Cafe Du Monde reopens with revelry

New Orleans — All is far from right in this corner of the world, but on Wednesday the ordeal of rebuilding a city flattened and flooded by Hurricane Katrina got a little more bearable.

For the first time since Katrina struck on Aug. 29, thick, creamy cafe au lait and doughy, delicious beignets smothered in powdered sugar were once again being served at Cafe Du Monde, a French Quarter landmark as famous with tourists and locals as Preservation Hall or Antoine's Restaurant.

MEL EVANS/AP Photo (enlarge photo) A banner announces that the Cafe Du Monde's dougnut-like beignets -- smothered n powdered sugar and served iwth cafe au lait -- are back on the bill in the French Quarter. ARTHUR D. LAUCK/MBR (enlarge photo) MEL EVANS/AP Photo (enlarge photo) A banner announces that the Cafe Du Monde's dougnut-like beignets -- smothered n powdered sugar and served iwth cafe au lait -- are back on the bill in the French Quarter.

"This is a great day," said Jay Roman, a member of the Fernandez family that has owned the French Market open-air cafe near Jackson Square since 1942. "It's a signal to the rest of the country that New Orleans is open and running and coming back to life."

Like much of the French Quarter, the 140-year-old cafe is located on high ground and survived Katrina with minimal damage. Power and natural gas service were restored several weeks ago, but the Fernandez family faced the same severe labor shortage that is hampering hundreds of other New Orleans businesses struggling to reopen.

Roman said it took the company weeks to locate all of its roughly 300 employees, some of whom fled as far away as Boston, and many of whom lost their homes to Katrina's floods.

"We've now gotten in touch with the vast majority of them, but some we still haven't heard from," he said. "We have about 40 percent back now, but I think I'm safe in saying that none of our employees lost their lives."

Kim Richards, 47, has worn one of the spiffy paper green-and-white Cafe Du Monde caps donned by the staff for 28 years.

"I'm so happy to be back," she said. "I came at 4 o'clock this morning. I was lucky because my house wasn't hurt too bad. But I sat at home for seven weeks with nothing to do. I love this place."

Customers seemed to savor the return of the New Orleans institution just as much.

"You can't come to New Orleans without beignets and cafe au lait," said Kathy Kellogg, 57, who grew up in the city but now lives in Las Vegas. "I'm here to check on my family and I heard from a store owner in the Quarter yesterday that this place would open today. I knew I had to come here. This is the soul of the city."

The reopening was a festive affair, complete with a jazz band on hand at 8 a.m., along with television crews from the network morning shows, street artists and various colorful New Orleans characters, including a balloon artist who twists whimsical creations for kids and adults alike.

The cafe's customers were a mix of locals, relief workers, National Guard soldiers and even a smattering of tourists, the New Orleans economic lifeblood that leaders are desperate to draw back into the hard-hit city.

Maj. Jason Hedges, 32, an Australian Army engineer who is serving a yearlong exchange assignment in the United States and came to New Orleans to assist in the recovery, said the chance to sample the sugary delights at the cafe was a long-held dream.

"My wife and I have had this place on our list of must-see spots for years," he said. "It's great to finally get here, although this isn't the situation I wanted to visit New Orleans in."

Some locals pondered the challenges still facing their city, even as they reveled in returning to one of their favorite spots.

"This is the heart of the city, so it's good to see some pulse coming back here," said social worker Dee deMontluzin, 47, who puttered on a motor scooter to the cafe from her Uptown neighborhood with friend Susan Lee. "But I don't think New Orleans will ever be what it once was. It's always been slow to change and it'll be hard for the city because this is a forced change."

For Tulane student Robin Jocius, 20, sipping the delicious coffee and munching the French-style doughnuts was "surreal."

Jocius was trapped by Katrina's floodwaters in her apartment for several days, then endured a hellish evacuation that saw her rescued by boat and helicopter, only to spend several frightful nights at an interstate underpass, waiting for a bus to take her to safety.

"My friends think I'm crazy to come back here after what I went through," she said, having returned to check on her apartment and also to visit Tulane, where she hopes to begin classes in January. "But there's no city in the U.S. like New Orleans. I love it. Everybody has been to Cafe Du Monde at five in the morning. This is a sign the city is coming back to life."