CBD - After taming the wilds of Freret Street, Neal Bodenheimer and Kirk Estopinal are taking their talents downtown. The partners responsible for Cure, the Uptown cocktail bar regularly named as one of the country’s best, are teaming up again for Bellocq, a new lounge opening up in the recently renovated Hotel Modern.

Though the concept might be a little unusual, the crew from Cure is accustomed to taking risks, and they believe the new venture at Lee Circle could be another big payoff for the city of New Orleans. Bellocq’s big coming out party was last weekend at the Hotel Modern, but the bar officially opens for business Thursday night with a menu focusing on an obscure 19th century drink called the cobbler. With a base of fortified wine—like port or madeira—and lots of crushed ice, the cobbler harkens back to the days of the bar’s namesake, Ernest J. Bellocq, a photographer known for his images of Storyville prostitutes from the early 1900’s.

German hotelier Klaus Ortlieb, who’s overseeing the development of the Hotel Modern, had a Moulin Rouge vibe in mind for the lounge, but the guys at Cure wanted to keep the space rooted in New Orleans. When someone suggested Bellocq as an inspiration, it seemed like the perfect bridge between the glamorous cabaret cultures of old world Paris and New Orleans. Working within the framework of Bellocq and Storyville “gives us a time and a place,” Estopinal told NoDef.

“Bellocq lived in an era in which the cobbler was the height of fashion and the height of cocktail drinking," he said.

Like Cure, the drinks at Bellocq won’t cater to the vodka-tonic crowd. Part of the reason, said Estopinal, is “to take people out of their comfort zone. We want to create a situation in which we’re not just another bar.

For many locals, just the idea of coming to a hotel bar at Lee Circle is enough to take people out of their comfort zones. But just as Cure brought life to Freret Street, Estopinal believes that the Hotel Modern, Bellocq, and Tamarind, the hotel’s restaurant overseen by long-time New Orleans chef Dominique Maquet, provides another opportunity to centralize the city’s culture. By livening up the circle, New Orleans has a chance to reclaim a landmark and alleviate the dead space between the thriving Warehouse District and the Lower Garden District.

While the museums and galleries keep the area around Lee Circle from being a complete no-man’s land, there’s no question that the Circle gets a little desolate at night. “We’re not really far away from Emeril’s or Herbsaint,” he pointed out.

“The Arts District is right here, White Linen Night is here.” However, he said, “I think there really hasn’t been an opportunity on Lee Circle besides Circle Bar, which has well for years and years. They’re going to be opening up again soon, so then there will be two places on Lee Circle. If we do very well, obviously someone will come in and do other things.”

For Estopinal, more business in the area means more culture, not competition. On Freret Street, he said, “there’s really not competition across the board because everybody is specialized in their own way, and I think a lot of new New Orleans businesses are like that.” In fact, he said, “it would be really easy for us to say we’re just going to open Cure downtown. But Cure is not a chain. It’s a really organic experience.” Lee Circle offers the possibility of a similar organic experience. The revival of thoroughfares like Freret Street, said Estopinal, creates a centralized district, and he believes the same thing can happen around Lee Circle.

“Everybody knew what Freret Street was,” he said. “People use it as corridor to drive, and the traffic on that street is constant.” But only recently, he points out, did it become a popular place to hang out, eat, and drink. “It’s the same here,” Estopinal said, gesturing toward the familiar round-about intersection outside the Hotel Modern.

“There’s traffic around here every day, people drive by Lee Circle all the time, but no one ever thinks about it as a place to go.” With the addition of Bellocq, said people now have a destination, anchored in NOLA's past, but firmly pointing towards the future.