About Completely New Orleans

New Orleans is not just a city. It’s a feeling.

It’s the sound of a brass band drifting down Royal Street. It’s coffee and beignets before the city wakes up. It’s oak trees, streetcars, second lines, riverboats, neighborhood restaurants, hidden courtyards, and stories that somehow get better every time they’re told.

Completely New Orleans was created to celebrate all of it.

My name is Richard Bienvenu, and I’ve spent years exploring, studying, working in, and talking about this city. Like many locals, my relationship with New Orleans goes far beyond Bourbon Street and tourist brochures. This is a city layered with history, music, food, culture, humor, mystery, contradictions, and unforgettable people.

I created Completely New Orleans as both a visitor resource and a love letter to the city itself.

Over the years, I’ve worn a lot of hats. I’m a writer, musician, performer, radio host, traveler, and lifelong student of the strange magic that makes New Orleans unlike anywhere else in America. I’ve worked with the Audubon Zoo, spent years sharing stories with visitors and locals alike, and developed a deep appreciation for the way this city connects people through culture, conversation, and experience.

I’m also the author of Your Own Personal New Orleans Tour, a book inspired by the idea that the best way to experience New Orleans is not simply to visit it, but to understand the stories behind it. The city reveals itself differently when you know what you’re looking at — whether it’s a historic building in the French Quarter, a neighborhood bar with a hundred years of history, or a jazz club tucked away on a side street.

That same philosophy drives this website.

Completely New Orleans is designed to help visitors discover the city beyond the obvious. Here you’ll find guides to hotels, restaurants, attractions, tours, neighborhoods, music venues, local history, and the little details that often get overlooked in larger travel sites.

This site is also growing and evolving constantly, much like New Orleans itself. New pages, guides, interviews, radio content, and recommendations are added regularly. Some stories focus on famous landmarks. Others focus on places and traditions you may never have heard about before.

The goal is simple:
to help people experience New Orleans in a deeper, richer, and more authentic way.

Whether you’re planning your very first trip, returning for your tenth Mardi Gras, searching for the perfect po’ boy, looking for live jazz, or just curious about the city’s remarkable history, I hope Completely New Orleans helps you fall in love with this place the same way I did.

Because once New Orleans gets into your soul, it tends to stay there.

Welcome to Completely New Orleans.