The Hummingbird Hotel & Grill Documentary Project

The legendary Hummingbird Hotel & Grill, known for its 24-hour diner, buzzed along for more than half a century at the edge of downtown New Orleans. The late-night eatery served a cross-section of society looking for cheap, nourishing, and delicious food, such as made-to-order eggs, bacon, fried chicken, cheeseburgers and fries. Coffee was brewed around the clock, and the food counter was smoker-friendly. 

Patrons from New Orleans broad social strata surfaced at all hours; cops, cabbies, offshore workers, artists, celebrities, drifters, debutantes, and other dwellers of the dark. Its ambience inspired songwriters, authors, poets, and painters. And a visit to the grill was a yearly ritual for many high-society Mardi Gras ball goers, as well as thrill-seeking prom kids.

With its antiquated, creaky hotel located upstairs from the restaurant, the Hummingbird Hotel & Grill was a place where anything could happen. A sign by the pay phone reading “No Talking To Imaginary People” let you know what kind of place you were walking into.

While the world changed around it, the Hummingbird held on, all under one ownership. This New Orleans version of the classic American diner seemed eternal, but it closed in 2002, the inevitable victim of gentrification.

The Hummingbird Hotel & Grill Documentary Project is a film and book that uncovers the mystique of this local institution with captivating first-hand accounts of a 20th Century greasy spoon and flophouse that existed for decades in the most unique, eccentric, and alcohol-soaked city in the USA.