Beignets at Cafe du Monde

Cafe du Monde in New Orleans. Photo by David Lansing.

When I get to Café du Monde, the takeout line extends out the side, around the back, and almost all the way down to the Grey Line Tours kiosk. Normally, I’d just go somewhere else for breakfast, but Christine warned me it would be like this. “The lines are horrible, but the wait is worth it,” she wrote me yesterday. And, really, how can you come to New Orleans and not make at least one visit to Café du Monde for café au lait and a box of beignets. Even if you’re not crazy about beignets—and I am not—you still have to order a box.

I’m not expecting much from either the coffee, which is blended with chicory, or the French-style donuts. Which is why I don’t get a table in the café. I figure this way I can sit on a park bench outside the restaurant, take a couple sips of my café au lait, a bite of beignet, and be done with it. Maybe feed the rest of the donuts to the pigeons all around. But, damn, these aren’t half bad. Hot, sweet, fresh. And the café au lait is much better than I expect as well. Before you know it, I’ve downed my coffee and am licking the powder sugar off my fingers from the last beignet. And thinking of going back for more.