Chemin à la Mer Reopens as a Louisiana Brasserie

One of New Orleans’ flagship hotel restaurants has a new address, one floor down. Chemin à la Mer reopened September 23 in a new first-floor location at the Four Seasons Hotel New Orleans (2 Canal Street), moving from its original fifth-floor perch and recasting itself as a Louisiana brasserie.

What changed

This is more than a move. The restaurant’s identity has been rethought around French, Creole, Cajun, and Gulf Coast influences, a brasserie in the Louisiana sense, meaning the full spectrum of the region’s cooking traditions under one roof. Chef Donald Link continues to lead the culinary direction, and his remit has expanded: he now also oversees the food menu at the hotel’s Chandelier Bar.

The restaurant serves lunch and dinner, with a weekend jazz brunch planned to follow, a combination that, if executed at Link’s standard, immediately becomes one of the most desirable weekend tables in the city.

The Donald Link factor

Donald Link’s name carries as much weight as any in Louisiana dining. His restaurants, Herbsaint, Cochon, Peche, defined modern New Orleans cooking for a generation, and his continued leadership here is the single biggest reason to take this reopening seriously. A concept change without the right chef is a renovation; with Link, it’s a statement of intent.

The first-floor play

The move is a deliberate strategy, not just a relocation. The new room takes over the former Miss River space off the Chandelier Bar, putting Chemin à la Mer at lobby level, in the flow of the hotel’s daily life rather than a floor above it. Four Seasons frames it as embracing “the energy of New Orleans from midday through the evening”: leisurely lunches, convivial dinners, and lively weekend brunches for hotel guests, locals, and the downtown business community alike.

That last part is the tell. Fifth-floor Chemin was a destination you planned; first-floor Chemin wants to be a habit, the room downtown workers default to for a long lunch and locals claim for celebrations. It’s a bet that Link’s cooking, at brasserie pace and brasserie ease, can win the everyday, not just the occasion.

The menu: Louisiana brasserie signals

The refreshed menu keeps the French-Creole spine and adds dishes that read like a thesis statement for the new format: Lapin au moutarde, rabbit with mustard, the kind of bistro classic that anchors a brasserie, and Shrimp étouffée, the Gulf Coast calling card. It’s the whole Louisiana brasserie idea on one page: French technique, Creole soul, Gulf product.

The timing aligns with a career milestone for Link, who is nominated for the 2026 James Beard Foundation Award for Outstanding Restaurateur, recognition of a portfolio that now spans Herbsaint, Cochon, Peche, and this flagship hotel partnership.

A personal project

“Chemin is very personal to me,” Link has said of the restaurant, describing the goal as a room “where guests are greeted like old friends and want to come back again and again for everything from lunch to drinks to special celebrations.” General Manager Esther Oh Kostecky calls it “a natural evolution of a successful collaboration”, but the subtext is clear: this is Link doubling down on the city that made him.

Chemin à la Mer, “pathway to the sea”, first opened on November 26, 2021, on the hotel’s fifth floor, part of the Four Seasons Hotel & Residences New Orleans’ debut at 2 Canal Street. Nearly five years on, the move downstairs is the restaurant growing up in public: from special-occasion dining room to the city’s living room.

What we’re watching

The Four Seasons says it will announce a separate concept for the vacated fifth-floor space later in 2026. That room, with its Mississippi River views, is one of the great unclaimed stages in American hotel dining. Whatever lands there will be one of next year’s most scrutinized openings. We’ll be tracking it.

The details

• Address: Four Seasons Hotel New Orleans, 2 Canal Street (first floor)
• Reopened: September 23, 2026
• Concept: Louisiana brasserie: French, Creole, Cajun, and Gulf Coast influences
• Chef: Donald Link (also overseeing the Chandelier Bar’s food menu)
• Service: Lunch and dinner; weekend jazz brunch to follow
• Coming: New fifth-floor concept to be announced later in 2026

More New Orleans fine dining: the case for three Michelin stars at Emeril’s, Emeril’s first Chop House in Baton Rouge, and our 25 best restaurants in New Orleans, where Chemin à la Mer holds the #25 spot.