With an ambiance like no other, the Ace Hotel celebrates the best of NOLA culture. The ten-story art deco building is nestled in the heart of the Central Business District (CBD), and despite being removed from the older parts of the city, the Ace still manages to enumerate that classic New Orleans vibe with its food, music & décor.

The rooftop pool is the main attraction. We suspected the roof would be something special since our local Ace in Los Angles is outfitted with a lush green patio complete with a full bar & DJ booth. But the pool was a nice surprise & the perfect way to cool off during the dog days of summer. Open to the public, the traffic was steady but subdued making for a light & relaxing atmosphere. In contrast, our private room down below was designed with dark hues & heavy furniture. It had an old school vibe complete with a record player & acoustic guitar. Black shutters covered a large window at the end of the room. When opened, they offered an incredible view of the city’s architecture, but when closed they totally blocked the natural light allowing us to sleep in if needed. Which was often needed after a night on Frenchman.

My personal favorite part of the hotel was the small venue adjacent to the lobby called “Three Keys.” There they host a myriad of weekly events including live music, film screenings & game nights. Candace & I pulled up for “Too Trill Trivia” which focused on black pop culture & history. We walked in pretty confident, but turned out to be not as black as we thought? Our competitors were PhD candidates at Hillman College and we were basically Denise Huxtable – obsolete after round one. But we somehow managed to team up with two trivia savants and ended up winning thanks to their smarts & some bonus points we earned by springing for a couple rounds of shots.

On the other side of the lobby is the in-house restaurant, Josephine Estelle. We quickly discovered that it was one of the “it” places to dine in CBD and agree that its worth the hype. The menu offers simple, consistent Italian food made with clean ingredients and served in health portions. The cocktail menu is perfectly complimentary, but the bartenders are able to whip up something original at your request. My go to drink was called “Loretta’s Kiss”, a citrusy blend with a mezcal base. While the food & drink were amazing, the real cherry on top was the music. A vinyl player connected to a larger sound system poured out the sweetest songs. A mix of soul, blues & funk ranging from Earth, Wind and Fire to Jolene Mitchell to set the mood morning, noon & night. A small detail to some, but it made all the difference for us. Weaving together food, music, love & laughter is a hallmark of New Orleans and The Ace does it with ease & style.