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Bar-Hopping Guide: New Orleans French Quarter
Bar-Hopping
New Orleans
Bar-Hopping Guide:
New Orleans French Quarter
By James Harlow
·
March 26, 2026
·
10 min read
Every American city with a serious bar scene owes something to New Orleans. The Sazerac was invented here. The cocktail culture that defines American drinking in 2026 traces its roots back to the Crescent City's 19th-century druggists, saloon keepers, and French Caribbean immigrants who mixed anise liqueur with cognac and called it medicine. The French Quarter is where that history is most concentrated, and where the temptation to drink badly is highest.
The tourist version of the French Quarter begins and ends on Bourbon Street. This guide does not begin on Bourbon Street. It starts on Chartres, moves through the quieter grid to the west, and earns Bourbon Street at the end, on our terms. Our editor James Harlow spent three days mapping this route in late winter, when the Quarter is at its most local and least performative.
"The French Quarter at midnight is not the city at its wildest. It is the city at its most honest. Everything New Orleans believes about pleasure is written plainly on those streets."
Stop 1: Begin at the Edge of the Quarter — Chartres Street
Tujague's
Decatur Street
$$
Opens 11am
The second oldest bar in New Orleans, opened in 1856. The back bar mirror was imported from Paris in 1856 and remains in place. The Grasshopper cocktail was invented here in 1928, which you do not need to order, but should know. The Sazerac, however, you should order. Tujague's makes theirs with rye, Peychaud's bitters, absinthe rinse, and a lemon peel. It is not the best in the city, but it is the correct place to have your first one.
Preservation Hall (Bar)
St. Peter Street
$$
Opens 8pm for shows
The Hall itself is a live music venue, not technically a bar, but the small standing bar inside operates on show nights and is worth the $25 entry. The band starts at 8pm and plays 45-minute sets through midnight. Traditional New Orleans jazz at the highest level: no amplification, no setlist, no requests except during the $20 "big request" tradition. Get there before the first set for a spot near the band. One of the
best live music bars in New Orleans by any measure.
Stop 2: Cocktail History on Royal Street
Royal Street is the antiques and gallery street, which also makes it the cocktail street, since the two things cohabit comfortably in New Orleans. The bars here are quieter than Bourbon, the drinks are better, and the rooms are more interesting. The best cocktail bars in New Orleans are disproportionately located within three blocks of Royal Street.
Bar Sazerac at the Roosevelt
Baronne Street, CBD adjacent
$$$
Opens 11am
The bar at the Roosevelt Hotel is technically outside the Quarter but 10 minutes on foot and worth the detour. The Sazerac Bar has been serving the namesake cocktail since 1949 in a room decorated with Paul Ninas murals of Louisiana plantation life. The bar team makes the Sazerac with the house recipe: Sazerac rye, simple syrup, Peychaud's and Angostura bitters, absinthe rinse. It is the benchmark version against which all others should be measured.
Jewel of the South
St. Louis Street
$$$
Opens 5pm
Nick Detrich's research-driven cocktail bar takes New Orleans classic cocktails as its raw material and builds outward from there. The 1850s-era Creole cottage has been meticulously restored. The menu is structured as a conversation with New Orleans cocktail history: the Corpse Reviver on this list is made with a Louisiana absinthe and local bitters. Four James Beard nominations since 2019. Reservations essential on weekends. Walk-in bar seats available.
Stop 3: The Quarter's Hidden Bars
Between Royal and Bourbon, in the cross-streets, are the bars that locals actually drink in. They are not difficult to find, but they require leaving the tourist corridor and walking half a block in either direction. The reward is a different French Quarter entirely.
Latitude 29
Bienville Street
$$
Opens 5pm
Jeff "Beachbum" Berry's tiki bar applies the same historical research to tropical cocktails that Jewel of the South applies to New Orleans classics. Berry is the foremost authority on mid-century American tiki culture and has translated that knowledge into a menu of 40 drinks, all built from pre-1960s recipes with modern sourcing. The Queen's Park Swizzle and the Painkiller are the entry points. The Zombie requires a two-drink limit acknowledgment before ordering.
Stop 4: Bourbon Street — On Your Own Terms
Bourbon Street is inevitable. The question is which part and which bar. The upper blocks, from Canal to St. Ann, are tourist territory with cover charge bars and frozen daiquiri machines. The lower blocks, from St. Ann to Esplanade, are quieter, cheaper, and increasingly local. Two bars on this stretch justify the detour.
Old Absinthe House
Bourbon Street
$$
Open 24 hours
Built in 1806 and serving drinks since 1815. The absinthe fountain on the bar is original, and the business cards and dollar bills covering every surface have been accumulating for over a century. The Absinthe Frappe — absinthe, anise syrup, soda, mint — was invented at this marble bar in the 1870s. Order one. The room is loud and crowded and exactly what Bourbon Street should be when it is done correctly.
Napoleon House
Chartres Street
$$
Opens 11am
An 1814 building that was offered to Napoleon as a refuge following his exile — he never came, but the name stuck. The Pimm's Cup here is one of the best in the world: Pimm's No. 1, lemonade, and 7-Up over ice in a tall glass with a cucumber slice, made without pretension in a room with peeling plaster walls and classical music. One of the
hidden gem bars in New Orleans that is no longer hidden but still feels like a discovery.
Practical Notes for the French Quarter
The French Quarter operates on New Orleans time, which means bars close when they feel like it, not when the license says. Most are open by noon and operating until at least 2am. The open container law means you can carry your drink outside, which the entire city treats as a standing invitation. The Quarter is walkable in 20 minutes end to end. Rideshares work. The streetcar along Canal and St. Charles is the most civilised option for getting back to your hotel.
For the full picture of the New Orleans bar scene beyond the Quarter, including Marigny, Bywater, and the Magazine Street corridor, our city guide covers all 6 major bar neighbourhoods. The best bars in New Orleans article in our editorial archive covers the current consensus picks across all categories.
James Harlow
Senior US Editor
James covers the American bar scene from a base in New York, with regular trips to Chicago, New Orleans, Austin, and Nashville. He has been writing about bars and spirits for 14 years and believes that a city's best bar is always the one its residents go to on a Tuesday.
