House Of Blues Foundation Room

Small simple venue. Two stories and a private smaller stage area upstairs. The drinks are strong and the smoke is loud. But it's a nice venue for seeing small concerts because there's no bad seat in the house. Parking is either on the street if you're lucky or in a lot about two blocks away!

I used to have lots of friends that were members here and I would visit this venue often.  This can be a fun place with its Asian theme and lots of nooks and crannies to hide away in.  They have some nice wooden carvings of naked ladies in here that are cool.  This place is alright but there are certainly better private clubs in NOLA.   As time passed most of the people I know realized that they really didn't get a lot of value out of their memberships so they dropped out.  Personally I prefer being on the ground floor for shows at House of Blues and I really don't like being stuck up in the balcony area.

Normally, I would find myself on the other side of the velvet ropes at places like this, but a friend "put me on the list" to see her girlfriend's jazzy lounge band, Soulkestra, play a few sets.  So I have visited the Foundation Room three times, and surprisingly I was able to set aside the anti-elitist hang-ups that accompany my low birth and actually enjoy myself there.  

In fact, it was not until my third visit that I learned during a conversation with one of the paying members that this was actually a private venue.  I just assumed it was HOB's attempt at an "intimate jazz venue."  While I would not pay money to purposefully seclude myself in a private bar, as my life is thankfully devoid of paparrazi and hangers-on, I can certainly see the appeal.  The barmen are pros, the drinks are properly stiff, and there is a stairway leading to a private-access balcony overlooking the HOB main stage.  

The lounge's decor is wall-to-wall neo-opium den chic, complete with a replica "Reclining Buddha" statue on the hearth of the artificial fire.  There are plush couches and lounge chairs and even a bottle-service area that I assume is an anti-malarial quarantine because its semicircular booth is partitioned with mosquito netting.  Most impressive to me, however, was the carpeting, which a manager explained to me was actually not carpeting per se but dozens and dozens of Persian rugs stitched together to cover the entire lounge.

There is typically a pretty constant stream of mini-skirted "woo girls" and the untucked-oxford shirted men that tend to surround them.  If that's your thing, well go get em, tiger, but you'll have to plunk down the coin.  As for me, I'll just enjoy a couple gin drinks and some good music in this cool, relaxing lounge.  3.5 rounded up.