The Roosevelt New Orleans, a Waldorf Astoria hotel, has been named one of Food & Wine Magazine’s “Editor’s Best Hotel Experiences of 2010” in its December issue. The annual ranking by Food & Wine’s editors features the best new eating, drinking and traveling experiences in the U.S. and internationally.
“I wanted to explore as much of New Orleans’s legendary past as possible when I made my first-ever trip there last November,” writes Jen Murphy, editor at Food & Wine. “Luckily for me, the historic Roosevelt hotel had just reopened.”
The hotel, first opened in 1893 as the Grunewald, was named The Roosevelt in 1925 in honor of President Theodore Roosevelt. Following many years as a Fairmont property and a $170-million historic restoration, the hotel returned to the Roosevelt name in the summer of 2009 as one of only a handful of luxury Waldorf Astoria properties around the world.
Key among plans to restore the property to its previous grandeur and appeal was the reopening of the hotel’s legendary Sazerac Bar. In addition to serving its signature Sazerac cocktail and Ramos Gin Fizz – both invented in New Orleans and made popular to visitors from around the world by The Roosevelt – patrons can enjoy the Art Deco-style murals of artist Paul Ninas.
Noting her visit to the landmark property, Murphy writes, “A Southern gentleman in a seersucker suit pulled up a stool next to me, and we struck up a conversation. He ordered me the bar’s namesake cocktail to officially welcome me to the city.”
For more information on The Roosevelt New Orleans, log on to www.therooseveltneworleans.com. Memories of the hotel can be logged at the hotel’s blog site: www.therooseveltneworleans.com/blog.