Chicory Cafe Au Lait appears as a signature dish in 1 United States cities. See each city's local variant and where to eat it.
Cafe au lait with chicory · New Orleans
Cafe au lait with chicory is hot milk poured half-and-half over roasted-chicory-blended coffee, served in heavy white mugs around the clock. Bitter, smooth, the city's morning fuel.
Roasted-chicory coffee took hold in New Orleans during the Civil War, when Union blockades cut off coffee imports and locals stretched their grounds with chicory root (the practice was already common in Napoleonic France). Cafe du Monde opened in 1862 as a coffee stand in the French Market and made the chicory-cafe-au-lait-with-beignets format the city's defining cheap breakfast. It still pours the same Cafe du Monde Dark Roast and Chicory blend, mixed with steamed milk and served 24 hours a day. Cafe Beignet on Royal Street and Mojo Coffee on Magazine carry the tradition forward with their own chicory-blended pours.
Where to eat in New Orleans:
- Cafe du Monde
- Cafe Beignet on Royal Street
- Mojo Coffee House