Editorial
New Orleans does not have atmospheric bars the way other cities do. It has something closer to portals. Walk into the right room on a still Tuesday night and you can feel the weight of two centuries pressing down on the ceiling — the lingering smoke of cigars smoked before you were born, the echo of jazz played for people who never came back from the war. These are the most atmospheric bars in New Orleans, chosen for the quality of their darkness, not their cocktails — though the cocktails are, invariably, excellent too.
New Orleans was built on ceremony, excess, and grief, often all in the same evening. The bars that carry this inheritance most fully are the ones that haven't tried to modernise themselves out of their own character. These rooms look the way they do because this is what they are — not because someone hired a designer to make them feel old.
New Orleans produces bars that simply could not exist anywhere else — shaped by the city's geography, its Caribbean influence, its gothic Catholic imagination, and its complete refusal to apologise for any of it. These next five are the ones our editors return to specifically for the rooms.
New Orleans is the only American city where the atmosphere of a bar is considered as important as the drinks being served in it. The eight rooms above are the ones our editors return to because of what they feel like — the density of history, the quality of the darkness, the sense that something happened here and something is still happening. If you're visiting New Orleans for the first time, start with Lafitte's on a quiet night. The rest will follow.
For the city's live music bar scene, our New Orleans live music guide covers Frenchmen Street and beyond. The broader hidden gems category features the best under-the-radar bars from every city we cover.
James has been writing about bars for fifteen years. He has drunk in every neighbourhood of New Orleans and considers it the most misunderstood drinking city in America — misunderstood by people who have never been there after midnight.