Notes from the Weekend: March 11

Notes from the Weekend is a feature that sees the members of Team Meal Ticket compiling all the food/drink highlights uncovered during prime eatin' time, Friday to Sunday. Adam took the weekend off so it's just caroline chiming in this week. We'd love to hear all about YOUR weekend eating adventures in the comments. Go for it! (View past NFTW installments at citypaper.net/notes.)

Adam Erace: AE

Caroline Russock: CR

Afternoon tea at the Mary Cassat Room at the Rittenhouse Hotel is kind of the best thing ever and made me think that I could very easily survive on canapes and Champagne alone. But things got a little less dainty when we scored a Friday night table at Brauhaus Schmitz and after several pints, or really liters of Andechser Doppelbock we settled into a meal that was one of the porkiest and most awesome in recent memory. We started out with some spicy brined pickled smoked sausages and a serious house-cured meat and cheese board and then decided on the Schlachtplatte. Advertised as a butcher's plate for 2-4 very hungry people, is a mountain on sausages plus a fantastic pork chop, crisp-skinned pork shank, liverwurst, blood sausage and sauerkraut. Somehow we ended up with individual bowls of goulash as well. A few glasses of schnapps and a slice of apple strudel ended this epic German evening.—CR

Wheeled down in New Orleans Friday night, my first visit to this fabled playground on the Mississippi. We dropped bags and proceeded right to Casa Borrega, a glowing taqueria in an old mansion that turned out to be the Cantina of New Orleans, packed with cool young things, Mexican knick-knacks and one of the best Micheladas I've had. The latter matched nicely with the watermelon salsa-topped Gulf shrimp tacos on earthy house-made tortillas.—AE

Two biscuits, two poached eggs and fried chicken from Ruby Slipper diner sustained me through a ton of walking through the morning and afternoon. After a tour of the lesser-known Mid-City cemeteries, we did dinner at Toup's Meatery, a James Beard semifinalist for Best New Restaurant this year. Cool spot heavy on the house-made charcuterie populated by local clientele. Had a beautiful red snapper over buttery purple fingerlings.—AE

Headed to The Industry on on Sunday for a late brunch of fried chicken, sausage gravy and biscuits. It was combo that basically had me couch bound until around 8. We decided to embark on a Jersey eating adventure and made our way over the Walt Whitman Bridge to The Library II, a Voorhees steakhouse with some unmistakable ambiance. A gin martini at the bar before heading to our table and ordering up a filet and chicken Kiev. Much like longtime favorite, The Pub, dinner at The Library comes with access to a glorious all-you-can-eat salad bar that has to be seen to be believed - Those anchovies! That slice your own cheese board!—CR

On Sunday, we checked out Bywater and Marigny, two hip neighborhoods on the east side of the French Quarter. Maurepas Foods kicked off the day with a merguez-and-eggs brunch spiked with house-made nectarine hot sauce, then copped a DLT sandwich (D=duck bacon) on marble swirl rye at Kingfish's new deli in the Quarter after checking out the powerful Katrina exhibit at the Louisiana State Museum in Jackson Square.—AE