Hotels and restaurants open in pivotal year
Hospitality players mark New Orleans’ tricentennial
The last Pimm’s Cups are being clinked as 2018 — New Orleans’ tricentennial year — winds down, and with it the great fanfare celebrating the birth of one of the world’s unique cities.
But just because all 300 candles on the birthday cake are blown out is no reason to think New Orleans has stopped partying. No, the year that gave tourists so much to take in is already segueing into a year full of good music (the 50th anniversary of the Jazz & Heritage Festival in 2019) and good food (plenty of openings including Justine from La Petite Grocery owners; Jewel of the South bar from bartenders Nick Detrich and Chris Hannah; Gianna from Donald Link’s restaurant group; and Bonci, serving Roman pizza al taglio).
In the epic year that is nearly at an end, these hotels and restaurants made their mark.
HOTELS
Chic boutique: The former Saints Peter and Paul Catholic church and school — designed in part by famed New Orleans architect Henry Howard — has been converted into a charming, 71room boutique hotel in the city’s lively Marigny neighborhood, adjacent to the French Quarter.
Opened in October, the project (a collaboration between ASH NYC development and design firm and New Orleanian Nathalie Jordi) is now a draw to the Faubourg Marigny known for its cafes, jazz clubs and Creole and Classic Revival cottages. The rooms, set within four buildings — church, rectory, schoolhouse and convent — feature a muted palette of gingham fabrics, chandeliers, custom rugs, hand-painted credenzas, vintage furniture and antiques. The Elysian Bar, set in the former rectory, is operated by the New Orleans-based Bacchanal Group and offers cocktails, wine and small bites in a series of parlors and a courtyard.
And Jordi is married to Brett Anderson, dining writer for The Times-Picayune, so there is every reason to believe the hotel staff knows where to point guests to the best dining in the city.
Hotel Peter & Paul, 2317 Burgundy St., 504-356-5200; hotelpeterandpaul.com. Rooms from $99
Grand dame revival: When the Jung Hotel opened in December 1907, female guests were given small purses made of gold cloth and boxes of candy. That level of outsize hospitality marked the Jung for decades as one of the city’s most prestigious addresses. By the 1950s and ’60s, the hotel had grown into a 1,200room convention hotel more concerned with high occupancy than guest niceties. From 1971 to 2012, the Jung changed hands four times and was closed twice.
Today, the Jung has recaptured its former glamour and then some with a multimillion-dollar, head-to-toe renovation that has transformed it into the Jung Hotel & Residences, a member of the locally owned New Orleans Hotel Collection (which owns and operates hotels such as the Mazarin, Le Marais, the Whitney, Bourbon Orleans and Dauphine Orleans).
The 207-room Jung, completed earlier this year, is a distinctly luxurious property featuring public spaces clad in acres of white Carrara marble and Italian tile flooring. The spacious guest rooms (including 31 executive king rooms with kitchen and laundry) offer a design of hushed elegance and modern technology. A full-service restaurant, lobby bar, coffeehouse and rooftop bar make this property, only blocks outside the French Quarter (in what is called the Biomedical Innovation District), an elegant alternative to the familiar tourist hotels. The Jung Hotel & Residences, 1500 Canal St., 504-522-5864; junghotel.com. Rooms from $129
Canal Street makeover: The JW Marriott New Orleans has long been a dependable, comfortable, unfussy choice for visitors taking in a weekend romp or one of the city’s many food and music festivals. Priced between tourist and luxury accommodations, it was always a good choice for conventioneers and leisure travelers. And now even more so after a just completed renovation of all 494 guest rooms and public spaces. The rooms, in a soothing color scheme of soft white and warm gray, feature white marble tiles and antique mirrors, sleek marble bathrooms, ergonomic work stations and plush white-on-white bedding. Right on Canal, the hotel is perfectly situated for walking the French Quarter or discovering the many bars and restaurants in the Central Business District and Warehouse District.
JW Marriott New Orleans, 614 Canal St., 504-525-6500; marriott.com. Rooms from $129
Court and spark: The Windsor Court Hotel has long been one of the city’s distinguished inns where grown-up refinements abound. Now even more so thanks to a $15 million renovation of all 316 guest rooms and suites, completed in October. The project also included a facelift of hallways, public spaces, the hotel’s club level and the La Chinoiserie ballroom on the top floor. Windsor Court’s rooms feature new furniture, leather headboards with reading lights, new beds, bedside tables with charging stations, upgraded bathtubs, glass-door shower enclosures and bathroom accessories.
Another major addition: The Waterman Poolside Bar, a place for drinks and snacks overlooking the hotel’s 65-foot saltwater pool.
