HotelChatter

"The Great Room"
The lobby of the Renaissance Pere Marquette (which is an historic building built in 1925) is now called the "great room," filled with sexy little nooks and seating area for guests and patrons drinking at the bar. A few of the nooks even come complete with heavy beaded curtains which give off a VIP vibe. Or as someone in our group said, "For Brangelina."

The furniture is bright (lots of reds, browns, blues and whites) and heavy on the geometric prints. The accent pieces are less anonymous than what you see in most hotels. The hotel has even attempted to pick furnishings that actually fit in with the culture of New Orleans. Take for instance, the chess set which has jazz musicians as the chess pieces.

Room Reaction
Speaking of paying homage to the jazz culture, each floor is named after a famous jazz musician. And the personalization continues into the guest rooms. Each room features a photograph from somewhere in New Orleans (taken by a local photog) with the room's number. For instance, we toured room 618 and there's a photograph of a house number 618 in New Orleans.

The room we toured was a good sized room with an abnormally large bathroom. There were Lather toiletries in here, FYI. We also liked the bathrrobe laid out on the bed and the view of the swimming pool and the old church next door, but we were dismayed about the wired internet connection at $12.95 a day. We'll have more on this later in the week.

Other Hotel Services
For high-level Marriott rewards program members, there is a club level on the 19th floor which has great views of the city and serves small snacks. The hotel's pool out back is small and intimate. No screaming kids here. There's also a fitness center next to the pool area. And what really made us giddy was a boarding pass print out station near the front desk.

Dining and Drinking
The hotel's restaurant MiLa stands for Mississippi and Louisiana, the two home states of the chefs. The cuisine is Southern food with a French flair. The portions are small but pack in a powerful Cajun punch, like the Barbequed Lobster. The menu also uses as much local produce and ingredients as possible and is constantly changing depending on the season and availability.

Back down at the bar, we recommend ordering a mint julep from the famous bartender Chris McMillian. McMillian used to tend the Library Bar at the Ritz-Carlton on Canal Street. He is also one of the founders of the Museum of the American Cocktail. While he's mixing up your Mint Julep, he's usually reciting an ode to Maker's Mark or giving you a history lesson on how ice became popular in drinks. [You can watch him at work here.]

Location
About the location--essentially the hotel is in the gateway to the French Quarter. Meaning Bourbon Street is a quick walk away. While the immediate area of the hotel is nothing special, we recommend staying away from the madness of the French Quarter. Unless you like watching drunk people stumble around.

Bottom Line
Room rates here are completely reasonable. We found rates this weekend for $129 a night. However, parking is about $28 a night and of course, internet will cost ya.

Overall, we were pleasantly surprised by the hotel. We know that not all Renaissances are created equal but if more and more of them end up looking like this one, we just might become a Renaissance groupie.

For more photos of the Renaissance Pere Marquette, check out our Flickr Photostream.

Disclosure: Our trip to New Orleans was at the behest of the Marriott Hotels of New Orleans. We stayed at the New Orleans Marriott on Canal Street where we paid for our own room.