The Chloe

The Chloe occupies a restored 19th-century mansion on St Charles Avenue designed by Thomas Sully, and works as a hotel, an all-day restaurant, a bar, a front porch and a tiki-style pool bar all at once. It opened in 2020 from LeBlanc + Smith, and Where Y'at recommends the backyard as a mini staycation, with the pool bar open 11am to 8pm and happy hour from 3 to 5. Dining runs 11am to 10pm Monday to Thursday, to 11pm Friday and Saturday and to 9pm Sunday, with brunch at weekends. Reservations are encouraged rather than required, and street parking outside is free for guests — a small thing that is not small on that stretch of St Charles.

The zero-proof list needs reading carefully, because of how it is arranged. The menu has a section headed Spirit Free, and two of the drinks filed under it contain hemp-derived THC: Louie Louie Blackberry Lemon and Reba Water Sparkling Water, each printed with "(THC 5mg)" on the item line at $11. The dose is disclosed, which is more than many venues manage, but no warning text sits near them and the heading itself would lead most people to assume everything beneath it is inert. Spirit free is being used here to mean free of distilled spirits, not free of intoxicants. Order by name. What is genuinely alcohol-free and worth ordering: the Typhoon Lagoon at $13, a properly built tropical drink on Ritual's non-alcoholic rum with passionfruit, guava, pomegranate, papaya, pineapple and lemon; the N/Aperitif Spritz at $16 with Lyre's Classico sparkling and orange; a bottled St. Agrestis Phony Negroni at $13; and Lyre's Classico by the glass at $14 if you want something wine-shaped with dinner. These lean on bottled brands rather than house syrups and shrubs, which makes them consistent and a little less interesting than the room deserves. The Typhoon Lagoon is the one to have by the pool.