Walking the French Quarter’s cramped streets, I sometimes glimpsed more expansive spaces. Beyond the clumps of tourists who seemed to have multiplied in recent months, private oases of fountains and foliage hide behind iron gates. I’ve never been invited into one of these patios. After dinner at Café Amelie, however, I have a good idea what it’s like to relax and sip a drink inside a French Quarter retreat.
The imposing iron gates of Café Amelie face the Cornstalk Hotel on Royal Street. A sh...