Jennifer Coolidge on Her Love Affair With New Orleans
“I fell in appreciate with New Year’s Eve a decade back, when a few girlfriends and I spontaneously went to a place termed the Commander’s Palace in New Orleans. I have under no circumstances been a huge New Year’s person—I normally uncover that it can be form of strike-or-miss. This celebration was seeking the identical, specially because all the eating places about have been full. But then I got a random mobile phone connect with that anyone experienced canceled their reservation and to occur by correct absent.
We experienced enjoyment ingesting wine and enjoying Creole-motivated hors d’oeuvres, but what I will never fail to remember is what took place proper following we still left. Some dude was handing out these huge bunches of silver balloons, massive more than enough that it nearly felt like they could raise us. We tied them to the handlebars of our bicycles and observed ourselves, at two in the morning, riding down a road in the Backyard District—past grand historic mansions with ornate iron railings and extraordinary gardens—with these huge bunches of balloons bobbing in the wind. It was a absolutely unplanned expertise that felt like a scene in a movie: a moment of bliss that I would like every person could have.
And that’s what New Orleans is all about, which is why I ended up shopping for a dwelling there—you can not have a program and conclude up executing one thing seriously interesting and enjoyable. I’ve experienced nights where by a wedding get together took around the bar I was at through a rainstorm and we all finished up dancing, soaking damp and between strangers, into the evening together. Or exactly where a random gentleman began actively playing the piano at a lounge and a further woman started off singing and it wound up remaining some of the greatest new music I have at any time read. I signify, look—I do not know a whole lot of cities where I would alternatively be out on my bike on New Year’s Eve than at a incredible bash.” —As advised to Scott Bay
Jennifer Coolidge stars in season 2 of The White Lotus, airing October 30 on HBO.
This report appeared in the November 2022 situation of Condé Nast Traveler. Subscribe to the journal listed here.
