Good Morning Darlings!
I might be stretching with the title today, because we are talking about The Ritz-Carlton New Orleans and the divine cuisine there could hardly be called grub, but I knew it would get your attention!
My friend Char, in New Orleans is always hooking me up with the most interesting news that makes me want to jump in my car (but not before packing an outfit appropriate for dinner at M Bistro) and drive the 6 hours it takes from Atlanta to experience something new.
You love the spa life? You love divine cuisine? Take a look at this.
The Spa at The Ritz-Carlton New Orleans
Question. What does the #1 Hotel Spa in the U.S. and Canada and a Pop-Up Restaurant have in common?
Answer. An herb garden.
NEW ORLEANS, La. – Last Thursday, July 14th in Beverly Hills, California, Nancy Novogrod, Editor-in-Chief, and Jean-Paul Kyrillos, VP/Publisher presented General Manager Russell Miller and Spa Director Daisye Suduran of The Ritz-Carlton Spa, New Orleans with Travel + Leisure’s World’s Best Award as the #1 Hotel Spa in the U.S. and Canada. The 22,000 square foot facility is open seven days a week and has been touted as a destination spa since it first opened in 2000. It features nearly one hundred services, twenty-two treatment rooms, a full-service salon, spa café, retail store, fitness center and it is open seven days a week. Other spa accolades include: Self Magazine- Top Twenty Spa Getaways, SpaFinder Magazine- Top Urban Hotel Spa, Celebrated Living Magazine- Top Ten Platinum List of Spas, Elle Magazine- Top Ten Spas in the United States and numerous local awards.
Spa Director Daisye Suduran has been working closely with the hotel’s chefs to create an herb garden overlooking the courtyard. Since the spa uses fresh and dried herbs as part of its Apothecary treatment line, Suduran wanted to find a way to grow herbs in-house. M bistro is renowned as one of the top farm-to-table hotel restaurants in the U.S. (Travel + Leisure, January 2011) and they needed readily available fresh herbs. So, they collaborated to create a usable and user-friendly herb garden. It is set for completion in August and plans are underway to have local students design artwork and signage for the garden in conjunction with their back-to-school plans.
The herb garden and a new restaurant concept will debut in August. The Ritz-Carlton, New Orleans’ Executive Chef Vincent “Vinny” Russo and M bistro’s Chef de Cuisine Emily “Em” Dillport are planning a new Pop-Up restaurant concept on Sunday nights in M bistro. Patrons can pop in and enjoy Sundays with Vinny (Family-Style Italian) or Soul Food Sundays with Em, depending upon which chef is in the kitchen and what herbs, produce, fish, meats, etc. are available. M bistro will be transformed into a specialty restaurant each Sunday for dinner. Dinner starts at 5:00 p.m. and lasts until 7:00 p.m. The menu is a set price and when it’s gone, it’s gone. The good news, unlike most Pop-Ups, is that diners don’t have to B.Y.O.B. since M bistro has a liquor license. Russo (@YoChefVinny) will use twitter to announce the Sunday Pop-Up offering. A sample of Dillport’s menu can be found below.
Em’s Soul Food Sundays: (sample menu)
Coffee and Doughnuts: Café du Monde Red Eye Dip and Gouda Beignets
Em’s Fried Chicken and Waffles: Buttermilk Battered Chicken Tenders with Funnel Cake Fries
Intermezzo: SoCo and Lime Sorbet
CasSOULet: Braised Collard Greens and Black Eyed Peas, Roasted Ham, Red Potato and Andouille Pot Pie with a Buttered Biscuit Top and Sage Sausage Gravy
Dessert: Apple Cobbler Ice Cream, Butter Waffle Cookies and Cinnamon Cotton Candy
Pop-in and sample our new pop-up restaurant concepts one Sunday after enjoying a spa service in the best hotel spa in the United States and Canada. And watch out for new culinary menus. Dillport is revamping M bistro’s breakfast, lunch and dinner offerings while Russo is reworking the hotel’s banquet, catering, wedding, in-room dining, spa café and Davenport Lounge menus. All menus are slated to debut mid-September. Other advancements include the hotel’s first soft goods renovation, which is underway and slated for completion in late fall of 2011. To make things easier, they have launhed a facebook page (www.facebook.com/TheRitzCarltonNewOrleans).
Looks like I need to gas the car up and go meet Vinny and Em – come with me?
xoxo, Patti
Today blogging to Johnny Gill – Rub You The Right Way