and are thicker than the one at Coop’s Place. That thickness, to me, covers up some of the basic elements of the Bloody Mary. It’s also a bit harder to drink through a straw.
Daisy’s Duke’s has food too, 24-hour breakfast in fact. It also has other basic food items.
A big difference in the two places is that I felt more comfortable at Coop’s. For starters, Coop’s has a bar. Daisy Duke’s is a restaurant. And it’s not as cozy, at least the one in the Quarter. I found the service lackadaisical and I’m not one to really relish places where the servers and patrons are the pale, heavily-tattooed, body-piercing types.
Hey, the servers at Daisy Duke’s were friendly and all but I just never felt at ease in the place and found myself kind of hurrying through the Bloody Mary rather than taking my time as I did at Coop’s Place. Perhaps the location in the Warehouse District – newer and more polished – has a different vibe.
The Bloody Mary’s at Daisy Duke’s are also twice as expensive as at Coop’s – $13 in fact. Tho it does have one decided advantage over Coops: they are bottomless with a meal.
Cheers!
New Orleans Bloody Mary Places, Locations & Maps
Coop’s Place: 1109 Decatur St.
Daisy Duke’s French Quarter: 121 Chartres St.
Daisy Duke’s Warehouse District: 308 St. Charles Ave.
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