Windsor Court Hotel, 300 Gravier St., 800-262-2662; windsorcourthotel.com. Rooms from $300
Holiday lagniappe: The RitzCarlton, New Orleans is known for its elaborate holiday decorations, but this year it wanted to put on an even better show for the tricentennial. Through Jan. 3, the hotel’s third-floor lobby will feature a to-scale replica of the St. Charles Avenue streetcar clad end to end with gingerbread, frosting and candy. It took 444 pounds of flour and an equal measure of icing sugar, 400 eggs, 124 pounds of corn syrup, 98 pounds of brown sugar, 80 pounds of butter and 58 pounds of molasses to create the gingerbread. The streetcar’s windows are decorated with the faces of some of the city’s most legendary citizens, including authors Tennessee Williams and Anne Rice, quarterback Drew Brees, jazz artist Louis Armstrong, gospel legend Mahalia Jackson, Creole chef Leah Chase and musician Harry Connick Jr.
Throughout the holidays, the hotel will offer Reveillon dinners and special events such as Breakfast with Papa Noel on Dec. 21; Papa Noel Tea Dec. 8, 9, 15-24; Christmas Eve dinner and Christmas Day Jubilee. For event reservations, call 504-262-5048.
Ritz-Carlton, New Orleans, 921 Canal, 504-524-1331; ritzcarlton.com/neworleans
RESTAURANTS
Chartres charmer: This is chef Nina Compton’s big year in the Big Easy. She won a James Beard Award as Best Chef: Southwest for her work at Compere Lapin, and she opened a new restaurant, Bywater American Bistro. Housed in the Rice Mill Lofts on Chartres Street in the Bywater neighborhood, the restaurant teams Compton with chef/partner Levi Raines for a collaborative menu that touches on many cultures that make up the region’s cuisine. On the menu: pickled shrimp with buttermilk dressing and trout roe; blue crab dip with sourdough crackers; hog’s head boudin served on a frisee salad; smoked ricotta agnolotti with spring vegetables; jerk chicken rice with butter beans; duck with braised red cabbage; rabbit curry with jasmine rice; and steamed red snapper with broccoli rabe and Crystal hot sauce. Brunch offerings are just as enticing: rice porridge with hog’s head broth, chicken liver parfait with rye granola, and breakfast corn dogs with cane syrup.
Bywater American Bistro, 2900 Chartres St., 504-605-3827; bywateramericanbistro.com
Wine time: A building that housed one of New Orleans’ oldest restaurants is now home to the city’s newest wine bars. Copper Vine, a restaurant featuring 30 wines on tap and an additional 20 wines by the glass, took up home in September in the former Maylie’s space at 1001 Poydras St. in the Central Business District. Chef Mike Brewer, who has Brennan’s and Commander’s Palace on his résumé, has created a menu meant to pair well with a variety of wines. That means flatbreads (escargot, mushroom and house bacon; duck confit with goat cheese and bacon jam; fig goat cheese and arugula), beef/lamb/pork burger with caramelized onions and Gruyère; gnocchi with citrus cream and lump Louisiana crab; carpaccio with Tabasco-pickled strawberries; and chicken fricassee with crawfish boil peanuts and boudin rice.
The 175-seat restaurant features an inviting courtyard whose design is inspired by the wisteria vines that grew throughout Maylie’s.
Copper Vine, 1001 Poydras St., 504-208-9535; coppervinewine.com
The three amigos: When three of the city’s most successful restaurateurs decided to open a restaurant together, they agreed on many things, including the fact they all love picnics. United by their nostalgic memories of family picnics, the three friends have opened Picnic Provisions & Whiskey. But it’s not just any casual restaurant (especially since it serves one of the city’s most talked-about dishes, crawfish boil hot fried chicken) because these aren’t just any owners. Picnic’s partners are James Beard Award-winning chef at Commander’s Palace Tory McPhail, Commander’s Palace co-owner Ti Martin and Darryl Reginelli, owner and co-founder of Reginelli’s Pizza.
Together they have given New Orleans a restaurant where every day’s a picnic with a menu that includes skillet-melted pimento cheese; cochon de lait-piled biscuit with country gravy and poached farm egg; whiskey smoked chicken salad with dill and whiskey-pickled grapes; barbecue shrimp roll and crawfish boiled potatoes fried in hot cracklin’ fat. No, for real.
Picnic Provisions & Whiskey, 741 State St., 504-266-2810; nolapicnic.com
Hall of Wonders: The city’s Central Business District has a new food hall, Pythian Market, that opened in May as part of a mixed-use development featuring 14 independent vendors. Set on the ground floor of the Pythian Temple building that played an important role in the civil rights movement as a place where the African-American community congregated, the market now houses concepts such as 14 Parishes Jamaican Restaurant; Cru, featuring raw and cooked seafood dishes; Fete au Fete with Southern-meets-Louisiana comfort food; Poulet rotisserie chicken; and Bar 1908 with a menu of fast craft cocktails, local beers and seasonal frozen drinks.
Pythian Market, 234 Loyola Ave., 504-481-9599; pythianmarket.com