Here’s what you need to know about Tracey’s. The owner, Jeffrey Carreras, ran a New Orleans institution, Parasols, for twelve years. Then the building Parasols was housed in got bought by some folks from Florida, and Jeff was kicked out. Jeff left Parasol’s (taking the staff, decorations and secret roast beef po’ boy recipe with him), bought a much larger building one block from his old digs, and then opened a new bar three days later. This new building used to be a bar, Tracey’s, and Jeff decided to honor its heritage by keeping the old name. That was in 2010. It’s been going gangbusters ever since. Tracey’s is a great neighborhood sports bar. If you are looking for a place to watch college or NFL football, this is the spot. But come early, or you will be peering through the windows to get a view of the screen. I once came here for a Saints game, and the bar was three deep. When I ordered a pitcher of beer, the bartender made me swear to return soon, saying, “Please bring it back.
It’s my last one.” While most of the twenty TVs were tuned to the Saints game, a few screens showed matchups from across the league. These TVs served as hubs for their fans. Everyone is welcome at Tracey’s, even Atlanta fans.
Tracey’s decor features the ubiquitous signs for beer and liquor. The one incongruous element is the several dozen green parasols hanging from the ceiling. Decorated with feathers and glitter, they gently sway above the crowd. While Tracey’s is a great bar no matter the day, it really comes into its own on game day. And nowhere else but Tracey’s offers this kind of celebration under the benevolent shade of a dozen green parasols.
Uptown
The hough some may argue about where the boundary lies between Uptown and the Garden District, no one can argue that one of the defining features of this section of town is Audubon Park. Though not nearly as large as City Park in Mid-City, Audubon is a charming place to take a stroll, especially if it takes you to the end nearest Magazine Street and into the Audubon Zoo. Audubon Park was once part of a plantation owned by Etienne Bore, the man who first granulated sugar on a commercial scale. It’s appropriate that the source of the city’s wealth (at least in the nineteenth century) started in the city’s neighborhood most associated with wealth. Rich folks live everywhere in New Orleans, but there seems to be a higher concentration of them here, and many of the bars in this area are quite swanky. Loyola and Tulane Universities are also in Uptown, which means there is a proliferation of college bars geared to their students, none of which are in this blog.
