An Insider’s Guide to New Orleans
Where to Stay in New Orleans
Four Seasons Hotel New Orleans
Opened Summer 2021, the Four Seasons’ location on the banks of the Mississippi cannot be beat, straddling the lively, famous French Quarter and the Warehouse & Arts District, which has been the emerging hot spot for years and is now home to many of the top museums, galleries, bars, and restaurants. This one-of-a-kind hotel at the foot of Canal Street puts the best of New Orleans within walking distance, and is the terminus for the city’s famous streetcars, with direct service to both City Park and the famous above-ground cemeteries. It’s an easy stroll to many great restaurants, but guests may not want to leave, as the hotel doubled down with two of the highest-profile new eateries in the city (see Eat & Drink), by chefs Alon Shaya and Donald Link. They are the only ones here to have each won the perfect duo of James Beard Awards for Best Chef in the South and Best New Restaurant in the country. fourseasons.com
Virgin Hotels New Orleans
In the heart of the Warehouse District, with a notable 13th-floor rooftop bar, Dreamboat, serving up live music most nights and sophisticated cocktails, the Virgin also has a Vegas-style outdoor pool club, with tropical “umbrella” drinks and resident DJs. virginhotels.com
Kimpton Hotel Fontenot
The Four Seasons is the most dramatic addition to the lodging scene, but it is hardly the only one. Also in an excellent location, just a couple of blocks away, is the Kimpton Hotel Fontenot with its showpiece: the “eccentrically opulent” Peacock Room, a jewel box of a bar that serves 19th-century punch-bowl cocktails and doubles as a very good restaurant with an impressive menu by Chef Samuel Peery.” His offbeat, global gastropub menu also highlights local favorites with creative options such as salt and pepper shrimp and the Peacock burger with bacon jam and white cheddar. The attraction drawing locals every Thursday is live music with acclaimed jazz singer Robin Barnes, “The Songbird of New Orleans.” kimptonhotels.com
Higgins Hotel New Orleans
The most unique entrant is also part of the stunning National World War II Museum. Over the past decade the museum has expanded repeatedly to the point of becoming its own mini neighborhood within the Warehouse District. The Higgins, a Hilton Curio Collection property, opened just before the pandemic. For a museum hotel it is surprisingly upscale and carries its theme throughout, including Café Normandie, an excellent and authentic French bistro. Rosie’s on the Roof is an indoor and outdoor bar celebrating the working women of WWII—Rosie the Riveter—where signature cocktails are served in vintage military thermoses while museum artifacts decorate the space. Among New Orleans’ many rooftop venues, it has arguably the best views. higginshotelnola.com
Where to Eat & Drink in New Orleans
Chandelier Bar & Miss River
Chef Alon Shaya oversees Four Seasons’ bar, a lobby spot that has been red-hot and buzzing around-the-clock since the doors opened, showcasing the city’s legendary contributions to cocktail culture with the French 75, Sazerac, and Ramos Gin Fizz. His fine dining restaurant, Miss River (missrivernola.com), is the top new eatery in New Orleans, an ingredient-driven tribute to culinary history, featuring reinventions of beloved local dishes and sourcing from local fishermen and farmers. There’s an emphasis on tableside presentations, including the signature carved whole fried chicken.
