Saturday, March 10, 2007

Café du Monde

Café du Monde is a coffee shop on Decatur Street in the French Quarter, is best known for its
café au lait and its French-style beignets. 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.

Starting in the late 1980s, Café du Monde opened up additional locations in shopping malls.

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," 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.

Characters played by Gene Hackman and John Cusack were seen meeting at the café in the movie Runaway Jury in 2003.




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