Contributed by Brian Nicol, former editor-in-chief of AAA's Home & Away magazine.

New Orleans is the smallest big town in the country. That’s how actor Bryan Batt (TV’s Mad Men and Ugly Betty) puts it, and he should know. He was born and raised there, and even though his career has taken him to Broadway and Hollywood, he still considers New Orleans home. The personal, small-town quality of the city is one of the many things he loves as he shared with me recently.

Batt is not only a New Orleans resident, he’s also a business owner. He and his partner, Tom Cianfichi, own Hazelnut, an upscale home furnishings shop on the city’s fashionable Magazine Street. Cianfichi takes care of the business details; Batt wraps gifts, sweeps up and greets customers. When his acting gigs take him out on the road, usually to New York or Los Angeles, Batt continues to promote his hometown.

“When I tell people I’m from New Orleans, they either say, ‘Oh, that’s my favorite city!’ or they say, ‘I’ve always wanted to go there; I’ve heard so much about it,’” he said. Of course what they’ve heard l hasn’t always been good but tourism is strong again. When Batt’s friends come to town to play tourist, he loves to play tour guide.

“I always tell them, yes, stay in the French Quarter, preferably at a small hotel,” Batt said. “It’s an amazing neighborhood with its history, architecture, food, music. Then venture out to see the other parts of town. Take a tour of the Garden District and see all those gorgeous homes.”
As his recommendations began to flow, Batt quickly turned to favorite restaurants and clubs. After all, New Orleans residents are nearly obsessed with food, drink and music, and Batt is no exception.

Food and drink: Clancy’s Restaurant, Antoine’s, Upperline, Commander’s Palace in the Garden District, Stella!, Lüke “and don’t forget little dives like Jacques-Imo’s on Oak Street.”  For terrific wines, Batt recommends the Wine Institute of New Orleans; for terrific cocktails, it’s Cure.

“In fact, it’s very hard to have a bad meal here,” Batt said after he took a breath from his litany of eateries. French, Italian, Cajun, Creole, African, Caribbean. “There are amazing cuisines and amazing chefs in this town. Emeril has some wonderful restaurants here. There are more restaurants open in the city now than before Katrina.”

When it comes to music, yes, the French Quarter has terrific clubs, including the legendary Preservation Hall, but visitors should branch out. If a person can hum it, New Orleans has got it: Cajun, zydeco, gospel, Latin, rhythm and blues, blues, country, reggae, rock and, of course, jazz. Frenchmen Street, not far from the Quarter, is lined with good jazz clubs: Snug Harbor, Spotted Cat, d.b.a.

“And don’t forget the Maple Leaf Bar on Oak Street. Lots of good jazz clubs in the Treme neighborhood, too. You can’t swing a dead cat in this town without hitting a good club.”

I asked about Bourbon Street, the notorious party spine of the Quarter? Should Batt’s tourist friends venture there?

“Well, it’s not my thing,” Batt said. “But everyone has to at least see it, walk up and down it. In fact, a couple of my favorite restaurants— Galatoire’s Restaurant, which has been there for generations, and Dickie Brennan’s Steakhouse, which is fantastic— are on Bourbon Street.”

What about Mardi Gras? Should visitors avoid the town then, when the parades, parties and crowds take over? “If you come to the French Quarter for Mardi Gras, it’s like spring break,” Batt said. “A lot of alcohol, a lot of partying. Wild and crazy.” He recommends visitors slip away from the Mardi Gras action for a stroll up and down St. Charles. It’s where the parades start; it’s more local, more for families. “But I love Mardi Gras, the history and pageantry as well as the partying,” Batt said. “You have to experience Mardi Gras at least once in your life.”

There are all those other things people can do, too, no matter when they visit New Orleans. Carriage rides, streetcars, walking tours, cemeteries, shopping— tourists should never forget shopping.“Up and down Royal Street are some of the best antiques stores anywhere,” Batt said. “Throughout the French Quarter, there are great antiques and galleries.”

But Batt is especially partial to Magazine Street, and not just because his Hazelnut shop is there. Sprinkled along the six-mile stretch of Magazine from Canal Street through the Central Business District and Warehouse District on to Audubon Park are upscale enclaves of shopping— antiques, jewelry, clothing, art.

“On the first Saturday of every month, all the galleries up and down Magazine Street and in the Warehouse District are open to the public,” Batt said. “There’s wine and all that, and you go see the new exhibits. It’s one of my favorite things to do in New Orleans.”

Food, drink, music, history, culture— all of it in New Orleans is terrific. But the people themselves are what make Batt and other New Orleans residents so proud of their city and so reluctant to ever leave." We celebrate life, we celebrate death and anything in between. There’s always a cause for celebration. Whether it’s a crawfish boil or the fanciest meal at Commander’s Palace, it’s celebrated with the same joie de vivre."

"People think everybody here is French. Not true. I’m French with a little bit of German. There’s a great Italian presence here. Spanish, African American, Latin American, Creole. We’re a melting pot, a great mix. I was at a wedding the other night, and a terrific Yiddish zydeco band was playing. That says it all.”