Three Low-Key Nights to the Roosevelt Resort in New Orleans
We always try to take a trip with just the two of us each year. The first half of 2025 was pretty rough on the family so we decided to plan a more low-key trip closer to home. E had broken her ankle about 12 weeks prior so we knew we wouldn't be able to do any of the walking tours or sight seeing as most in New Orleans would do. So we decided to make it more of a resort stay and the Waldorf Astoria Roosevelt did not disappoint. This also meant we look Uber and Lyft everywhere to save steps on the healing ankle.
In the summer / slower season, you can find weekends with pretty reasonable room rates at the Roosevelt. On top of that, Hilton was running a special that gave us $100 room credit every day which could be used on the onsite bars and restaurants. Being a Hilton Gold member gave us an extra $50 on top of that. These funds were mostly used at the Sazarac Bar, Pool Bar and the local coffee shop, Teddy's Cafe. While $150 a day is a lot and gave us a sense of an 'all inclusive', the drinks are expensive ($17 - $25 each) with each round (two drinks) costing $35 - $50. However, the drinks were very well done and each was ample. Given our daily routine and not here to 'go hard' on drinks. Two drinks a day from a bar like Sazarac was probably what we should of stopped at!
We were also upgraded from a standard 'King Bed Deluxe Room' which was their normal base room to a 'King Bed Superior Room'. This room had a sitting area when you walked in and was much more spacious. I was contemplating paying for this upgrade but on the weekend we were going, the base room was a good bit cheaper than the superior room so decided to stick with that. While we did not utilize the extra space much, it really did make the room feel more comfortable and since it was a resort vacation for us, very welcomed. I got an email about the complementary upgrade 3 days before our check in date.
Our original plan was to fly in to New Orleans and take an Uber / Lyft to the Roosevelt. I was able to book some really reasonable flights into NOLA from Houston. But it was easier to drop our daughter off in Orange, Tx at her grandparents on our way to New Orleans than the grandparents coming into Houston or us drive back to Houston, after dropping her off, just to fly out. That meant we drove to New Orleans, valeted our car and didn't touch it until we left. While valet was expensive (~$60 a day), it was a few dollars cheaper than the (really) cheap flights once you factor in the ride from the airport to the hotel and the parking at the airport as well.
Day 1 - Saturday July 12
The beauty of New Orleans is that E grew up on the boarder of Texas and Louisiana and her dad and step mom still lived there. Therefore, we drove to their house on Friday bringing our little one there to stay and have some grandparent time. That meant on Saturday, we only had a 3.5 hr drive into New Orleans. It was a nice drive getting to choose what to listen to on the radio vs what our four year-old daughter wanted. We stopped for lunch in Baton Rouge as we were running just late enough that we were confident our room would be ready by the time we arrived and wouldn't need to kill time in NOLA getting lunch while we waited for our room.
Upon arriving, we valeted our car and was able to get checked in. We settled into our room and changed. We made our way down to the famous Sazarac bar. It was such a neat, historic bar and it quickly became our hang out spot. There was a wedding going on at the hotel so the bar was actually pretty busy. We did find a table and each had two drinks. I started with the Sazarac and E started with the Ramos Gin Fizz. Both staple drinks of the historic bar. Knowing we had roughly three drinks work of credit for the day, we promptly ordered a second round of a Golden Hour and a Corpse Revival. It was halfway through this second drink that we realized that these drinks were strong (or we were just getting old)!
We left the Roosevelt about 5:30pm and headed over to Carousel Bar and Lounge in the Hotel Monteleone. This is a famous bar that has seats that slowly rotate around it like a Carousel. The place was crowded (as it was a Saturday) so we couldn't sit at the carousel part of the bar but found a table elsewhere in the room. We each ordered (another) drink but were less than impressed. The quality of the Sazarac bar was already putting other bars to shame.
Dinner was at 7:00pm, across the street at Mr. B's Bistro. Mr. B's is owned by the famous restaurant family the Brennan's and was fantastic. This was the restaurant I had last fall on a work trip that put in my mind that I had to take E here. Everything we had, the crab cake, the BBQ shrimp, the bacon wrapped shrimp and grits and the bread pudding were amazing. All of our meals in NOLA were great but after the trip, we agreed this one was the best.
