Two restaurants from chef Emeril Lagasse have opened inside the Fairmont New Orleans, which debuted Monday as Fairmont’s 100th property worldwide, according to the hotel’s opening announcement. Delmonico Steakhouse serves dinner, while The Café by Emeril is open for breakfast and lunch.
Two dining concepts are open; rooftop venues remain planned
The new Delmonico Steakhouse is the first location of Lagasse’s Las Vegas concept outside that city, NOLA.com reports. It is distinct from Emeril’s Delmonico, the St. Charles Avenue restaurant that did not reopen after the pandemic, the outlet reported. The café, at 1010 Common Street, serves a brasserie-style menu drawing on French, Creole and Southern influences, according to the hotel’s restaurant listing.
Two rooftop venues are still to come. NOLA.com reports that Bleu Perdu is planned as a public venue beside a rooftop pool reserved for hotel guests, while Third Measure is planned as a separate lounge with live music. The rooftop plans are future additions, not part of the restaurants’ opening.
The opening sits within a longer building story
The building at 1010 Common opened as the BNO Building on Oct. 4, 1971, according to NOLA.com’s history of the site. The Fairmont now occupies 17 stories, while the building’s lower floors house an Element by Marriott extended-stay hotel, NOLA.com and WGNO report. The available accounts establish the building’s opening and current uses, but do not provide a complete redevelopment chronology.
Other downtown hotel projects offer examples of reuse, but not evidence of a broader trend. Biz New Orleans reported that a separate proposal to convert four mixed-use buildings at 518-526 Gravier Street into a nine-suite hotel received approvals in 2025; that report describes a proposal, not an opening.
Hotel occupancy figures also require a narrow reading: New Orleans CityBusiness, citing New Orleans & Company, reported 100% occupancy Friday and Saturday and 80% Sunday across 26,000 rooms in the CBD, French Quarter and Warehouse District during the Oct. 25-27, 2024 Taylor Swift concert weekend. That event-specific snapshot does not establish a longer-term demand trend or explain the Fairmont’s opening.
