Beignets and Chicory Coffee — Café Du Monde

The coffee ran out in 1862. Union blockades choked the Gulf, and New Orleans—the largest port in the South, exporting the nation's cotton to Europe—felt it first. Creoles stretched what they had with roasted chicory root, and the bitterness became the city's taste. That same year, a coffee stand opened at the upriver end of the French Market. The stand is still there. The coffee still has chicory. The menu has not changed. You order beignets, coffee black or au lait, or orange juice. That's it. No menu exists because no menu is required. Beignets are squared pieces of fried dough with no hole in the middle, brought to Louisiana by Acadians in the 18th century. At Café Du Monde they come three to an order, buried under powdered sugar thick enough to coat your shirt, your bag, the person next to you. The sugar gets on everything. Wear dark clothing at your own risk. The building is called The Butcher's Hall. The Spanish built it in 1791; a hurricane damaged it in 1812; a new market went up in 1813. The coffee stand claimed its corner in 1862 and opened 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It closes only for Christmas and hurricanes. Hurricane Katrina shut the doors at midnight on August 27, 2005. The café suffered minor damage but stayed closed for nearly two months. Six weeks after the storm, the owners promoted the reopening as a sign that the city's recovery had begun. Over 100 news outlets covered it when the doors opened again on October 19, 2005. Good Morning America broadcast from the French Market. The line reformed. A century after the Civil War, Vietnamese refugees arrived in the United States accustomed to French-style chicory coffee—a colonial inheritance they shared with Louisiana. Many settled along the Gulf Coast, frequented Café Du Monde, worked there. Families sent the orange-yellow tins to relatives across the country. Independent East Asian grocery stores began stocking them. The coffee traveled because the taste was already familiar. The line is always long. Go anyway. The beignets are hot, the coffee is bitter and sweet, and the powdered sugar proves you were there.