Having once lived and worked in New Orleans, the new owners of the historic Audubon Inn had always dreamt of one day operating a restaurant featuring gumbo, jambalaya and other of their favorite dishes from the city’s distinctive cuisine. In 2014, for their new restaurant, NOLA North Grille, we created an interior to reflect the ambience and colors of New Orleans by painting over the busy floral wallpaper, by removing the colonial brass chandeliers, and by painting the high ceiling black to direct the eye downward and make a space with a very high ceiling feel more intimate and inviting.
The wall sconces we added evoke the gas lanterns of the French Quarter, and we further suggested the essence of the city by replacing the framed floral prints decorating the walls with enlarged photos of the city created by Milwaukee-based photographer Jarrod Erbe.
We carried the lanterns-and-photography theme over into the adjacent NOLA North Bar & Café – a place where guests can enjoy coffee and a beignet — or a beer and brat – and where we repainted the hunter green walls a rich terra cotta as a background to smaller photos of Jarrod’s New Orleans that offer a tighter view of the life and people — and patina – of the city.
