The Old No 77 Hotel and Chandlery

This is how to refurb a hotel. Not by over-stuffing it with designer gubbins but by paring the whole place (including the rooms) right back and letting the history of the building – an 1850s warehouse with hardwood floors and exposed brick walls made from Mississippi mud clay – shine through. There are 166 rooms but it has the feel of an easygoing and very friendly boutique hotel. The new restaurant, Compère Lapin is also several cuts above your standard hotel eatery. St Lucia-born chef Nina Compton blends the tropical flavours of her homeland with the rich New Orleanean cuisine – a heady, flavourful mix that includes curried goat with plantain gnocchi, spiced pig ears, snapper crudo and marinated shrimp with roasted jalapeño jus. The bar mixes great cocktails, too, and it’s only four blocks from the French Quarter.
• Doubles from $109 a night plus tax, room-only, +1 504 527 5271, old77hotel.com

St Roch Market

With the city booming and Katrina causing an unprecedented population shift (to and from the city), gentrification conundrums abound in New Orleans, and the exciting but controversial new St Roch food market is a textbook example. The beautiful building is home to 15 different types of vendor, selling oysters, coffee, seafood, charcuterie, Creole-fusion food and so on, plus a well-stocked bar at the back. The problem is that for over a century this very cool, and sensitively restored space was home to a fish market until it closed right after Katrina, and that is exactly what the local community says it wanted back … but wasn’t consulted on. Politics aside, the place has a friendly and welcoming vibe and all the food I tried was excellent – and affordable enough that few could complain of being priced out of here.
• Open daily 7am-10pm (11pm Thurs-Sat), 2381 St Claude Avenue, strochmarket.com

Cocktail bars

The New Orleans cocktail fraternity speak of Jeff “Beachbum” Berry in reverential terms, and after spending a couple of hours in his bar, Latitude 29, which opened in the French Quarter at the end of last year, I can see why. The signature Latitude 29 (eight-year Demerara rum, passion fruit puree, Madagascar vanilla syrup, orange, pineapple and lemon) is a delicious drink, a perfect modern-day example of the tiki art. The bar snacks are great here, too (bahn mi, steak frites, curly fries), and during happy hour these cost just a few dollars.

A large number of restaurants and cocktail bars have opened in New Orleans in the last couple of years – the Cellar Door is a bit of both. It’s housed in one of the city’s oldest buildings (once one of its longest-running brothels), and has an atmospheric speakeasy feel. The craft cocktails are on the money and small plates (tuna tartare, chicken wings, fried green tomato sandwich) soak up the booze nicely.

The Lafitte Greenway

Chosen by Lindsay Pick, co-founder, Louisiana Lost Lands Environmental Tours
The Lafitte Greenway is a 2.6-mile park that will run through the heart of New Orleans from City Park to Louis Armstrong Park. Originally a canal connecting Bayou St John to the edge of the French Quarter, it was a vital historical transportation corridor that has been unused since the mid-20th century. The Greenway will include scenic transportation routes via a bike and walking path, and provide much needed storm water-retention areas with native plant meadows and bioswales. It will also provide recreational areas with football and soccer fields. The Greenway is scheduled to open this summer.
• lafittegreenway.org

Out of town kayak tours

Lost Lands’ kayaking trips couldn’t be more different from a touristy feed-the-gators swamp tour. It offers a chance to paddle Louisiana’s cypress and tupelo forests, meandering bayous, and the sprawling wetlands that sit on New Orleans’ doorstep and once laced the city itself. It is a fascinating but also sobering tour, focussing not only on the region’s mesmerising beauty but also its natural history and the catastrophic environmental damage – as a result oil drilling, dredging and mining – that is causing the Louisiana coast to steadily sink into the Gulf of Mexico.

• Tours from $95pp, lostlandstours.org

New shops

People don’t give a damn what you wear in New Orleans – and I mean that in a good way – but in such sultry climes, a cool pair of sunglasses is a must. Krewe (as in a Mardi Gras crewe) is a local sunglasses company that has become phenomenally successful across the States and beyond (Beyonce has worn them) in just two years. The high-quality shades created by founder Stirling Barrett have a classic retro look, and were in such demand locally that it opened a small impromptu shop under the office (800 Common Street) and is launching another in the French Quarter (809 Royal Street) any day now.

Solange Knowles, Beyonce’s little sister, opened Exodus Goods (518 Conti Street) in the French Quarter last year. It’s the kind of minimalist boutique that has just one rail of very expensive clothes (though I did spot a bargain or two) and the male assistant wears a turban as a fashion statement. And the brilliant Euclid Records, which we featured last year, has moved just around the corner to 3401 Chartres Street and now has an even bigger selection of vinyl over two floors.

