Leaving Loews New Orleans Hotel – To Wander In Wonder
I looked out an 11th story window in the Loews Hotel at part of the New Orleans skyline. To my left I could see the imposing, soaring shelter-like structure of the National World War II Museum. Down at street level I saw unsheltered people lined up in the light rain to get into Mother’s – a no-frills, decades-old po’ boy-jambalaya-red beans-and-rice restaurant on the corner across the street.
“I think they pay people to stand in line there,” deadpanned Drew Mills when he saw me notice people waiting. Mills is the food and beverage director for Loews New Orleans Hotel.
“I ate there twice yesterday,” I then confessed to him. And sensing a bit of competitiveness from Mills I asked him if it was difficult to be the chef at Loews – or any hotel – and its Peters at Poydras brasserie in a city with such compelling cuisine?
“No one comes to New Orleans to just stay in the hotel, so we get our guests started and end the night with them. And if it rains or something they’re good,” he admitted. “In New Orleans when you’re eating breakfast you are wondering what you’re going to have for lunch. At lunch you’re thinking about dinner. During dinner you’re discussing where to go for drinks.”
Read the full story in Go World Travel Magazine.
