NEW ORLEANS — For Christopher Reed and his girlfriend Vienna, stopping at Café Du Monde is a tradition.
“It’s an important part of New Orleans,” Christopher Reed said. “It’s a real old custom. Anytime I come to New Orleans, I have to have coffee and beignets there.”
On Friday, the couple and droves of other visitors left disappointed.
“I knew this was a special spot, so I wanted to try them here specifically,” one tourist said.
The historic beignet spot was evacuated as crews worked to fix a support beam issue in the attic.
The Café’s President Jay Roman says they’ve been planning to repair the beam for a while now, but on Friday morning, the ceiling started to sag.
“We are in an old building as everyone knows, and there are a lot of roof timbers up in the attic, and one of the support beams had an issue and split,” Café Du Monde President Jay Roman said.
While crews worked to fix the problem, the New Orleans Fire Department cleared the building and shut down part of Decatur Street.
New Orleans Fire Chief Roman Nelson says there are gas and electrical lines connected to the beams, and they closed the block to eliminate any fire risk.
According to Roman, crews will be working in the attic overnight, and he hopes to be serving customers by Saturday.
Christopher and Vienna say they’re not too disappointed. After all, they had their fill of the New Orleans deep-fried staple just two days ago.
“The quality was as good as I ever remember,” Read said.
They say they’ll be back tomorrow morning, hopefully, for seconds.
“If they’re closed, we can come back,” Read said.
Cafe du Monde owner speaks about closure, structural issues
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