RESTAURANTS

Doris Metropolitan

This modern, buzzing Israeli-owned steakhouse typifies the city’s booming restaurant scene: you would never have seen anything remotely this sophisticated at the touristy end of the French Quarter pre-Katrina. My steak (butcher’s cut with mushroom ragù, $38) was as flavourful and well-cooked as you’d expect from a restaurant that hangs aged hunks of beef in its window like pieces of art and has a Japanese Wagyu Striploin for a ridiculous $185 on the menu. But even better was my tuna tartar starter ($15), laced with ginger emulsion, tobiko, salicornia, radish, avocado, soy pearls, wasabi – a memorably beautiful and delicious plate of food. And while this is anything but a typical Nola restaurant, it is still big on the region’s gorgeously rich seasoning – the French fries are flavoured with truffle oil and the mashed potatoes (I had both, for research purposes) thick with cream and garlic.
• 620 Chartres Street, +1 504 267 3500, dorismetropolitan.com. Open daily 5.30pm-10.30pm for dinner and Fri-Sun noon-2.30pm for lunch

Pêche Seafood Grill

Chosen by Stirling Barrett, founder, Krewe du Optic
Until you visit New Orleans, you may not realise how walkable this city is. Or, in my case, bike-able. Most of my favourite haunts are a few hundred peddles from my front door, but restaurant number one these days happens to be a few steps away. Pêche, owned by Louisiana chef Donald Link, is one the busiest restaurants in the city. It has a fresh, modern take on our coastal seafood and cooks many of its dishes on an open hearth over hardwood coals – which you can see in the open kitchen. But I usually bypass the line at the door, take a bar seat and settle in for the best oysters in town, smoked tuna dip and something crispy from the wine list.
• 800 Magazine Street, +1 504 522 1744, pecherestaurant.com. Open Mon-Thurs 11am-10pm, Fri-Sat 11am-11pm

1000 Figs

Chosen by Gregory Gremillion, owner, Cellar Door cocktail bar
These guys started out as a food truck called the Fat Falafel in 2012, and opened this restaurant a few months ago. It’s in Mid-City, a world away from the French Quarter, the place is tiny (about 25 seats), it doesn’t take reservations, and it’s BYOB. Go to Swirl, the wine shop next door, and ask for a suggestion on what would go with the restaurant’s current seasonal menu. We went for the Falafel Feast for Two ($28), with hummus, baba ghanoush, yogurt, pickled vegetables, root slaw, local greens, tahini, cilantro chile sauce, and toum. It was delicious.
• 3141 Ponce De Leon Street, 1000figs.com. Open Tues-Sat 11am-9pm, closed Mondays

Private Dining Room supper club

Chosen by Will Donaldson, co-founder, St Roch market
I have been very impressed by the Private Dining Room; it reflects something unique about New Orleans culture and also took great start-up gumption. Rita and Will opened a weekly speakeasy supper club in their kitchen and dining room, something I think you’ll see more of as people jump into business in new and different ways when they have something to add to the local food scene. Hesitation goes out of the window and people try new models. That ties back into the rich and innovative creative culture we have here in New Orleans. And most importantly, the food is excellent!
• 1026 Henriette Delille Street, thepdrnola.com

New Orleans Traditional Jazz Camp

If you play trad jazz at any level, even in your bedroom, the New Orleans Traditional Jazz Camp would be the holiday of a lifetime. It is in it’s seventh year but still growing, and in 2016 there will be two camps. Participants from all over the world are based at the grand old Bourbon Orleans hotel in the French Quarter, and take classes and rehearsals led by professional local musicians, building up to a double-finale at the end of the week: playing a concert at legendary jazz venue Preservation Hall and in a marching band through the French Quarter. For an amateur musician this is the equivalent of a pub football team playing at Wembley, twice in one week.
• 2016 camps run 19-24 June and 30 July-4 August and cost $1,800pp, including instruction and six nights half-board at the Bourbon Orleans hotel but excluding flights, neworleanstraditionaljazzcamp.com

Where Y’Art

Chosen by John Price, manager, Old No 77 Hotel and Chandlery
Where Y’Art came into existence almost exactly a year ago with the mission of creating a community of artists and art-lovers throughout New Orleans. Co-founders Collin Ferguson and Cat Todd have a unique and collaborative approach to showcasing local artists and designers. They do so not only through their gallery space on Julia Street but also on their website. It’s a brilliant way to provide a venue for artists to reach a global audience and an equally marvellous way for art-lovers to connect with some of the ground-breaking work that is emerging in New Orleans’ art scene. Where Y’Art is a great example of that wonderful synthesis that is happening in New Orleans: the merging of traditional culture with more of a contemporary approach – and creating a distinctive nuance of the sharing-economy.
• 835 Julia Street, whereyart.net

The Country Club outdoor pool

New to this Bywater neighbourhood institution this year – ending 35 years of au naturel bathing – is compulsory swimwear, after a ruling by the state’s alcohol and tobacco control board put a stop optional nude bathing. This strikes me as an odd piece of legislation, given that bathers are not only still allowed to smoke and drink around the pool but actually in it, too. The baking afternoon I visited, I counted 17 people in the water, and I was the only one swimming lengths. Everyone else was just hanging out in the water, cocktail in hand, to cool off. So I gave up, ordered a margarita and joined them. Only in New Orleans …
• Entry $10-$15, meals $6-$14, cocktails from $6, thecountryclubneworleans.com

• Flights were provided by Netflights (01772 394466, netflights.com), which has returns from Heathrow to New Orleans, via a US hub, from £723. Accommodation was provided by The Old No 77 Hotel and Chandlery (+1 504 527 5271, old77hotel.com), which has doubles from $109 plus tax a night, room-only. For visitor information see neworleanscvb.com