Pontchartrain Hotel

Lysle's son, Albert Jr., after serving overseas in WWII and living in New York to pursue a theater career, returned to New Orleans to join the family business and eventually take the helm of its operation.

The Aschaffenburgs retained the luxurious décor; however, they quickly changed the direction of the restaurant to become a mainstay of local Creole cuisine, with a warmer style of service.

Through the years, the hotel's understated elegance and extraordinary service provided by its owner/managers appealed to sophisticated visitors that were part of the cognoscenti; it also was embraced by New Orleanians that felt the Pontchartrain was a physical manifestation of local traditional culture.

New Orleanians were possessive about the Pontchartrain, its Silver Whistle Coffee Shop, the Caribbean Room and the Bayou Bar, and in turn, the hotel reflected their collective personality.

Noted guests of the Hotel Pontchartrain include Cole Porter, Charles Laughton, Evelyn Waugh, Lord Litchfield, Mary Martin, Richard Burton, Joshua Logan, Henry Kissinger, Dame Margot Fonteyn, Rudolph Nureyev, James Beard, Tennessee Williams, (Staggs, 2005) Jose Ferrer, Rita Hayworth and Aga Khan (Frommer, 2007), The Doors (Densmore, 1990), and George H. W. Bush (who stayed there during the 1980 Republican National Convention in Detroit).

During the more than sixty years of the family's ownership and management, the Pontchartrain and its Caribbean Room restaurant received many honors: top rating in the Guide Julliard de Paris, Harpers & Queens 200 Best Hotels in the World, The IFMA Gold Plate award, Nation's Restaurant News Hall of Fame, a charter member of Preferred Hotels Worldwide, and it was a perennial Holiday Magazine award winner.