We made it back to the Roosevelt about 9:00pm and dropped into the Sazarac for a night cap. We took the drinks up to the room were was sipped them as we passed out!
In the summer / slower season, you can find weekends with pretty reasonable room rates at the Roosevelt. On top of that, Hilton was running a special that gave us $100 room credit every day which could be used on the onsite bars and restaurants. Being a Hilton Gold member gave us an extra $50 on top of that. These funds were mostly used at the Sazarac Bar, Pool Bar and the local coffee shop, Teddy's Cafe. While $150 a day is a lot and gave us a sense of an 'all inclusive', the drinks are expensive ($17 - $25 each) with each round (two drinks) costing $35 - $50. However, the drinks were very well done and each was ample. Given our daily routine and not here to 'go hard' on drinks. Two drinks a day from a bar like Sazarac was probably what we should of stopped at!
We were also upgraded from a standard 'King Bed Deluxe Room' which was their normal base room to a 'King Bed Superior Room'. This room had a sitting area when you walked in and was much more spacious. I was contemplating paying for this upgrade but on the weekend we were going, the base room was a good bit cheaper than the superior room so decided to stick with that. While we did not utilize the extra space much, it really did make the room feel more comfortable and since it was a resort vacation for us, very welcomed. I got an email about the complementary upgrade 3 days before our check in date.
Our original plan was to fly in to New Orleans and take an Uber / Lyft to the Roosevelt. I was able to book some really reasonable flights into NOLA from Houston. But it was easier to drop our daughter off in Orange, Tx at her grandparents on our way to New Orleans than the grandparents coming into Houston or us drive back to Houston, after dropping her off, just to fly out. That meant we drove to New Orleans, valeted our car and didn't touch it until we left. While valet was expensive (~$60 a day), it was a few dollars cheaper than the (really) cheap flights once you factor in the ride from the airport to the hotel and the parking at the airport as well.
Day 1 - Saturday July 12
- Arrive at Roosevelt at 2:00pm
- Settle in drinks at Sazarac Bar
- Uber ride to Carousel Bar
- Dinner at Mr. B's Bistro
- Uber ride back and night cap at Sazarac Bar
The beauty of New Orleans is that E grew up on the boarder of Texas and Louisiana and her dad and step mom still lived there. Therefore, we drove to their house on Friday bringing our little one there to stay and have some grandparent time. That meant on Saturday, we only had a 3.5 hr drive into New Orleans. It was a nice drive getting to choose what to listen to on the radio vs what our four year-old daughter wanted. We stopped for lunch in Baton Rouge as we were running just late enough that we were confident our room would be ready by the time we arrived and wouldn't need to kill time in NOLA getting lunch while we waited for our room.
Upon arriving, we valeted our car and was able to get checked in. We settled into our room and changed. We made our way down to the famous Sazarac bar. It was such a neat, historic bar and it quickly became our hang out spot. There was a wedding going on at the hotel so the bar was actually pretty busy. We did find a table and each had two drinks. I started with the Sazarac and E started with the Ramos Gin Fizz. Both staple drinks of the historic bar. Knowing we had roughly three drinks work of credit for the day, we promptly ordered a second round of a Golden Hour and a Corpse Revival. It was halfway through this second drink that we realized that these drinks were strong (or we were just getting old)!
We left the Roosevelt about 5:30pm and headed over to Carousel Bar and Lounge in the Hotel Monteleone. This is a famous bar that has seats that slowly rotate around it like a Carousel. The place was crowded (as it was a Saturday) so we couldn't sit at the carousel part of the bar but found a table elsewhere in the room. We each ordered (another) drink but were less than impressed. The quality of the Sazarac bar was already putting other bars to shame.
