Southeast - New Orleans: cruising/nosh routes for visitors

My wife & I will be in NO in January, staying in the French Quarter, and plan to rent bikes Friday or Sunday afternoon and cruise around noshing. Any suggestions for itinerary with lots of places to stop and grab a bite of any kind (dessert, snack, lunch)? I assume more things would be open Friday afternoon than Sunday? Is it worth going over to Algiers?

I'm an experienced (6000+ miles in and around Center City Philadelphia) urban cyclist; wife is not, so probably we'll look to rent a tandem (which we've done before on vacation and it has worked out well).

So, looking for reasonable routes for a 2-3 hours cruising ride (maybe 10-20 miles so we can make plenty of interesting stops) & snacks.

thanks!

You may want to do some research in advance as to availability of rental bikes in N.O., especially tandems. As with a lot of the deep south N.O. is not the most cycling oriented of cities. I live a little less than 2 hours outside of the city and lived there for four years but those were years before I got into cycling so my knowledge of routes is pretty slim. I do know that the levee along the river is a popular place to ride but I'm not sure where it picks up as relates to the Quarter. There are a few people here with better knowledge of N.O. than I have so keep bumping your thread and they'll chime in.

I lived and rode in New Orleans for many years. I'm currently living in Chicago, but am dying to return back south. Anyway, Bicycle Michaels on Frenchmen rents bikes...I /think/. Also, I believe that there's a place in Mid City that rents, but they may be more angled toward recumbents. But they may be worth a shot. And as far as finding places to nosh...well, you can't toss a dead skunk without hitting some pretty fabulous places in the Quarter. Here's a link to a messageboard run by one of N.O.'s premier food critics. He and the forum regulars are always willing to help with suggestions for visitors:

http://www.thefoodalmanac.com/community/

And if you get out of the Quarter, you may want to ride around the Garden District, bike around Audubon Park, and take the levee trail for many, many miles. I used to take St. Charles from the Quarter, head uptown a few miles, then hop into the park(you'll see a sign on your left and Loyola and Tulane on your right). Also, you can take Esplanade down to City Park and ride around there.

Have fun!

My wife & I got back from NO and I thought I'd report back.

We rented a Schwinn cruiser tandem from Bicycle Michael's on Frenchman. Except for a mechanical flub about 1/2 mile out (dropped/crossed front and rear chains) we had a great time. For a Friday early afternoon, we pretty much went west/uptown on Decatur and then Magazine. We stopped at "Sucre" for great desserts and amazing cupcakes, and then, after Casamiento's was already closed, double backed to Mahoney's Po-Boys for some fried oysters and fried green tomatoes and beverages. We continued down Magazine and looked at Blue Frog chocolates but didn't find it inspiring. The afternoon was getting late, and traffic was getting worse and worse on Magazine so we returned via Camp St, which was much more pleasant traffic-wise but the road surface was in poor shape.

We had passed "Surreys" and returned there on Monday for a good breakfast including some fantastic grits and biscuits.