Café du Monde - New Orleans, LA
Posted by: Big B Bob
N 29° 57.447 W 090° 03.712
15R E 783559 N 3317703
World famous for its café au lait, beignets, and the opportunity to people watch in New Orleans, LA.
Waymark Code: WM3VJT
Location: Louisiana, United States
Date Posted: 05/21/2008
Views: 166
Cafe of the World
Café du Monde is a coffee shop on Decatur Street in the French Quarter in New
Orleans, Louisiana. It is best known for its café au lait and its French-style
beignets (aka French Market Doughnuts). In the New Orleans style, the coffee is
blended with chicory.
The location at the upper end of the French Market was established in 1862.
For over a century it was one of two similar coffee and beignets places in the
market, the other being Morning Call, established in 1870 moved out of the Old
French Market in 1974 to the suburb of Metairie, Louisiana.
Starting in the late 1980s, Café du Monde opened up additional locations in
shopping malls. While it once expanded as far away as Atlanta, Georgia, in
recent years the company has restricted its operation to the greater New Orleans
metro area. Café du Monde locations can also be found throughout Japan.
It is open 24 hours, 7 days a week, except for Christmas Day (and days when
"the occasional hurricane passes too close to New Orleans," according to the
shop's web site), and is patronized by both locals and visitors.
Hurricane Katrina did, indeed, pass too close to New Orleans — the shop
closed at midnight on August 27, 2005, due to the city's mandatory evacuation.
Although it suffered only minor damage, it remained closed for nearly two
months.
Owners took advantage of the low traffic time when New Orleans was
gradually repopulating to refurbish and upgrade the kitchen. The French Quarter
location re-opened on October 19, 2005 to national media attention.