For well-heeled global travelers, a hotel or restaurant listed by the luxury travel association Relais & Châteaux is a bona fide bucket list destination. The French-based group has been called the world’s most difficult-to-join hospitality association.
Now a New Orleans restaurant with its own global aspirations has joined that exclusive club.
Emeril’s Restaurant was one of 11 properties around the world newly added to the Relais & Châteaux collection, the group announced this week.
EJ Lagasse puts dollops on the Potato Alexa at Emeril's Restaurant in New Orleans, Thursday, Nov. 17, 2022. (Photo by Sophia Germer, NOLA.com, The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate)
This puts Emeril’s in highly-esteemed company. Other American restaurants to get the Relais & Châteaux nod earlier include icons of upper-echelon American cuisine, the likes of Per Se and the French Laundry, Eleven Madison Park, Jean-Georges and Daniel.
Though the Relais & Châteaux brand may be lesser known in the U.S., it carries weight with jet-setting foodies around the world who plan travel around properties with its designation.
The association says its member properties offer “one-of-a-kind, unforgettable experiences.”
The Wine Bar at Emeril's has its own menu of dishes served at the bar and around the lounge attached to Emeril's Restaurant in New Orleans. (Staff photo by Ian McNulty, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)
Hotels with the designation are sometimes found in castles and châteaux. Other properties added to the collection along with Emeril’s include a luxury safari camp on Sitatunga Private Island in Botswana, with dining on a float terrace, and Les Lumières, a boutique hotel built in pavilions for the palace of Versailles in France.
A boarder lift
Emeril’s is the flagship and original restaurant for celebrity chef Emeril Lagasse, first opened in 1990. Last year it reopened after a thorough revamp with a new menu and style of service, a dining room and kitchen redesigned around the new approach and the chef's son E.J. Lagasse directing it.
Salmon cheesecake is a signature dish on the tasting menu at Emeril's Restaurant in New Orleans. (Photo by Food Story Media)
Emeril’s now serves chef tasting menus exclusively and was redesigned from kitchen to dining room around this more refined approach. The aim is to focus the experience, the work and attention of the restaurant down to a high-touch approach for each of those tables.
Emeril’s Restaurant on Tchoupitoulas Street reopened in the fall of 2023 with a sweeping renovation and new tasting menu approach.
The restaurant is also home to The Wine Bar at Emeril’s, a more casual, though still upscale concept under the same roof.
Many of the restaurants with Relais & Châteaux designation also have Michelin stars. Michelin, a separate French guide, only assesses restaurants in certain U.S. cities, and New Orleans is not one of them.
But E.J. Lagasse has made clear through the new chapter of Emeril’s that Michelin-level excellence is the goal. He sees it as a way to put New Orleans in the highest level of global cuisine, and bring a lift to the city’s hospitality scene more broadly. He sees the Relais & Châteaux designation is another win in that campaign.
“A big part of our vision for this restaurant is increasing the visibility of New Orleans,” Lagasse said.
