Editorial
New Orleans invented the American bar crawl, then kept going. This is a city where open containers are legal on the street, where the bars never technically close, and where the music has been playing continuously since 1718. No other American city has built its entire civic identity around the act of drinking in public, and it shows.
The challenge with New Orleans is not finding a bar — it's understanding which ones are worth your time. Bourbon Street exists and you should walk it once, but it is to New Orleans bar culture what the Eiffel Tower gift shop is to French cuisine. The city's real drinking life happens on Frenchmen Street, in the Marigny, in the Bywater, and in the extraordinary old bars that have been serving the same Sazerac recipe since the Roosevelt administration. All three administrations.
You can carry a drink on the street in a plastic go-cup — this is legal and expected. Most bars will give you a to-go cup if you ask. The rule is no glass outside. Cash is still king in many French Quarter and Marigny establishments. And drink water: the humidity is not forgiving and the pours are generous.
The French Quarter has bars that predate the United States. Walking this route is walking through American drinking history. Some are tourist traps; the ones below are not. Start at dusk when the light turns the Quarter amber and stay until the second line bands start appearing on Bourbon Street around 10pm.
Three blocks of Frenchmen Street in the Marigny neighbourhood contain more live jazz per square metre than anywhere on earth outside of a jazz festival. The bars here are smaller, cheaper, and more local than the Quarter. Walk slowly, stop when the music moves you, and accept that you will not see every bar on the list — this is the point.
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The Bywater is where New Orleans' creative class lives and drinks. The bars are smaller, the cocktail programs are more experimental, and the crowds are younger. This route is best on a Thursday or Friday when the after-work energy is high. Start at 8pm; expect to close somewhere around 1am.
New Orleans invented three of the world's great cocktails and you should drink all three while you're here. The Sazerac — rye, Peychaud's bitters, absinthe — is the city's official cocktail. The Vieux Carré — rye, cognac, sweet vermouth, Bénédictine, bitters — was invented at the Hotel Monteleone. The French 75 — gin, lemon, simple syrup, champagne — was popularised here and is drunk here in its original form, not the vodka version that travelled to other cities and got confused.
Abita Brewing has been making Louisiana beers since 1986. Their Purple Haze (raspberry lager) and TurboDog (dark brown ale) are found everywhere and are worth the experience. NOLA Brewing and Urban South are newer craft operations with excellent seasonal offerings. On a hot night, order whatever is coldest — New Orleans humidity makes the beer selection less important than the temperature.
In New Orleans, you move to where the music sounds best, not where your itinerary says to go. If you hear a second line band processing down a street, follow it. If a bar you've never heard of has extraordinary music coming through the door, go in. The best New Orleans nights are unplanned.
New Orleans leads our ranking of the world's best cities for jazz bars — there is no other city that has integrated live jazz into its bar culture so completely. Read our full New Orleans bar guide for neighbourhood-by-neighbourhood coverage, or see our Nashville bar crawl guide if you're doing a Southern drinking tour.
James considers New Orleans the most important city in American drinking history and has spent enough time on Frenchmen Street to have a stool with his name on it at the Spotted Cat. He covers US bar culture with a particular interest in cities that invented their own drinks.