A New Orleans surprise
by Pat Dooley
I have been to New Orleans so many times that I didn’t think the city had any surprises left for me. Well, not any surprises I want to see.
But we stumbled across one on Friday night. While walking to a place we knew about to watch college football games, Robbie Andreu was stopped by the sight of a huge TV in a restaurant. We soon realized it was Manning’s and that there were dozens of large HD tvs in the place. The big screen is 13 feet by 7½ feet.
It gets better.
We sat outside and ordered through a window that opened up to the bar and restaurant. It was a great setting but when I went to the restroom I discovered something even better.
The place has two rows of recliners. Oh my, we were in heaven. And because the place just opened in January, they still smelled like leather.
It gets better.
As we were watching the end of Virginia Tech and Rutgers, reclining like we were at home, the owner walked by. Archie manning isn’t just one of the best players in college football history, he’s one of the nicest guys I’ve ever met. We stopped the former Ole Miss quarterback because both Robbie and I have interviewed him in the past.
He couldn’t have been a better host.
“We’ve had people fall asleep in those chairs,” he said.
He walked around the restaurant and posed for dozens of pictures. Then he went to the private dining room called “Archie’s Room” to mingle with the crowd back there.
We left before we did fall asleep in the chairs.
At any rate, I highly recommend Manning’s if you’re coming to New Orleans for the game or any other time. In a city where almost everything is overpriced, it’s very reasonable and the duck wings are excellent. It’s on Fulton Street near Harrah’s.
Tell Archie we sent you.
Pat Dooley shot an 85 at Augusta National. Tripled the 18th. Other than that, there’s not much to tell. Great wife, two beautiful daughters. Been at The Sun since 1987 and worked in Jacksonville and Fort Lauderdale before that. Spent a year in Storrs, Conn. Actually, it was only five days but it seemed like a year. Likes Tom Petty, The Beatles, Weezer and long walks on St. Augustine Beach as long as they end at the Beachcomber. Reads every e-mail except those sent with Russian alphabet. Favorite sports are college football, college basketball, golf and cooking chili.
Hope you washed your hands.
by HardToKillGtr