A lot of tourists who come to New Orleans go home and describe the city as an oasis of European-looking streets lined with music clubs where people wander around drinking cocktails and eating beignets 24 hours a day. This fabulous wonderland is the same 13 riverside blocks that locals describe as dirty, smelly, crime-ridden, home to gutter punks, T-shirt shops, and over-priced restaurants they wouldn’t go to even if they could find a parking place.

On today’s Out to Lunch Peter Ricchiuti hosts an examination of the French Quarter from the perspective of locals who don’t shun the neighborhood – they live there. Peter’s lunch guests are guardians of the Quarter as a community:

Meg Lousteau, Executive Director of the Vieux Carre Property Owners, Residents, & Associates. 

And Carol Gniady, Director of French Quarter Citizens, Inc.

Peter is also joined by Dennis Brady from the kingmaker of Quarter progress, the Vieux Carre Architectural Review Committee.

Not only is New Orleans’ French Quarter the city’s oldest neighborhood, it’s also the defining symbol of New Orleans as a brand: the world party capital where the bars never close, you can drink on the street, and the fun never ends. How does the city reconcile those two essential truths? Peter takes a shot at answering that riddle on today’s Out to Lunch.

All the photos on this page were taken at Commander’s Palace by Cheryl DalPozzal.