In 2020, local musician Branden Kempt saved the concert venue Gasa Gasa from closing and kept its compact stage and monster sound system intact. There’s a heap of action along Freret Street.

The grand porch of the Paradise Lounge was bustling at happy hour, while the dimly lit, guests-only Chapel Club Bar appealed to the nightcap crew.įrom left: The entrance to the Chloe hotel Kazee Taylor, a greeter, stands near a boldly carpeted staircase inside the Chloe. There are two restaurants: San Lorenzo, a chic, Amalfi-inspired spot with house-made pastas and a cheery outpost of the Austin-based Elizabeth Street Café, an all-day French-Vietnamese bakery. Hotel Saint Vincent is an Alice in Wonderland–style sensory whirlwind of charcoal-gray rooms with red velvet accents, 1970s-style bathrooms studded with coral tiles, and trippy marbled wallpaper, and downstairs, a Saltillo-tiled pool lined with striped loungers. On lower Magazine Street, Texas-bred hotelier Liz Lambert and her partners Larry McGuire and Tom Moorman recently transformed an 1861 redbrick orphanage with ornate wrought-iron flourishes into a stylish 75-room getaway. “I take what I loved most in a meal and share it.” A block away, Barrel Proof, a venerable timber-clad, whiskey-leaning bar, rotates three concepts every week: the modern Asian Matchbook Kitchen Cuban-Honduran QuePasta and tarte flambée specialist Flamme Nola.įrom left: Filipino fried pork belly and crispy rounds of pani puri are on the menu at Mister Mao, in the Uptown neighborhood a trio of bartenders at Mister Mao. “My food is nostalgia-based,” Castro reflected.

In between bites of an earthy huitlacoche sope - a disk of fried masa dusted with chèvre, borage, and epazote - I watched the hushed theatrics of the open kitchen, where a chef was diligently plating a serving of arroz verde.

The décor is simple and sparse: a curved wooden bar, checkered tile floor, and a neon-pink-lit hallway that pays homage to architect Luis Barragán’s signature color blocks. On Constance Street, chef Ana Castro’s memorable five-course tasting menu at Lengua Madre nods to her paternal grandmother’s Mexican cooking. Light dishes (snapper crudo, smoked-beet tartare) are served in two parlors, a tiny glass atrium, and a lush courtyard.įrom left: A 19th-century former orphanage is now home to Hotel Saint Vincent Bryce Davis, the host at the San Lorenzo restaurant at Hotel Saint Vincent. The old rectory is now the amber-toned Elysian Bar, run by the folks behind the beloved Bywater bottle shop and wine bar Bacchanal. The hotel’s 71 rooms (designed by ASH NYC and NOLA-based StudioWTA) feature wrought-iron beds, armoires painted with trompe l’oeil, and custom gingham fabrics. Many credit writer-hotelier Nathalie Jordi for starting the area’s revival in 2018 with Hotel Peter & Paul, for which she painstakingly restored buildings from the 1860s that had been used by the Catholic Church. These days, it’s a hot spot for up-and-coming music venues, indie restaurants, and dive bars.

Lined with Creole cottages and pastel shotgun houses, Faubourg Marigny (often referred to as the Marigny) is one of the earliest neighborhoods in New Orleans, established in the early 1800s by French colonizers. From left: The garden of Elysian Bar, at Hotel Peter & Paul, which is housed in a former church and school complex mixing drinks at the Elysian Bar.

Mango salsa recipe cookie and kate