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8 GROUNDCOVER NEWS TRAVELS WITH DREAMER STEVEN Groundcover vendor No. 668 Located at 800 Decatur St., New Orleans, LA, since 1862 (originally a coffee stand long since brick and mortar), offering dark roasted Coffee and Chicory, served black or Au lait, fresh-squeezed orange juice, white and chocolate milk, and Beignets, Cafe du Monde reigns over its section of the Mississippi and its piece of the French Quarter. It is an incredible place with old-timey charm. A building that would be at home in Paris. An Au Lait is coffee and chicory mixed half and half with hot milk. The coffee and chicory is crazy good, and as Guinness is to beer for me, the coffee and chicory is to coffee, sparking a lifelong obsession with coffee. I didn’t like beer before my first draught Guinness, and didn’t care so much for coffee before Cafe du Monde. than a polite nod. It's like the green room for Bourbon St. It was the green room for so much more than that. Calling beignets doughnuts is akin to calling the Mississippi River a drainage ditch. I can still taste them. Experience them is a better word. As a cook, I wonder if they change the oil after every batch? (Of course not.) The powdered sugar was so heavy as to become layers of mouth mirth. You get a good tooth feel with the deep-fried golden outer crust just below the now crunchy sugar. Then your tooth feel would get lost in an airy lack of feel yet somehow still decadent and sweet as if your teeth had taste buds. These things for sure are more air than dough when they get to you. Air of the kind of value an astronaut might get behind. But wait, slow down. There is the Cafe Au Lait and benignet. Photo credits: Jeff Parness New Orleans is a special kind of place, a place of countless firsts. The hero of the menu is unquestionably the Beignets. Described on their website, in a bottomless understatement, as “square French-style doughnuts lavishly covered with powdered sugar.” Yeah doughnuts. I mean, I did already like doughnuts, but I liked doughnuts, not these generational love letters. Served hot, fresh out of the fryer, paired perfectly with the coffee and chicory, they are a singular way to while away some time out of the frequent Gulf Coast rain. Sitting in the ambiance of this cafe is a call back to the turn-of-the-century literary cafe scene in Paris. You almost expect to see James Joyce stumble in and call a table of friends “arse faces," shoot an espresso, then careen back out into the exquisite chaos of The French Quarter. Is that blond guy over there, Lestat? Oh shit though, really is that Ann Rice? If it were them, the chillness of this hip spot would preclude anything more tooth feel with the powdered sugar, the sneaky powdered sugar. The b’s are hot when they dump a Tony Montana amount of sugar on them, so the first layer of sugar caramelizes on the hot, clean, oily dough. As you go in for a bite, hold your breath, the top layer of sugar will either go into your unprepared face or onto your friend if you don’t breathe just right. The Girl in the Shiny Green Dress got me good in our first round. She breathed out as she took a bite and blasted me in the face a little, then guffawed a huge blast right after. I blinked and looked super cool, wiping white powder from my face. Below that top sneaky trifling powdered layer is the glory that is melted powdered sugar, like a frosting all its own, then the pastry, more air than dough, then the smug satisfaction you made a good decision buying these. Now the bit before the climax. You sit back, very pleased with yourself on your choice of snacks, and have a sip of coffee to wash it down. That was it, that was the climax. Sweet satisfaction and good coffee with friends. It doesn’t get much better. I’ve done hallucinogens in my time before, since and while in N.O. but my mind was most blown by the combo of historic pastry, sugar, caramelized sugar, strong coffee, ambiance and company. I speak with authority on mind-blowingness. It helped shape me as a chef and just a good dude. Dreamer, who I’d come here with through trials and tribulations, couldn't give a shit. The Girl in the Shiny Green Dress was usually with me, she loved them too. I liked them so much that if we didn’t have enough cash between the two of us I’d go without her and she would understand because, beignets. “Meh, expensive doughnuts, whatever man,” Dreamer would say. Meanwhile, we’re panhandling to get our hands on some. If ever we had 5 or 10 bucks after getting my nicotine and a couple of deuce deuces or a few drinks in me, I’d have to get an order. Yes, ”I’d,” I said, I was selfish about these things. The trio of these fluffy, airy dream pastries would seem to whisper to me down the tunnels of antiquity out of Titania’s whimsies, Puck’s hijinks, and King Solaman’s wisdom. From their possible origin within the boiling vats of animal fat in The iconic Cafe Du Monde on Decatur Street. SEPTEMBER 19, 2025 Travels with Dreamer: It's not a donut, dude that speaks to Dreamer being alright in my book. He was a cretin, but a cretin who liked good pastries. TGITSGD was not a cretin. We all laughed and joked, and told tall tales. After a few coffees, we outlined our dissertations on the fundamentals of the cosmos and how it relates to being really cool you know, and how if we all just did mushrooms, everything would be like way better. Still waiting to hear from the Universee DREAMER page 12  ancient Rome, north to the kitchens of French cooks who evolved them into fritters à la Beignets. Then in 18th century colonial Louisiana, where the Creole further developed them using ingredients at hand with the culinary traditions of the New World. If you’ve kept up with Dreamer’s adventures from earlier stories, you may have picked up on Dreamer’s charming lack of depth. Were I to tell him, the least bit convincingly, they sometimes sneak a psilocybin in a French fritter new world upgrade, I could get him to take a bite, then he’d be pissed and I’d feel like a shit heel bully. No, no. Funny joke for my inside voice. Good enough. This was for The Girl and me. Also, just me. These things, this experience got into the folds of my gray matter as nothing before. Dreamer wasn’t opposed to the Bs per se. We did snack on them together a few times. I got to know Ol’ Dreamer a bit more in this time. We weren't in survival mode, we were in late 19th-century parlor games mode with an accidental eye toward salon hangouts. The old-timey trendy exercise of sitting around having a snack, and being smart and witty. I tease Dreamer in these stories, and he could be truly maddening, as could I, but he was a hell of a guy and was a blast to hang out with. The Girl was very shy but open and fun with him and me, and October 5th Learn about zero waste in Ann Arbor at these free, family-friendly events! Zero Waste Fall Festival Tour Recycle Ann Arbor 12:00-3:00pm 9:30am & 11:00am See how your recycling gets a second life and get answers to all your questions Michigan Stadium Tour 8:30-9:30am Get a behind-the-scenes look at Big House zero waste operations Bike Tour 7:45am-1:00pm Ride from Common Cycle to Recycle Ann Arbor and back with stops along the way Learn More and Sign Up: TrashTalkTour.Org Made Possible By: Games, doughnuts, prizes, shopping, and live music at Kiwanis Thrift Sale

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