Do you remember your first beer? How about your first sip of wine? I don't. The first brush with those pleasures must've happened casually, something introduced with a taste here or there.
But, the first taste of New Orleans coffee? For me, that stands out very clearly.
It was the spring of 1999, I hadn't even moved to New Orleans yet, but was visiting to scout things out, flinging job resumes anywhere they would land.
I was staying at an old, cut-rate guesthouse in the Lower Garden District, and right across the street was a dusky little coffee shop, with lamps on the tables with green glass shades and a quiet crowd of people reading books and writing in notepads.
It was the original Rue de la Course, or as New Orleans usually called it, the Rue. I didn’t know anything about it but what I did realize, right away, was that New Orleans coffee was special. It was a rich, dark, full, roasty flavor with a kick to knock the creeping fatigue of the humid day right out of the room.
This was different from the run of the mill coffee I’d known back home, where coffee pretty much meant the same thin, beetle-colored brew whether it came from a convenience store, an eggs-and-toast diner or a better restaurant.
For someone only just beginning to explore New Orleans, it made an impression. I went home telling friends how even the coffee was different down there.
After I moved to town this and the other Rue coffee shops that once dotted New Orleans became part of my personal map of the city. There is still one, at Oak and Carrollton, which gives that same feel.
If this sounds like an old story, it’s one with a new chapter. That first Rue, at Magazine and Race streets, didn't reopen after Katrina. It became a new coffee shop called Mojo, run by a guy who actually used to work there when it was Rue. Mojo now has two locations and has its own coffee roasting plant for specialty beans. It’s all part of a new trend for coffee turning up in New Orleans, which sees connoisseurs sourcing and preparing beans the way a wine maker approaches grapes.
Mojo is supplying the coffee now for an old Rue that is back in business under a new name on Magazine Street -- Ignatius Espresso Bar and Café. And for me, checking out this old-now-new again coffee bar story stirred more than just a thirst for coffee.
When we think about the restaurants we love, memories are often tied to celebrations and milestones marked at their tables. Thinking back to an old coffee shop is different, it’s more about every day rhythms of years past - the study nook for school, now completed; the launch pad for new projects and career moves; the gathering spot for neighbors, who may have since moved away.
We usually drink coffee for a little get up and go, but returning to the old Rue showed how sometimes even a cup of Joe can turn back the clock.
1140 S. Carrollton Ave.
3121 Magazine St.
1500 Magazine St. and 4700 Freret St.
