A Mile High Rose Blossoms on St Charles

The Pontchartrain Hotel has been a fixture in New Orleans since 1927 and with its renovation last year, continues the tradition of casual elegance on St Charles Avenue. The newest venue in the building is Jack Rose which has transitioned into a hip, cleverly designed restaurant that replaces the more formal Carribean Room. Jackets are no longer required, thank goodness, and the expansive cocktail and food menu makes it easy to find something for all palettes.

Of course everyone wants to know if the portrait of Lil Wayne is still in the lounge area and as you can see from our photos, the designers kept him in his rightful place and tweaked everything surrounding him The staff was impeccable in the comfortable and couchy lounge area and did whatever it took to accommodate our group and keep the cocktails flowing. The Jack Rose is one of the signature cocktails and when served, has the rose drawn in the egg white foam topping the drink. Just because we wanted to see if it always worked, we had to have two of them and sure enough, a rose is a rose!

We moved into the Club room in the main restaurant which was enclosed with classic wood panels, some caribbean painted art that had just arrived this week from Chicago, and a very unique ceiling wallpaper design featuring the mile high ice cream pie but more closely resembling sexual things that we could only laugh about and figured that some designer truly had the last laugh.

Service was impeccable and the food was as delicious as the cocktails were. Our friends had the fabulous Margarita which was a tasty, Jalapeno spiked rendition of the classic Margarita with crushed coconut on the rim rather than salt. Dessert was the finishing touch at Jack Rose and of course we had to have some Mile High Ice Cream Pie along with every other delectable item on the menu. We finished the night at Tin Roof, and while crowded with the cool set of New Orleanians, most of which were MUCH younger than we were, our waitress was quick to find us and get beverages into our hands so we could enjoy the best view of the city from this rooftop bar. Older locals may remember that this bar was the former residence of the hotel owners.

The Pontchartrain hotel has now completed the entire experience with Jack Rose allowing all three watering holes to be totally spectacular creating a balanced environment for the crowds.