Chemin à la Mer
Louisiana native Chef Donald Link claims many top New Orleans eateries: Peche, Cochon, Herbsaint, La Boulangerie, Gianna, and Cochon Butcher, and at the Four Seasons he added Chemin à la Mer, located on the fifth floor with indoor and outdoor seating and sweeping views of the Mississippi. The Louisiana and French menu showcases a large selection of oysters, shrimp, crab, and ceviche, all harvested from Louisiana and Gulf waters, alongside plenty of steak options. cheminalamer.com
Emeril’s
In a case of everything old is new again, it is time to revisit Emeril’s, one of the city’s most iconic eateries and flagship of a legendary American chef. It’s been more than 30 years since Emeril Lagasse opened his eponymous Warehouse District location, and for more than two decades it has won the highest Grand Award from Wine Spectator. But it also had one of the longest pandemic hiatus in the city, only reopened in 2021. When it did, Emeril decided it was time to redo the menu, including a highly recommended, nightly multicourse chef’s tasting menu, and he has been in the kitchen and greeting guests regularly ever since. While it may not be “new,” Emeril’s has been reborn to the point where it is often the hardest reservation to get in town—but worth the effort. emerilsrestaurants.com
Saint John Restaurant
A French Quarter offering from Eric Cook, chef and owner of beloved Gris-Gris. Cook went back in time with 18th-century Creole recipes for authentically local dishes you may not find anyplace else, such as turkey necks slow braised in brown gravy. saintjohnnola.com
Alma
For the ultimate locals’ find, head to Alma in Bywater, very close to new art exhibit JAMNOLA (in See & Do). Alma is a chef-owned modern Honduran restaurant that opened two years ago and has quickly become the neighborhood favorite, fusing Honduran classics with impeccably sourced local seafood and produce for stunningly flavorful dishes and varied menus spanning breakfast, lunch, and dinner. They also serve killer sangria and homemade fresh fruit agua frescas—with or without booze. eatalmanola.com
What to See & Do in New Orleans
The National WWII Museum
Though not entirely new, parts of it are. It opened as The National D-Day Museum, but the interactive, compelling, and emotional museum proved so instantly popular that its scope expanded to include all theaters, adding a large War in the Pacific gallery, and it has since roughly quintupled. Voted as one of the country’s best museums, it is a must, and next up is the final major addition, the Liberation Pavilion, opening in 2023. Three floors explore the end of the war, the postwar years, and the war’s continuing impact today. Opening on Veterans Day 2022 (November 11) is Expressions of America, hosted by actor Gary Sinise, which uses 4D technology and projection mapping to transform the museum’s outdoor campus into an immersive, cinematic theater for a family-friendly nightlife addition to the area. nationalww2museum.org
New Orleans Museum of Art
Also in City Park, it features the outdoor Besthoff Sculpture Garden. It opened in 2003, but doubled in size at the start of the pandemic, and now spans 11 acres of mature pines, magnolias, live oaks, and two lagoons, with more than 90 sculptures by internationally acclaimed artists including Frank Gehry and Maya Lin. noma.org
Museum of the Southern Jewish Experience
The first new cultural attraction to open during the pandemic, it highlights the rich history of a small but profound Jewish subculture throughout the Southern United States, including a poignant short film and two floors of exhibits. The interactive technology and displays were designed by the same standout firm that did the WWII Museum, and whether you are Jewish, Southern, or neither, you will be surprised by the stories inside. The full-blown museum was born as a tiny exhibit at a Jewish summer camp in Mississippi, and after years found this permanent home. msje.org
Louisiana Children’s Museum
Relocated to an all-new, state-of-the-art 8.5-acre campus in City Park, it was purpose-built from the ground up, and is one of the best of its kind in the world, an absolute must for anyone visiting with children 10 and under. Full of interactive programming and exhibits, activity and education centers, it has ample outdoor space, and boasts one of just two permanent installations by high-tech Japanese “fog artist” Fujiko Nakaya, which goes off every 30 minutes. The museum also houses one of the most notable lunch spots in the neighborhood, the new indoor/outdoor Acorn café by local powerhouse Dickie Brennan’s restaurant group, manned by chefs who run the kitchens of its award-winning French Quarter eateries. lcm.org
JAMNOLA
In Bywater, the acronym stands for Joy, Art, Music - New Orleans. Set in a 5,400-square-foot space, the experience is an immersive, interactive walk that takes audiences (small, ticketed, scheduled groups) of all ages through the city’s unique cultural gems such as Mardi Gras, Jazz Fest, local cuisine, and more via 12 exhibits curated by local artists. jamnola.com
Sazerac House
“The City That Care Forgot” has never shied away from its close association with adult beverages, and one of the most prominent new attractions, right on Canal Street, is Sazerac House. It sits just a few hundred yards from the long-vanished 1850 Sazerac Coffee House, where the eponymous cocktail was introduced. Based here, Sazerac is one of the nation’s largest liquor companies, with hundreds of brands including Buffalo Trace bourbon and Corazon tequila in addition to its namesake Sazerac Rye Whiskey and famed Peychaud’s Bitters. Sazerac House was built as a corporate flagship and has a range of self-guided tours featuring immersive exhibit technology that allows guests to dive into the French Quarter in the 1800s, take a seat at an interactive replica of the original Sazerac House café tables, taste spirits and cocktails, tour a working distillery, and then shop till they drop at a massive retail area. sazerachouse.com
