The Double Dealer, a subterranean cocktail bar beneath the Orpheum Theater in New Orleans’ Central Business District, won the Restaurant and Bar Design Awards’ 2021 Shortlist Americas nomination for Visual Identity, which celebrates the design of logos, websites, menus, stationery, signage, uniforms, coasters, placemats and any other visual material.
The Double Dealer joins only three other nominees in North, Central, and South America to win the award and represents New Orleans as the city’s only finalist in this year’s competition. The 2,500-square-foot venue opened in January 2020 as an immediate anomaly. Double Dealer is one of the city’s few underground establishments and offers a truly unique concept as a cocktail lounge that resembles the backstage setting of a 1920s vaudeville theater celebrating the era of “Dixie Bohemia”—one of New Orleans’ most creative and artistic periods—and a tribute to the early history of the Orpheum Theater, built in 1918.
Patrons enter the cocktail lounge through infinity mirrored doors, photo courtesy of Farouki Farouki.
Guests enter the bar through a pair of nondescript doors, pass the venue’s sole flashing neon exterior sign, and proceed down a flight of stairs. Once inside, they encounter 100-year-old red velvet stage curtains, concrete walls marked with stage directions and stagehand graffiti, snug booths, and a pair of infinity mirror surprise doors.
“We’re honored to receive this award,” said Eric George, M.D., founder and CEO of ERG Enterprises, and principal of the Orpheum Theater and Double Dealer. “Our incredible team and partners have worked tirelessly to bring the underground basement of the Orpheum to life. Kudos to everyone for making it happen.”
Double Dealer bar, photo courtesy of Farouki Farouki
Under George’s leadership, ERG Enterprises commissioned the redevelopment of the Orpheum’s underground basement into a cocktail bar that would operate separately from the theater. They immediately sought the help of two design firms with notable portfolios locally and nationally: Denver- and Los Angeles-based The Made Shop, and New Orleans-based Farouki Farouki. Both firms were recognized by the Restaurant and Bar Design Awards in the nomination.
“We’re thrilled to receive this award, particularly for this project, which quickly became one of our all-time favorites,” said Marke Johnson, Principal Designer of The Made Shop. “It was an exciting challenge to create a richly-layered identity filled with secrecy theatrical misdirection—a fresh interpretation of a centuries-old concept, directly inspired by the historic theater and the bars namesake, an underground 1920s New Orleans literary journal.”
Each year, the global award competition enlists a panel of 45 leading experts in design, architecture, hospitality, and lifestyle to evaluate submissions worldwide. More than 45,000 prominent architects, hotel, restaurant and bar operators, and media follow the awards globally. While shortlist winners are announced in , category and overall winners will be announced on October 14, 2021, through the Award’s Instagram and website.
Double Dealer is located at 129 Roosevelt Way beneath the Orpheum Theater. Current hours are Friday 6 p.m. to 1 a.m. and Saturday 6 p.m. to 1 a.m. Reservations are required.
