The Caribbean Room, the exuberant, hanging fern-decorated restaurant opened in the Pontchartrain Hotel by the hotel arm of Besh’s restaurant group will close its doors on March 15, just shy of its second anniversary.
Jack Rose, from QED Hospitality (formerly the hotel arm of Besh’s restaurant group), opening in its place in April, will extend the design of the “living room area” into the dining room area, which means the beloved Ashley Longshore portrait of New Orleans-born rapper, Lil Wayne, that anchored the space is “definitely staying.” (Whew.)
While the Caribbean Room harked back to the heyday of the Pontchartrain in its design and menu, the new restaurant will mostly abandon that in favor of appealing to “a wider audience of guests and locals.”
“We are looking forward to bringing the same joie de vivre felt throughout the building in Hot Tin, Bayou Bar and Silver Whistle into Jack Rose,” QED Hospitality co-owner Emery Whalen said in a press release. As part of that, the dress code no longer requires jackets.
David Whitmore, formerly chef de cuisine of Borgne restaurant (the BRG restaurant where QED Hospitality co-owner Brian Landry is executive chef), will take the reigns from Chris Lusk, who was executive chef at the Caribbean Room from its launch, according to Ian McNulty.
At Jack Rose, Whitmore will serve traditional Creole cuisine with “a modern flair,” which means “keeping modern technique and preparation in mind,” a spokesperson for QED hospitality tells Eater NOLA. The team is still developing the menu and no more details are available right now.
The cocktail team at the Hot Tin will handle the cocktail menu at the new restaurant. (The Jack Rose is also the name of a cocktail popular in the 1920s.)
While the Pontchartrain Hotel’s Hot Tin bar pays homage to Tennessee Williams’ play “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” Jack Rose is character in Tennessee Williams’ play “The Rose Tattoo,” notes McNulty. Tennessee Williams, one of the hotel’s most celebrated guests, penned “A Streetcar Named Desire” at the Pontchartrain on the hotel’s stationery.
Whalen and Landry ran the hotel arm of Besh’s restaurant group from its inception. After the many sexual harassment allegations rocked the restaurant group, BRG sold the hotel arm to Whalen and Landry. They quickly rebranded it as QED Hospitality.
The impeccably decorated Caribbean Room recreated a lost New Orleans restaurant and returned diners to the middle of the last century when white tablecloths were the norm; people dressed for dinner; and hanging ferns, heavy drapes, and rattan furniture were the style of the day. It was a moment in time that many New Orleanians were happy to see return, a place where they could eat crab Remick and mile high pie again. Eater New Orleans awarded the Caribbean Room the Eater Award for Design of the Year in 2016.
MORE READING
Pontchartrain Hotel’s Restaurants Break Off From Besh Restaurant Group [ENOLA]
Caribbean Room, Revamped New Orleans Classic, Set to Close; a Look at What’s Next [ADVOCATE]