The Taste Of The NFL! The Taste Of Whiskey!

Saturday morning I woke up around 9 am to a missed text from Kerry at 8:30 asking if I wanted to go to all-you-can-drink bloody Mary breakfast at Daisy Dukes in the French quarter. We’d been saying all week that we wanted to get down to the French quarter during the day and it seemed like as good a day as any.

I grabbed a hat and a sweatshirt and ran down to the lobby and met Kerry. We cab’d it down to Chartres St. and went into the culinary Parthenon known as Daisy Duke’s. We abandoned pretense and ordered the bloody Mary’s and breakfast. The drinks came out, adorned in celery, lemon, lime, olives and a boiled crawfish.

The cocktail was spicy and I found I had to wash it down with my breakfast instead of the other way around.

We finished breakfast and hit up Bourbon St. We went into the Bourbon St. Blues bar and there was a phenomenal 3 piece rock band playing. We order up some shots and some beers and settle in.

The band is terrific. The DJ for the day shows up and wants to buy shots for Kerry and me. We have no choice but to accept. Just to show I’m as serious as the DJ, I have an additional shot.

We spend about two hours at the bar drinking fairly seriously. I’ve got a strong buzz on when we notice on facebook that Nick and Jay are at Coyote Ugly. We immediately call them and tell them to stay there.

We passed Coyote Ugly the night before on our walk for a cab, but I’m not joking when I tell you that everything we’ve done outside the confines of the Hilton Garden hotel has been in a borderline blackout haze and we can’t remember where we were when we walked by it.

We find it again and Nick and Jay are inside living it up. We join them and it’s barroom magic. The four of us are the only ones in the bar and we take over. We were playing all the songs on the jukebox, laughing with the bartenders and each other and generally rocking the house.

We stayed there for an hour and change before Kerry took off to get some work done. I had work to do also, but I couldn’t leave the party (a recurrent life theme for yours truly) and I stayed with Jay and Nick.

The three of us returned to the Bourbon Street Blues Club where Kerry and I were earlier and there was a new and equally awesome band playing. The place was jammed at this point. I take center stage on the dance floor and show off my razor sharp moves. Ladies were Impressed and I had several dance partners. You’re welcome, Ladies.

After a few hours, we had to hit the road to get ready for our night plans, the Taste Of The NFL. We walked back to the hotel and parted ways.

I went up to the room completely hammered. Billy was in the room. I needed to steam my shirt so I put that on a hanger and fired up the shower, closed the bathroom door and proceeded to collapse on the bed.

Kerry came in minutes later and it was time to get going. I sprinted through the shower and got dressed. I was still banged up.

We met with Butch, Nick, and Jay in the lobby and the six of us headed to the Taste of the NFL fundraiser. It’s the second toughest ticket in town behind the Super Bowl itself.

It’s being held in the convention center right around the corner from our hotel. We get inside and go right over to see our friends in the Davio’s booth. Steve Grogan is there to meet with folks and autograph stuff. I can’t even make eye contact, because Steve Grogan is my boyhood hero.

We continue to make our way around this enormous room and sample all the plates of the various chefs from each NFL city. I’m still so banged up. I find a place in the back of the room to chill out. I mixed my night with some resting, and some moving around the room to eat.

Around 10 p.m., Kerry found me and we hung out for awhile when I just had to call it. I was out of gas completely. So, I said my goodbyes and hit the road to the hotel. Before I go, I have to walk out of the exit of the building and the volunteers were set up there to clap for everyone that left. I took the opportunity to high five my way up one side of the exit and back up the other and then I did a psuedo moonwalk while shooting air guns at the floor. The assembled volunteers seemed to love this.

I finally got the daytime feel of Bourbon St. and the French quarter. I had a great day and had no regrets about turning in early. Sunday is the big game and I’ll get in touch soon to tell you all about it from my point of view.

© Copyright 2013 Football Nation LLC. Privacy Policy & Terms of Use

Some images property of Getty Images or Icon/SMI