Life in the Warehouse District

Discovering new and old in this creative enclave

by Sue Strachan

FOR YEARS, THE WAREHOUSE DISTRICT of New Orleans languished. But with the Louisiana World’s Fair in 1984 kick-starting development, the area has blossomed into a mix of restaurants, bars, hotels, art galleries, museums, condominiums and stores crafted from former warehouses, industrial buildings and townhouses.

MORE THAN A PLACE TO REST YOUR HEAD

One of the most recent additions is the Virgin Hotel New Orleans, an $80 million project that opened in August 2021. The hotel has 236 rooms, including two penthouse suites. New Orleans design firm Logan Killen Interiors, which worked with the Virgin to localize the property with unique touches, created its playful interiors.

The hotel’s Commons Club restaurant, helmed by Chef Alex Harrell, is participating in COOLinary New Orleans. (COOLinary, which happens in the month of August, is when restaurants citywide offer multi-course, prix fixe meals at special prices.) Other events at the hotel include: Aug. 3: Core & Cocktails with Club Pilates at the Pool Club (the hotel’s rooftop bar, restaurant and pool area); Aug. 14: Shabram & The Fam, performing during brunch; and Sept. 2: Diva Drag Brunch.

The Kimpton Hotel Fontenot opened in May 2021. The 202-room boutique hotel is also home to the Peacock Room where visitors can enjoy craft cocktails, food and entertainment. Da Lovebirds — Robin Barnes and Pat Casey — are continuing their Thursday musical residency, and a new performer, Joshua Starkman, will be bringing his “Have a Great Day” showcase on Aug.10. Sundays will showcase the Jazz Brunch series with Rachel Murray and Joe Bouchá and Jelani Bauman.

TOUR DE EAT

Gianna is the latest in the [Donald] Link Restaurant Group empire, which includes Herbsaint, Pêche Seafood Grill, Calcasieu, Cochon and Cochon Butcher, all located in the Warehouse District, as well as La Boulangerie in Uptown. All have distinct culinary personalities with Gianna serving food your Italian nonna would make. New this summer is brunch Saturday and Sunday, featuring dishes such as pasta Bordelaise, eggs alla Gianna (farm eggs, chilies, tomato soffritto and fried ciabatta), ricotta gnocchi and an heirloom tomato panzanella.

When asked about why Annunciation Restaurant has lasted 10 years in the Warehouse District, Director of Special Events Kristin Sparks mentions the restaurant’s “traditional Creole dishes” as a favorite for locals and outof-town guests as well as its proximity to the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center, located by the Mississippi River.

Annunciation is participating in COOLinary. It will offer a three-course dinner with choices including watermelon salad, veal Sorrentino and bananas Foster.

Annunciation also offers innovative takes on Creole dishes on its regular menu with two popular selections including fresh drum Yvonne, which is drum topped with artichoke, mushrooms, green onions and served with Brabant potatoes and broccoli, and soft-shell crab Monica served with crawfish, green onion and garlic.

St. James Cheese

Company, which opened its first location Uptown, spread its wings to a second, the Warehouse District location in December 2015.

“Our menu is designed to reflect the type of casual food we ate while living in the U.K. and traveling in Europe, and is of course, cheese-centric,” says Danielle Sutton who owns this cheese emporium/restaurant with her husband Richard. “We use high-quality ingredients to serve fresh and grilled sandwiches, hearty salads and cheese and charcuterie boards.”

Among the other items: “Our popular Cantal salad which was inspired by a salad I had in the Auvergne region of France, with Cantal cheese, julienned ham, walnuts and our housemade Dijon vinaigrette,” she says, adding, “the grilled Mozzarella, salami and pesto sandwich was a sandwich I ate all the time living in London at little Italian cafes.”

The duo also finds inspiration from their staff who have come up with specials, as well as some menu items, such as Hook’s Cheddar and the Il Mostro, that are now on the everyday menu.

Sutton added that they are, “on the cusp of launching our new private events menu in the early fall for the Warehouse District shop (and Uptown). We are getting more and more requests to rent our Warehouse District store out for events.”

The restaurant’s summer hours are extending through September, Mon.- Sat. 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Happy Hour will run during that time with $5 draft beers, $2 off >>

Opposite page: The Commons Club at the Virgin Hotel New Orleans Top: Degas Gallery. Above: The homespun Italian cuisine of Gianna.

