Brunching at Christmas With Old Friends

It is a commonly accepted view that the lobby of The Roosevelt Hotel is the place to see Christmas decorations in New Orleans. It has been this way forever. While I agree that it is spectacular, I personally prefer the lobby of The Windsor Court. 

The Windsor Court Hotel may be special in my heart because my life with Tom began there, but the property is outstanding regardless. The hotel arrived with the World’s Fair in 1984 but even though that predates us, we spent the first two nights after our wedding there, and every year have returned on our anniversary. I cancelled what would have been our last anniversary there on the way to the hospital the day before he died.

But all our other wonderful memories there outnumber that one, especially the ones we shared with Jude and his family. They loved the tall Christmas tree with the train and reindeer in the snow, as well as the holiday flowers everywhere. It’s very festive.

I wanted to revisit this happy Christmas place and combine it with a meal. But I have written about drinks and bar food in The Polo Lounge, breakfast, lunch, and dinner in the Grill Room, and even Christmas and Mardi Gras themed tea in Le Salon. I’ve even written about goings-on in the Club upstairs. What was left?

Brunch. I went to a birthday brunch with my sister, whose birthday is six days before mine. I sat at the window, but not where Tom and I sat. There is a secluded section behind the host stand that was perfect for this occasion. We had a view of all the guests arriving for tea on this weekend before Christmas. Flowers were everywhere and there was a buzz in the air, as we looked down on the families arriving in their holiday best for afternoon tea.

I have said this before, and it still applies, but I know of few places hit as hard by COVID as The Grill Room. Not the hotel, just the restaurant. I remember the horribly sad days when there was nothing on the table but a white tablecloth and some stupid barcode for a menu.

Things have greatly improved since then, but it is still not the same. The menu for Brunch was not at all inspiring. I had to work hard to find something appealing. Usually I feel bad because I do prefer the All-American breakfast over most other choices on a menu, but I usually feel guilty ordering it because there are other more interesting things there. In this case, the Two Eggs breakfast was the most appealing. 

My sister got the pancakes, and we ordered a Cheese Danish and Banana nut muffin as extras. We started with crabmeat beignets just because it was brunch.

These came pretty quickly, three to an order. They had a nice flavor with the right batter proportion to filling, and were sitting in a puddle of tasty creme fraiche. They were a tad greasy but otherwise fine.

Pastries arrived right after these. The Banana nut muffin was a zero, but the Cheese Danish was really very good. Initially I was put off as I usually am by flaky puff pastry that I feel should be warmed. It’s so much better that way. Room temp pastries in a place where lines accrue is bad enough but understandable, but in a place like this where there is a full kitchen and some time, it should be warmed. But the flavor was very nice, perky orange with a mellow cream cheese contrast.

The pancakes and eggs came next. These were two large pancakes with a dollop of clotted cream. I think my sister declined the berries, so they were plain. She also declined syrup in favor of extra butter.  Some pancakes are prettier than others, and I would consider these pretty pancakes. When their top is textured it is more interesting. That was the high mark for these. She said they tasted fine but I thought they were somewhat flat and ordinary looking.

My plate was very generous. Two eggs with three large links of sausage and a nice portion of breakfast potatoes filled a large plate. I asked for sourdough toast. I asked for the eggs over medium which they weren’t though that is a minor quibble. The rest of the plate quite satisfying. I loved the sausage, which was of good quality and cooked perfectly to my taste. The breakfast potatoes did not look as good as they were. These were sort of Lyonnaise, which is something rarely seen these days. They were cut in small pieces with lots of “stuff” in them, and were soft but not mushy. I liked them very much. 

And of course the sourdough toast was perfectly fine sourdough toast.

A waiter we knew in the early days of Andrea’s stopped over to say hello, and I was happy to see our favorite hostess still there. All of this makes our experiences there special, but I wish they’d do something about reviving that aura of excellence that has long been gone.

I feel like the change dates back to the switchover from Belmond ownership to local ownership. Or even when Belmond took over from Orient Express. Since when, though, is corporate ownership based far away better for a property than private and local? With owners so close, shouldn’t the reverse be true?