Dinner was at 7:00pm, across the street at Mr. B's Bistro. Mr. B's is owned by the famous restaurant family the Brennan's and was fantastic. This was the restaurant I had last fall on a work trip that put in my mind that I had to take E here. Everything we had, the crab cake, the BBQ shrimp, the bacon wrapped shrimp and grits and the bread pudding were amazing. All of our meals in NOLA were great but after the trip, we agreed this one was the best.
We made it back to the Roosevelt about 9:00pm and dropped into the Sazarac for a night cap. We took the drinks up to the room were was sipped them as we passed out!
Day 2 - Sunday July 13
We woke up after thoroughly enjoying the day before and excited for the day! E's ankle was sore from the action the day before but was holding up. She had just gotten off crutches a few weeks before after breaking her ankle in late April so all-in-all it was doing great! I went down stairs to Teddy's Cafe to get E some coffee and us some light pastries for breakfast. After lounging in the morning, we hit the pool about 9am. The Roosevelt had a nice pool deck area and it was pretty active this Sunday morning.
We had a plan for a brunch today so left the pool, changed and decided to walk it. E donned her large boot on the ankle and we were off. It was a short walk down to Cafe Beignet. When in New Orleans, you have to have a beignet so it was a goal to go to a place famous for them. Here we split a breakfast sandwich and a round of warm beignets.
We then continued our walk down to the Sazarac House. The Sazarac House is a museum, if you will, to the history of drinking in New Orleans. It contained a three story walking tour outlining famous drinks in city. At the end, there was a small gift shop and since the place was sponsored / ran by the Sazarac company, it had bourbon from their lines including some allocated stuff that was limited to one bottle per person. There that day, was EH Taylor Small Batch and Eagle Rare along with non allocated bottles of Weller and Buffalo Trace. Emily allowed me to get a bottle each of EH Taylor and Eagle Rare which have been very tasty additions to my small bourbon collection!
To help the ankle out, we took a Lyft back to the Roosevelt actually getting back pretty early in the day at 12:30. We again checked out the pool, finding it pretty crowded and us barely finding loungers. However, we were chased away by a pretty good thunder storm by 1:30 so just went back to the room to relax and nap!
We hit the Sazarac Bar for some pre-dinner drinks again. We started to chat up one of the bar tenders who gave us insight of what it is like working at a higher end bar like the Sazarac house. He was still in training and we enjoyed running into him during our time there. He made E a Bee's Knees which is very similar to a Gold Rush and then a Last Word. I had a Cognac Sazarac and a Vieux Carre.
We then grabbed our Uber over to Cochon for dinner. This was a highly rated, higher end cajun restaurant that specialized in up scale local favorites. We had things like oyster in a cajun sauce, an crawfish empanada, hushpuppies, and pork rinds for example (can't recall what our mains were). Everything was very very good. Probably didn't hit as perfect as the bacon wrapped shrimp and grits from Mr. B's but I would recommend Cochon to everyone that visits NOLA.
We Uber'd back to the Roosevelt and again had a night back at the Sazarac bar and took the drinks up to the room for the evening.
- Coffee / Pastries from Teddy's Cafe
- Hit the pool mid-morning
- Lunch at Cafe Beignet
- Tour Sazarac House
- Lyft ride back
- Back to the pool then afternoon nap
- Sazarac Bar for pre-dinner drinks
- Cochon for dinner (Uber there)
- Uber ride back and Sazarac Bar for night cap
We woke up after thoroughly enjoying the day before and excited for the day! E's ankle was sore from the action the day before but was holding up. She had just gotten off crutches a few weeks before after breaking her ankle in late April so all-in-all it was doing great! I went down stairs to Teddy's Cafe to get E some coffee and us some light pastries for breakfast. After lounging in the morning, we hit the pool about 9am. The Roosevelt had a nice pool deck area and it was pretty active this Sunday morning.
We had a plan for a brunch today so left the pool, changed and decided to walk it. E donned her large boot on the ankle and we were off. It was a short walk down to Cafe Beignet. When in New Orleans, you have to have a beignet so it was a goal to go to a place famous for them. Here we split a breakfast sandwich and a round of warm beignets.
