The last couple of years have been rough for the city of New Orleans, which has been bouncing back from various disasters. With a sense of relief and renewed confidence, the most freewheeling city in the nation is moving forward.
Major international players, including Virgin Hotels and Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, have opened outposts near the heart of the old city as a result of a spirit of studied elegance and experimentation.
In the dining world, a place that runs on tourism dollars was going to suffer a lot of losses in the Pandemic. K-Paul's Louisiana Kitchen, a fixture in the French Quarter for decades, closed in 2020 due to lack of business. JoAnn Clevenger's casually elegant Uptown dining room, which fit the neighborhood like the best kind of rumpled button-down shirt, has been lost.
Fear not, nobody is going home hungry. As tourists return to town and locals return to their love for the city, new restaurants and old ones are busy again.
On the cultural front, returning visitors will be impressed by a new museum dedicated to Southern Jewish history, as well as a couple of art and technology-driven attractions.
The Spanish-speaking world has had an outsized impact on New Orleans culture, from the Spanish colonial era to the crucial months after the storm. One of the most buzzed-about new restaurants in town pays homage to the chef Ana Castros family roots in Mexico City. One of her mottos is 'New Orleans is home, Mexico is life'. It is a place where you are likely to find mustard greens on your tlacoyo.
There are no prophylactic precautions for restaurants and bars. Dookie Chase's Restaurant, Galatoire's and Arnaud's are some of the best Creole restaurants in the city. Diners will find new things to look at. Mister Mao is a restaurant that is "unapologetically inauthentic" with Southeast Asian, Mexican and Indian influences, according to its website. In the hip Bywater neighborhood, the newish pop-up Chance In Hell SnoBalls (motto: "Icy treats for a world on fire!") is gleefully pushing the boundaries of the New Orleans summertime treat, with homemade flavors that have included sweet corn with a dash of
Even as it honors its traditions, an old port city accommodates such mash ups. Over the years, the Israeli American chef Alon Shaya has earned New Orleans homeboy status while slinging labneh and high-end hummus in the city. There is something about the pace and pitch of a New Orleans breakfast that Mr. Shaya just seems to like. There was a lot of anticipation over his new project, Miss River, which opened in New Orleans in August of 2021. He serves duck and andouille gumbo and a whole buttermilk fried chicken in a dining room reminiscent of Fitzgerald's Jazz Age.
The Four Seasons, which opened last year, has 341 high-end rooms and is double the price. Donald Link is the chef of Chemin la Mer, a restaurant with views of the Mississippi River.
The Hotel Peter and Paul is a boutique hotel that opened in the Faubourg Marigny in the summer of 2018? Visiting can feel like living through a fictionalized version of their past. The same can be said for two recent studies in hotel hyperreality, one of which is a 14-room converted mansion on St. Charles Avenue. Each of the three places offers fine places to grab a drink and enjoy the view.
The rule for a good time in New Orleans is the same, trust your instincts, avoid fruity alcoholic drinks, and listen to the street parades. WWOZ FM 90.7 is the best place to find out what's happening in the music clubs. One Eyed Jacks, a venue that used to be in the heart of the French Quarter, is no longer in the area. James Booker had a standing gig there before that. The new management has a mix of 21st century R&B and other delights.
The New Orleans experience is being explained and expanded by two new attractions. Jamnola is an art space with 12 rooms that are themed on aspects of the city's culture. There is a panoramic view of the city from the top of the Four Seasons.
At the new home of the Museum of the Southern Jewish Experience, you can find a more specific kind of historical experience, which offers welcome to the story of a region that is too often exclusively broad-brushed as pure Bible Belt. The museum moved to New Orleans in order to have a soft opening. The National World War II Museum, which has evolved, with numerous expansions, into a world-class attraction, makes sense in a city where Jews have played an important, thoughunderappreciated, role in education, health care, commerce and culture.
Hurricane Ida, a Category 4 storm, slammed into Louisiana in August, but the city is still healing from a period of hardship. The city of New Orleans did not suffer the kind of widespread catastrophe that it did in 2005. There were injuries on the culture scene. A handmade love letter to Black New Orleans carnival was among them.
The museum was damaged in the storm and has been closed for months. In a recent interview, the museum's executive director said that a rebirth is in the works and that a grand reopening celebration will be held in July.
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