The Hotel Modern’s Bellocq Lounge chosen as one of the best bars in America of 2013.

Think of it as an easygoing julep, with citrus standing in for mint, though, as the cobbler expert and New Orleans barman Kirk Estopinal shows in this recipe, you can toss some mint on top if you like. No one is going to judge. It’s summer.

Simple smashers, cobblers, juleps and punches are the specialty at the classics-driven Bellocq.

DesignSponge.com and listed The Hotel Modern as a hotel of choice in the CBD.

On the ground floor of the quirky, boutique-y Hotel Modern (there’s a scarlet parrot from New Guinea hanging out around the check-in desk), the Bellocq is dedicated to nineteenth-century drinks like cobblers, a mix of fresh fruit, spirits, and crushed ice, served in stainless-steel tumblers.

Grade-A insider with quite the restaurant pedigree gives us a tasty tour of this Cajun food-loving city now embracing unexpected, more worldly flavors. Her new (and old) favorites will be yours, too.

Over in the artsy Warehouse District, the former Le Cirque hotel has just emerged from a major makeover and has reopened as the souped-up Hotel Modern. The 135 bedrooms mix super-stylish contemporary furnishings with carefully chosen antiques and artwork from the hotel’s private collection…

The Warehouse District’s Hotel Modern (936 St. Charles Avenue; 504-962-0900; thehotelmodern.com) opened this year with two options to attract local palates. The first isTamarind, a restaurant whose bar manager, Kimberly Patton-Bragg…

The Best New Hotels of 2012
A renovated 135-room hotel on Lee Circle, away from the hubbub of the French Quarter and a short walk to the Superdome, the Convention Center, and New Orleans’s underrated museums. Streamlined and essential, with bursts of color—IKEA meets Marimekko…

Not far away, Tamarind by Dominique Macquet graces the ground floor of the sleek new Hotel Modern. Tamarind’s large picture windows look out on Lee Circle. But the focus inside is French Colonial cuisine