It’s Friday night in the city. The streets are slick with rain but the downpour seems to have abated and the skies have begun to clear. Inside the lobby of the New Orleans Sheraton, there is a scattering of tourists, several descending the escalators in running shorts and tops, a few seated among the tables on a sunken cocktail level anchored by a big, polygon bar, which is designed as a gazebo and has a verdigris pelican perched on top. Recently remodeled, it’s...