New Orleans
By Malia Boyd

Just downriver from the overexposed and over-the-top French Quarter, the Faubourg Marigny is its low-profile, edgier cousin. It was named for former resident Bernard de Marigny, and perhaps that set the tone: a dissolute playboy, he inherited $7 million from his father in the early 1800's and lost nearly all of it playing craps. His obituary remembered him as "the last of the Creole aristocracy, one who knows how to dispose of a great fortune with contemptuous indifference."

A decline in the 1950's left the Faubourg (a French term for "neighborhood") and its glorious Victorians and Creole cottages orphaned, until a few brave souls started to reclaim the area in the seventies. "When I bought my house," says Marigny pioneer Gary de Leaumont, "my parents told me, 'If you're moving there, we're buying you a gun!' " But lately, the Marigny has cleaned up its act. Frenchmen Street led the charge, with new restaurants, bars, and live music clubs crowding its formerly seedy sidewalks. An evening out involves a natural progression: Start with cocktails, move on to a multi-course meal, finish by shaking it all night to some fabulous band. So beware—a visit to the Marigny usually results in a dawn-lit crawl home. And that's fine, since the one pursuit that comes up short is shopping—perhaps everyone's too busy sleeping it off to open boutiques.

RESTAURANTS
Belle Forché 1407 Decatur St.; 504/940-0722; dinner for two $80. Behind this Creole beauty are Robert De Niro, jewelry designer David Yurman, and Le Cirque alum Matthew Yohalem, whose artistic creations (eggplant, crabmeat, and hot-pepper gumbo with coconut and coriander) are consumed by a flashy crowd.
Marisol 437 Esplanade Ave.; 504/943-1912; dinner for two $65. Peter Vazquez cooks up eclectic food worthy of his equally varied clientele: blue-haired ladies whose only kicks are culinary ones, out-of-towners who lucked into a hot tip. If the weather's nice, beg for a courtyard table.
Old Dog New Trick Café 517 Frenchmen St.; 504/943-6368; lunch for two $30. Vegetarian meals are hard to find in a town so enamored of sausage and seafood. Old Dog is a safe haven for herbivores who want more than a plate of steamed or sautéed vegetables.
Praline Connection 542 Frenchmen St.; 504/943-3934; dinner for two $50. Rib-ticklin' fried chicken and greens make Praline a soul-food favorite.
La Spiga Bakery 2440 Chartres St.; 504/949-2253; lunch for two $16. Grab one of La Spiga's fancy sandwiches for a picnic in the Marigny's beguiling Washington Park.
Café Negril 606 Frenchmen St.; 504/944-4744; dinner for two $40. Get your hand around a Red Stripe and feast on Jamaican jerk fish in this brightly painted, but dimly lit, newcomer.
Marigny of New Orleans Brasserie 640 Frenchmen St.; 504/945-4491; dinner for two $60. Café Marigny 1913 Royal St.; 504/945-4472; breakfast for two $16. Sister Creoles around the corner from each other. The café proffers a boisterous breakfast and lunch, while the brasserie "kicks it up a notch" (as someone else would say) at dinner.
Feelings Café 2600 Chartres St.; 504/945-2222; dinner for two $75. Set in a centuries-old plantation, Feelings rates high for romance. But like most things in the Marigny, it has the requisite splash of camp: a rollicking piano bar on Fridays and Saturdays.
La Peniche Restaurant 1940 Dauphine St.; 504/943-1460; dinner for two $30. The late-night "snackerie" of choice for revelers, not really for the quality of the food, but because . . . well, where else might you get oyster po'boys at four in the morning?

AFTER DARK
Checkpoint Charlie 501 Esplanade Ave.; 504/949-7012. This Marigny chameleon hosts different bands (punk, jazz, country) every night. Lots of hometown acts get their start here.
Café Brasil 2100 Chartres St.; 504/949-0851. The bands that perform here—often Latin on on weekends—attract such a throng that the party inevitably ends up spilling out onto the street.
Snug Harbor Jazz Bistro 626 Frenchmen St.; 504/949-0696. This is where you go to hear the best live, straight-ahead jazz in the city (and fill up on massive burgers and loaded baked potatoes). Ellis Marsalis, patriarch of the famed family of trumpeters, often performs here.
dba 618 Frenchmen St.; 504/942-3731. Jaded neighbors call it a yuppie bar, but the clientele—dreadlocked, tattooed, and pierced—and the sparse industrial interiors look a little rough around the edges for such a label.
Spotted Cat 623 Frenchmen St.; 504/943-3887. Not as sleek as its feline name would suggest, this new cat on the block features jazzy and acoustic fare that the mellow set finds appealing.