We then continued our walk down to the Sazarac House. The Sazarac House is a museum, if you will, to the history of drinking in New Orleans. It contained a three story walking tour outlining famous drinks in city. At the end, there was a small gift shop and since the place was sponsored / ran by the Sazarac company, it had bourbon from their lines including some allocated stuff that was limited to one bottle per person. There that day, was EH Taylor Small Batch and Eagle Rare along with non allocated bottles of Weller and Buffalo Trace. Emily allowed me to get a bottle each of EH Taylor and Eagle Rare which have been very tasty additions to my small bourbon collection!
To help the ankle out, we took a Lyft back to the Roosevelt actually getting back pretty early in the day at 12:30. We again checked out the pool, finding it pretty crowded and us barely finding loungers. However, we were chased away by a pretty good thunder storm by 1:30 so just went back to the room to relax and nap!
We hit the Sazarac Bar for some pre-dinner drinks again. We started to chat up one of the bar tenders who gave us insight of what it is like working at a higher end bar like the Sazarac house. He was still in training and we enjoyed running into him during our time there. He made E a Bee's Knees which is very similar to a Gold Rush and then a Last Word. I had a Cognac Sazarac and a Vieux Carre.
We then grabbed our Uber over to Cochon for dinner. This was a highly rated, higher end cajun restaurant that specialized in up scale local favorites. We had things like oyster in a cajun sauce, an crawfish empanada, hushpuppies, and pork rinds for example (can't recall what our mains were). Everything was very very good. Probably didn't hit as perfect as the bacon wrapped shrimp and grits from Mr. B's but I would recommend Cochon to everyone that visits NOLA.
We Uber'd back to the Roosevelt and again had a night back at the Sazarac bar and took the drinks up to the room for the evening.
Day 3 - Monday July 14
On Monday, we planned for more of the same. We woke after sleeping in a bit and I went down for coffee and some light breakfast from Teddy's Cafe. We again, planned to hit up the pool to rest the ankle. We found ourselves at the pool by 9:15 or so and had it to ourselves! I guess the hotel was a good bit more crowded on the weekend than a Monday? Another couple finally showed up and a few more as the morning went on. We enjoyed a few tropical drinks from the pool bar today.
We got chased away by rain about noon and decided to head out for lunch. We cleaned up and took a Lyft over to a sushi restaurant named Tsunami. It was near the Whitney Tower that housed Shell's US office that I had spent time at before. Tsunami was right across the street and I thought it was decent sushi at the time. Lunch might not of lived up to expectations in my head but it was still very good sushi and a nice treat for us!
We took a Lyft back to the Roosevelt and back to the pool a little after 2. The rain had chased away all of the other couples and it was just us and two others for the afternoon. We really enjoyed the serenity of the pool. It wasn't big but the attendants were great and the lounge chairs were just want we wanted.
We retreated back to the room to clean up and back at the Sazarac bar by 5:30 or so. E got a Gin Fizz again and I got a Paper Plane. (Just one round tonight). This night, we had dinner reservations at GW Finn's. They focused on sea food and was surprised on how crowded the place was. I was almost expecting a more subdue atmosphere. The food was very good but I think I liked Mr. B's and Cochon better. The fish fins were probably my favorite there. We each ordered an entree and the waiter split them both between us. One was a scallop topped fish that was very good but a bit rich! They were very big portions which is great but we were stuffed! However, we still had to split a creme brûlée for desert.
As always, we ended the night back at the Roosevelt at the Sazarac bar. We said bye to our trainee bar tender that we had become friends with and enjoyed one last round.
- Coffee / Pastries from Teddy's Cafe
- Pool again mid-morning
- Lyft to Tsunami (sushi) for lunch with Lyft ride back
- Back to the pool mid-afternoon dodging rain showers
- Sazarac Bar for pre-dinner drinks
- GW Finns for dinner (with Lyft there and back)
- After dinner drinks at the Sazarac bar
On Monday, we planned for more of the same. We woke after sleeping in a bit and I went down for coffee and some light breakfast from Teddy's Cafe. We again, planned to hit up the pool to rest the ankle. We found ourselves at the pool by 9:15 or so and had it to ourselves! I guess the hotel was a good bit more crowded on the weekend than a Monday? Another couple finally showed up and a few more as the morning went on. We enjoyed a few tropical drinks from the pool bar today.
