Latitude 29

Jeff Berry spent 20 years researching the history of tiki cocktails, interviewing the original bartenders, tracking down recipes that had been locked in safes for decades, and eventually writing six books that restored tiki to its rightful place in the cocktail canon. Then he opened Latitude 29 in the Bienville House Hotel on Decatur Street in New Orleans' French Quarter, and suddenly the world's most authoritative voice on tiki culture had his own bar in one of the world's most historically significant drinking cities.

The room is everything tiki should be: wood carvings, low light, the smell of fresh citrus and aged rum, a soundtrack of Martin Denny and Les Baxter playing at precisely the right volume. The menu runs about 30 cocktails, all drawn from Berry's research, each one built on historically accurate recipes with rum as the backbone and tropical ingredients assembled with the same rigour you would expect from a scholar. This is not the novelty-umbrella version of tiki — this is tiki as a serious American cocktail tradition.

We recommend Latitude 29 to anyone who wants to understand where tropical cocktail culture actually comes from, and to anyone who simply wants to drink something extraordinary in beautiful surroundings. For the full New Orleans tiki and rum experience, also visit Cane and Table on Decatur Street — the two bars make a natural pairing for an evening of serious rum exploration. More New Orleans cocktail options appear in our New Orleans cocktail bars guide.