“Leaving Appalachia: The Art of Gregory B. Saunders” at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art.

glasses of wine and cocktails, $12 threeitem cheese/charcuterie boards.

Chef Nina Compton and her husband Larry Miller have made Compère Lapin one of the most popular restaurants in the city. Her Caribbean-inspired Louisiana cuisine has received rave reviews, and in September, the restaurant is launching its Caribbean Dinner Series, a four-course menu available only for dinner. Each week will highlight cuisine from a different island in the Caribbean, no doubt one will definitely showcase cuisine from St. Lucia where Compton is from.

ARTFUL DOINGS

The Warehouse District is also home to the Arts District of New Orleans which will be the location of Fidelity Bank White Linen Night, Aug. 6.

The focal point of the district is Julia Street which is home to several art galleries, including Arthur Roger Gallery, Callan Contemporary, LeMieux Galleries, Ariodante and Jonathan Ferrara Gallery, among others, while adjacent streets include Octavia Art Gallery, Martine Chaisson Gallery and Spillman | Blackwell.

Degas Gallery has been a fixture on Julia Street since October 2015 when it opened for Art for Art’s Sake, which is the first weekend in October.

The gallery is devoted to local artists as well as out-of-town artists from Chicago, Boston, New York and Michigan.

“We focus on paintings of intense >>

Da Lovebirds at Peacock Room. color and texture, and these works of course stem from impressionism and expressionism,” says gallery owner Cybèle Gontar.

“We show a different artist each month, and in August, our artist is Jacques Soulas, a native of France and the owner of Café Degas restaurant on Esplanade Avenue.

“Jacques is an exceptional painter of still lifes and local landscapes. His brushwork often reminds me of [Éduoard] Manet, as his subjects are lifelike, but the strokes are loose,” Gontar says.

Gontar is also an artist, author (her latest is “A Century on Harmony Street: The Kohlmaier Cabinetmakers”), and curator.

The Arts District has notable museums: Contemporary Arts Center, Ogden Museum of Southern Art and the National World War II Museum.

During August, the Contemporary Arts Center will be featuring “Remember Earth?”, its ninth annual Gulf South Open Call Exhibition featuring works by 54 multimedia artists from the Gulf Coast states of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida and Texas. The exhibition “explores important issues facing our world, including climate change, pollution, coastal land erosion, natural disasters, dwindling resources, mass extinction, home loss, environmental racism, and growing inequalities brought on by environmental change,” says its press release.

Across the street the Ogden Museum of Southern Art will feature “Louisiana Contemporary 2022,”

presented by The Helis Foundation which premieres on Aug. 6. The juried exhibition started 10 years ago, and each year it features works by living Louisiana artists, with the winners announced for White Linen Night. This year’s edition showcases 51 works by 49 artists. Another exhibition opening Aug. 6 is “Leaving Appalachia: The Art of Gregory B. Saunders.”

Special events for August include the Hey Y’all Art Talk, a participatory gallery tour, scheduled through the year on the second Thursday of a month (Aug. 11) and Adult Art Camp, Aug. 15-19.

No visit is complete without a stop at the National World War II Museum. The complex has grown through the years, and it even now contains the Higgins Hotel for visitors to stay. The focus is the battles and the people who fought in World War II. The museum also explores what was happening at home in the U.S. during the War. Galleries include the Road to Berlin, Road to Tokyo, Arsenal of Democracy, the D-Day Invasion of Normandy, U.S. Merchant Marine and Bayou to Battlefield. Interactive experiences include Final Mission: USS Tang Submarine and Beyond All Boundaries.

Warehouse District

Annunciation Restaurant,

1016 Annunciation St., annunciationrestaurant.com

Compère Lapin, The Old No. 77

Hotel, 535 Tchoupitlouas St., comperelapin.com Contemporary Arts Center, 900

Camp St., cacno.org Degas Gallery, 604 Julia Street, thedegasgallery.com Gianna, 700 Magazine St., giannarestaurant.com Kimpton Hotel Fontenot, 501

Tchoupitoulas St., kimptohotels.com National World War II

Museum, 945 Camp St., nationalww2museum.org

Ogden Museum of Southern Art,

925 Camp St., ogdenmuseum.org St. James Cheese Company, 641

Tchoupitoulas St., stjamescheese. com Virgin Hotel New Orleans, 550

Baronne St., virginhotels.com