If you've ever had breakfast in New Orleans, Louisiana, you've probably experienced an eye opener that has nothing to do with hair of the dog. In your stout, white standard issue cafe coffee cup is hot coffee and chicory.
      Chicory, a hearty, endive-like plant, has roots in New Orleans coffee. Roasted chicory root blended into coffee is a New Orleans distinction that is like no other morning brew in America. Roasting, grinding and blending chicory in with coffee was a French idea. According to Count of Monte Cristo author, Alexandre Dumas, the origin is this:

In 1808, when Napoleon had initiated his 'continental blockade' which deprived France of cane sugar and coffee, beet sugar was substituted for cane and coffee was bolstered with chicory. Even now, after the continental decree has fallen into disuse, grocers and cooks continue mixing in a certain amount of chicory with their coffee, maintaining that it improves the taste and is better for one's health.

Others believe that chicory was a full substitute for coffee in times when coffee was too expensive or simply unavailable. Because coffee is less soluble in water than chicory, often brewers use less chicory than they would coffee. Alternately, if your ratio of coffee to water was the same as chicory to water, youd hold a mighty cup.

Given the strength and viscosity of the thick coffee and chicory I prefer, I've had enough caffeine that my attention span is waning. That being said, I have not researched if indeed the French themselves brought this tradition to New Orleans. I'll bet you two orders of beignets that they did.

Typically stronger, coffee and chicory is taken like regular coffee, but more often served or poured au lait. Au lait, pronounced oh-lay is French for with milk, but means specifically that the milk be hot. Caf au lait is what you get with your beignets. Because a cup of rich, hot coffee and chicory is more potent than regular coffee, dousing in a splash of cold milk just won't cut it. If the milk isn't heated it would cool the coffee because you need just that much of it.

Common brands of coffee and chicory blends include French Market and Community. This writer favors Cafe Du Monde's CDM. In fact, my grandparents ship pounds of vacuum packed CDM to their New Orleans expatriate's daughters and my dad ships it to me. I brought a pound of coffee and chicory to my office in Manhattan not too long ago to share with my colleagues. They let me keep it. Oh well, maybe they'll like Hubig's apple pies or King Cake instead. As a New Orleans native, I do keep stock of the can't-get-anywhere-elses and you probably wouldn't be surprised at how many there are. You've heard of caffeine addition, but chicory-dependency? You try leaving home without it.

When I was fourteen, my St. Pius Boy Scout Troop, Troop 100, planned a backpacking trip in northern New Mexico and I was going. The trip to Philmont with the other hardy scouts was planned towards the end of the summer. It was to teach me many many things for which I am grateful. It also gave me impetus to seek a little summer job. Happily enough, two of my buddies were Jason & Alex Fein. The Fein cousins dads are Joe and Jerry Fein, brothers and owners of The Court of Two Sisters, a famous French Quarter restaurant. Kind enough to employ myself, Jason, Grant Gremillion and later, Michael DeGruy, Jerry and Joe took us on as busboys. I had to get some sort of paperwork from Jesuit, where I would being going to 8th garde at the end of the summer. I wasnt a very good busboy (broken glasses in the ice machine), but had a chance to practice my French on tourists. The French wasnt very good either. It was a wonderful experience to get to know the French Quarter, quasi-independently. Joe drove us to work, but we got off around 4, I think, and were at liberty to walk around a bit. It was an exciting summer as it turns out; I remember seeing Julia Roberts filming the Pelican Brief behind the cathedral. I remember a terrific staff of waiters and having tremendous, rich breakfasts when we reported for duty. It was my first summer job and it was in the Vieux Carre.

So there was Jesuit in the fall and that's another story. Summer rolled around again. It was time for a new job. I liked the idea and wanted to keep working. In the past, my mom usually took us brothers and sisters the day after school and came back maybe a week before school started to Pensacola Beach, Florida. Aunts Julie Kent and Sandra Cook did the same. My dads parents Dan and Gloria Mayer have owned a beach house on Santa Rosa Island since before I was born. The dads would come on the weekend. And that was how we were brought up. Beach babies. Wonderful, nest-pas?

I cant remember if Michael Mayer, Dad's brother, asked me or if I asked him, but instead of spending this entire summer in Pensacola, I ended up employed at M.G. Mayer Yacht Service at West End park in New Orleans. I was to work for Michael for nine or ten summers and some time after college. (continued)