Dew Drop Inn Readies to Reopen With Food From a New Orleans Culinary Legend | Eater New Orleans
"Set to reopen at 2836 Lasalle Street, the Dew Drop Inn is being restored as a legendary Central City nightclub, hotel, and restaurant with deep historical significance to New Orleans and the American South. I note it first opened as a barbershop in 1939, became a must-stop mid-20th-century music venue hosting artists such as Tina Turner, James Brown, Ray Charles, Etta James, and Earl King, closed in 1972 after Frank Painia’s death, and shuttered as a hotel after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Owner and developer Curtis Doucette Jr., working closely with his aunt chef Marilyn Doucette, has spent three years recreating a 400-person music venue, a 17-room hotel, a restaurant, two full bars, and a pool club with a heated pool and day passes. The hotel expects to open to guests in February with the restaurant offering a limited menu the first month; food will be served at tables around the music venue, as grab-and-go for in-room dining, and poolside, with breakfast and lunch initially (plans for snacks and weekend brunch to follow) and rotating Sunday jazz, gospel, drag, and trap brunches. The restaurant will meld chef Marilyn’s health-conscious Creole mission—including vegan and gluten-free variations and her Meals from the Heart crabcakes—with classic comfort dishes like grillades and grits, red beans and rice, gumbo, and a charcuterie board made with meats from Vaucresson’s Creole Cafe & Deli." - Clair Lorell
