There are hotels in New Orleans that announce themselves loudly, and then there is Maison Métier, which does the opposite and is better for it.
The six-story building at 546 Carondelet Street, on the corner of Lafayette and Carondelet in the Warehouse District, was originally the City Hall Annex, built in 1906 in the Beaux-Arts style. The original marble floors, the grand staircase, and the check-in concierge desk are all still there. Domain Companies hired Los Angeles-based Studio Shamshiri to build the interior around those bones, and the result is something that reads less like a hotel and more like the private residence of someone who has traveled the world and brought the best of it home. Antique New Orleans furnishings sit alongside custom contemporary pieces. Bespoke wallpapers, Christopher Farr rugs, and local art fill every room with intention rather than decoration.
The 67 rooms and suites, all imagined by Studio Shamshiri, run from a spacious 385-square-foot king to larger deluxe options with bathtubs and notable architectural features. Crisp white beds with twilight-blue accents, tall ceilings, wide windows, marble bathrooms, and free morning coffee service are standard. The hotel has earned a Michelin Key for two consecutive years and landed on Fodor’s Travel’s list of the 100 Most Incredible Hotels in the World.
The bar situation is the part most people don’t fully understand until they’re inside it. Bar Marilou occupies the former law library of the City Hall Annex, its walls painted deep scarlet and lined floor to ceiling with curated books on every subject. The carpet is an almost-zebra print. The barstools are tiger. It is sophisticated and completely unserious at the same time, which is the correct attitude for a cocktail bar in New Orleans.
Bar Marilou is a partnership with Quixotic Projects, the Paris-based hospitality group behind some of that city’s best bars, and this is their first American venue. It is open to the public, but hotel guests access it through Salon Salon, a private lounge tucked behind a vibrant red revolving bookcase door. The door swings open. You step through. The bar has no idea you just arrived from a secret passage, and neither will anyone else.
The breakfast room is guests-only, its wallpaper depicting the ebb and flow of Louisiana seaweed in a Dutch tin-glaze style. The rooftop pool belongs to The Barnett, the companion hotel directly across Carondelet Street, and Maison Métier guests have full access to it along with The Barnett’s 24-hour fitness center. Maison Métier is at 546 Carondelet Street, two blocks from the St. Charles streetcar and within walking distance of the French Quarter. Book at maisonmetier.com or through the World of Hyatt loyalty program.
