Hotel restaurants once were an essential part of the dining scene in New Orleans. Now the only way most hotels can attract customers to their main dining room (if, indeed, they even have one anymore) is to bring in a name chef to run it. The Rib Room--celebrating its fiftieth anniversary this year--is one of the few remaining hotel restaurants from the old school. It remains popular with its regulars, (especially on Fridays at lunch), but even that following isn't what it used to be. The Rib Room nevertheless holds on because of its specialty: prime rib of roast beef. It's one of the few restaurants in town to make a specialty of the dish.
The place opened with the hotel in 1960, and through the years has a history of employing great chefs and maitres d'hotel, many of whom went on to open their own restaurants. The Louisiana Supreme Court across the street brings in an important crowd of regulars.
The main room is a large, lofty cube with big windows onto Royal Street along one side, an open rotisserie filling another, and a busy bar at the entrance. Few restaurants in New Orleans match its spaciousness. The second dining room opens to the first to continue the expanse. The service staff is a bunch of old pros, including some of the last real maitres d'hotel in the local business.
If you're thinking about lunch on Friday, make a reservation. The tables along the windows and those in the center of the room are the best. Sit as far away from the entrance as possible. The crowd at the bar has a way of spilling into the dining room, not always in the most pleasant way.
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