Fodor's Expert Review Pontchartrain Hotel

A team of hotel experts recently renovated this 1930s architectural delight of a building, overlooking the live oaks and streetcar tracks of St. Charles Street in the Garden District. The interior hotel and its four restaurant and bar outlets pay homage to the hotel’s history in funky, lush decor, while sneaking in great food, service, and modern amenities.

room

Room decor is kitschy but clean, with lots of green plush and florals. Even the standard room is spacious, and each one includes an antique writing desk, a locally curated mini bar and fresh flowers and plants.

Can you take the heat? Rooms prices drop to as ridiculously low as $111 a night during the summer months, when the humidity scares off some tourists.

bathroom

Le Labo products (ahhh..), more antique style, and bathrobes.

lobby

Marble floors and more plants, but our favorite part of the lobby is the parlor off to the right, which serves as a waiting room for the restaurant and a general hangout for guests and visiting locals. Architecturally, it’s grand and precise in its windows and light features, but the decor is a beautiful clutter of floral, overstuffed furniture, plants, and portraits (Lil’ Wayne, unexpectedly, at the center).

YOU SHOULD KNOW Long line for the elevator at night? There are two elevators, but only one leads to Hot Tin, the popular rooftop bar. The first elevator in the bank is just for guests and never as congested.

dining

There’s more fantastic interior design inside the Caribbean Room, John Besh’s restaurant, where an enormous chandelier of ferns cascades from a sunroof at the room’s center. The rattan furniture and other decor are fit to match the room’s pre-existing Charles Reinike murals. Oh yeah, the food: the menu aims to honor the building’s original restaurant, and you can expect expert renditions of many classic redfish, shrimp, and crawfish dishes. Bayou Bar in the front of the building serves a pub-grub take on the same menu in a tavern setting, and the Silver Whistle Cafe (another piece of history) serves coffee, light breakfast, and pastries.

drinking

Hot Tin, the rooftop bar with a deck overlooking the city skyline, is a lounge and cocktail bar with a speakeasy feel, both popular at happy hour for large groups and romantic champagne sipping late at night. At Bayou Bar downstairs, you might actually get work done or catch a game on TV—it's much less of a scene and more of a tavern, though the drinks list and food choices are as sophisticated as elsewhere in the hotel.