We got chased away by rain about noon and decided to head out for lunch. We cleaned up and took a Lyft over to a sushi restaurant named Tsunami. It was near the Whitney Tower that housed Shell's US office that I had spent time at before. Tsunami was right across the street and I thought it was decent sushi at the time. Lunch might not of lived up to expectations in my head but it was still very good sushi and a nice treat for us!
We took a Lyft back to the Roosevelt and back to the pool a little after 2. The rain had chased away all of the other couples and it was just us and two others for the afternoon. We really enjoyed the serenity of the pool. It wasn't big but the attendants were great and the lounge chairs were just want we wanted.
We retreated back to the room to clean up and back at the Sazarac bar by 5:30 or so. E got a Gin Fizz again and I got a Paper Plane. (Just one round tonight). This night, we had dinner reservations at GW Finn's. They focused on sea food and was surprised on how crowded the place was. I was almost expecting a more subdue atmosphere. The food was very good but I think I liked Mr. B's and Cochon better. The fish fins were probably my favorite there. We each ordered an entree and the waiter split them both between us. One was a scallop topped fish that was very good but a bit rich! They were very big portions which is great but we were stuffed! However, we still had to split a creme brûlée for desert.
As always, we ended the night back at the Roosevelt at the Sazarac bar. We said bye to our trainee bar tender that we had become friends with and enjoyed one last round.
Day 4 - Tuesday July 15
We woke up and regrettably backed up. We had the goal for just a little more pool time but when we went down about 8, we found the pool closed this morning. So we lounged in the room before hitting the road back to Texas about 9:00am.
The grandparents actually took the little one to a water park in Sulphur, La this day so we had to wait for them at their house. This meant we had one tired kid but she was able to sleep on our drive back to Houston. We made it back home around 6:00pm after a long day of driving but well worth it!
Lessons Learned:
- Packed and tried to spend a short time at the pool before needing to leave but it was closed.
- Checked out and had a nice drive back to Orange, Tx to pick up our daughter.
- Completed the drive back home later in the afternoon
We woke up and regrettably backed up. We had the goal for just a little more pool time but when we went down about 8, we found the pool closed this morning. So we lounged in the room before hitting the road back to Texas about 9:00am.
The grandparents actually took the little one to a water park in Sulphur, La this day so we had to wait for them at their house. This meant we had one tired kid but she was able to sleep on our drive back to Houston. We made it back home around 6:00pm after a long day of driving but well worth it!
Lessons Learned:
- Watch resort charges - I kept a running log on my phone throughout the trip. Some charges got side ways on our room. The front desk at the Roosevelt was finally able to get it straight after a bit of explaining what was up. It was helpful to have our log.
- Take advantage of the resort funds - Taking advantage of the special going on and our Hilton Honors status allowed us to have $150 a day credit. This really helped us enjoy the bars around the resort without worrying about money.
- Carousel bar was eh - I had visited it before with a few different work groups and it was fine. On our visit, it was loud and the drinks were just okay. I'm not saying it wasn't like this before but coming from the Roosevelt, it was just eh to the rest of the trip. A cool place to visit once but probably not something we would have to go back to.
- Parking at the Roosevelt vs Flying In - While the parking at the resort was a very high $60 per day, even with cheap flights added to a Uber ride to and rom the NOLA airport and Houston airport parking, it was hard to beat for us money wise. That with the child care being on the way to NOLA, made it where we drove in. But we started planning the trip assuming we would fly.
- You Don't Need Bourbon Street - We intentionally did a low key visit due to a healing ankle but we had a great time eating our way through NOLA and chilling by a pool between meals. We probably would of have done a city tour and maybe hit a museum or two if E was more mobile but we came to NOLA, this time, for the Waldorf Astoria Roosevelt and the food in NOLA and was not disappointed.
Safe Travels,
B & E
B & E