1012 Corridor

Something about The Roosevelt hotel defies words. No, scratch that. Almost everything about The Roosevelt hotel defies words.

The historic structure, the first part of which was completed in 1893, recently reopened after a multimillion-dollar renovation and restoration project, bringing back 1940s décor and a sense of place that makes it almost anachronistic in the hubbub of the New Orleans Central Business District.

Indeed, the establishment has a rich and storied history. After opening as the Grunewald Hotel in the late 19th century, it merged with the adjacent building in 1926 and was rechristened The Roosevelt. From the Roaring ’20s to the mid ’60s, The Roosevelt flourished as an entertainment and high-society venue and destination of choice. Then the Fairmont took over and operated the facility until Hurricane Katrina changed everything.

“Katrina didn’t destroy the building, but it flooded the basement where all the mechanical fixtures were situated,” says Mark Wilson, director of sales and marketing for The Roosevelt. “This became a big restoration and renovation issue.”

In 2007, Dimension Development purchased the building for a veritable song at $27 million. In August 2008, a major renovation project was launched in earnest, eventually costing about $170 million. And the results are, in a word, magnificent.

“The goal was to bring back the grandeur and beauty of The Roosevelt,” says Wilson, who had worked for the hotel in the 1990s when it was the Fairmont and who was the first person hired when Dimension started the restoration. A scant 11 months later, the new Roosevelt was born, reopening in July 2009 with 504 rooms and a total of 63,000 square feet of luxurious ballrooms, meeting rooms, restaurants and amenities. The Roosevelt is now managed by Hilton under the Waldorf=Astoria Collection flag. How’s that for a pedigree?

During the renovations, several hidden gems were found, including Art Deco flooring long covered with carpet and the original Grunewald Hotel sign, obscured for many years by a metal “Fairmont” sign. And, of course, the restoration itself made everything even better than it had been—even though the way it had been was, by all accounts, pretty amazing.

“In all of my travels, I’ve never stayed anywhere as nice as the guest rooms here,” says Chief Concierge Rob Lowe, a man almost as anachronistic as the hotel itself. A longtime employee of the Fairmont and a self-made Roosevelt historian, Lowe returned when The Roosevelt reopened.

“I remember, as a child, coming to the Blue Room,” Lowe says, referring to The Roosevelt’s famous restaurant and entertainment venue, which originally opened nearly 75 years ago. “There was no entertainment like it in the South,” he says, reminiscing about big-name Blue Room acts he saw himself in The Roosevelt’s heyday—Carol Channing, Brenda Lee and the Mills Brothers among them.

In addition to the Blue Room, the Sazerac Bar serves the state-recognized Official Cocktail of New Orleans, the Sazerac. Lowe can hold forth on the drink itself, too, describing its invention and how the bar that gave the drink its name in the 19th century later became a Roosevelt tenant after a nearby fire left the venerated cocktail without a homeplace. But no matter how it got there, “People naturally associate it with The Roosevelt,” Lowe says.

From either inside the hotel or from Baronne Street visitors can access Chef John Besh’s Domenica restaurant—one of the few rooms in the hotel with a modern décor—or the Guerlain Spa, where guests can experience everything one expects from a full-service spa.

“When people walk in, their mouths drop open at the ambiance,” says Lauren Ayestas, spa supervisor, whose own Sweet 16 party was held in the Blue Room. “All the locals have a story about The Roosevelt.”

“The gold, the leather chairs, everything—even the floors!” gushes Cathy Bayard, who visited in November from New Iberia. And Bayard hadn’t even checked in yet. “It’s gracious. It’s elegant. It’s just very, very pretty.”

And that feeling—being surrounded by beauty—is not new.

“This was a debutante hotel and an old New Orleans hotel,” Lowe says. “Everything was done at The Roosevelt. You just didn’t do anything anywhere else but The Roosevelt.”

But service is also an essential part of the luxury experience. “We’re a seasoned team and we take pride in what we do,” Ayestas says. “Guests love it here. Everybody is so friendly, whether here in the spa or in the hotel itself.”

In addition to the newly exposed tile floors, the walls, ceilings and light fixtures all cry out to be noticed. No detail has been overlooked, and the place reeks in all the right ways of both nostalgia and modernity—an odd mix, but one the owners, designers, managers and staff have pulled off with aplomb. There’s modern comfort aplenty, but those memories keep bounding back.

“Carol Channing could take an audience and wrap them in her arms,” Lowe says. “When you left, you loved her.”

Kind of like The Roosevelt itself.