Bars in New Orleans

Avenue Pub on St. Charles Avenue is New Orleans's premier craft beer bar, a 24-hour establishment with over 40 draft taps and 100+ bottles featuring rare and local craft beers. The bar's rooftop patio overlooks St. Charles Avenue and the streetcar line, making it one of New Orleans's most pleasant outdoor bar settings.

Avenue Pub on St. Charles Avenue in New Orleans's Lower Garden District is the most celebrated craft beer bar in the South, a 24-hour bar with 40+ taps featuring the finest craft and Belgian beers alongside a welcoming neighborhood atmosphere that has made it a gathering place for New Orleans's beer enthusiast community and late-night hospitality industry workers.

Bacchanal in Bywater is one of New Orleans's most unique bar experiences — a wine shop that transforms into an outdoor wine bar and live music venue with a kitchen serving small plates. Musicians perform in the yard while guests browse wine, eat food, and experience the most relaxed and community-minded bar experience in New Orleans.

Bacchanal Wine in the Bywater neighborhood is one of New Orleans's most celebrated wine bars and live music venues, a ramshackle wine shop and backyard stage that has become one of the city's most magical evening experiences. Live jazz and brass band performances in the outdoor garden alongside cheese plates and natural wine makes Bacchanal one of New Orleans's most unique destination bars.

Bacchanal Wine in the Bywater neighborhood of New Orleans is one of the city's most beloved wine bars and live music venues, a wine shop and outdoor music garden presenting nightly live jazz, classical, and world music with an extraordinarily curated natural and European wine selection. The combination of superb wine, excellent food, and live music in a garden setting makes Bacchanal one of the greatest bar experiences in America.

Bar Tonique on the edge of the French Quarter is New Orleans's leading craft cocktail bar, a narrow candlelit space with a serious approach to cocktail craftsmanship and an encyclopedic menu of classics made with house-made components. Bar Tonique has helped define a new generation of New Orleans cocktail culture.

Cane & Table is a proto-tiki cocktail bar and restaurant from the Cure team, located in the Lower French Quarter near Frenchmen Street. Specializing in rum-based drinks with Caribbean colonial influences and serving Proto-Creole food, it's one of New Orleans's most creative cocktail destinations and a natural extension of the city's rum heritage.

The Carousel Bar at Hotel Monteleone is one of the world's few rotating bars — a 25-seat merry-go-round bar that completes one full revolution every 15 minutes. In continuous operation since 1949, it was a favourite of authors Tennessee Williams and Truman Capote. A French Quarter landmark for cocktail lovers visiting New Orleans.

Carousel Bar at Hotel Monteleone is one of the most beloved bars in America — a revolving French Quarter bar that rotates 360 degrees over the course of 15 minutes. The Monteleone's extraordinary literary heritage (Tennessee Williams, Truman Capote, William Faulkner, and Ernest Hemingway all wrote about the bar) and the Carousel Bar's remarkable rotating mechanism create a cocktail bar experience of singular American literary and architectural significance.

The Carousel Bar at Hotel Monteleone is one of the most iconic cocktail bars in the world — a literal rotating carousel bar in the French Quarter's grandest hotel that turns slowly on a mechanical axis while serving guests classic New Orleans cocktails. Writers Truman Capote, Tennessee Williams, and Ernest Hemingway all frequented this bar, and it remains one of the most charming and unique bar experiences in America.

Circle Bar on Lee Circle in New Orleans is a beloved neighborhood dive bar presenting live music nightly in a small intimate venue that embodies the city's neighborhood bar culture at its most authentic. Housed in a historic gas station building, the Circle Bar has hosted live performances by local New Orleans musicians for decades as one of the city's most affordable and democratic live music experiences.

Cooter Brown's Tavern at the riverbend of Uptown New Orleans is a legendary neighborhood bar with over 400 bottled beers and 40+ drafts, a pool table, and a deep community connection to the neighborhood. Open since 1977, Cooter Brown's is a hangout for Tulane University students, families, and the Uptown neighborhood community across generations.

Coquette's bar program on Magazine Street in the Garden District is one of New Orleans's most respected, combining European wine knowledge with creative cocktail work in one of the most beloved neighborhood restaurant dining and bar experiences in the Uptown area.

The Country Club in the Bywater neighborhood of New Orleans is an irreverently named neighborhood bar and restaurant in a beautifully restored antebellum home, presenting a clothing-optional pool, cocktails, and food in the backyard that serves as one of the Bywater neighborhood's most beloved social establishments.

Cure is New Orleans's flagship craft cocktail bar, a James Beard Award-nominated institution on Freret Street that helped define the city's modern cocktail renaissance. Operating since 2009, Cure's sophisticated approach to classic cocktails, house-made ingredients, and serious spirits sourcing has influenced bartenders throughout the South and earned national recognition.

Cure on Freret Street in Uptown New Orleans is one of the most influential craft cocktail bars in America, credited with pioneering the craft cocktail movement in New Orleans and earning multiple Tales of the Cocktail Best Bar awards. The bar's commitment to fresh ingredients, precise technique, and historically informed cocktail programming has made it a pilgrimage destination for cocktail enthusiasts worldwide.

French 75 Bar inside Arnaud's Restaurant in the French Quarter is one of America's great cocktail bars, helmed by legendary New Orleans bartender Chris Hannah and serving classic cocktails with meticulous attention to craft. Named for the champagne cocktail invented during WWI, French 75 Bar honors New Orleans's deep cocktail heritage.

High Hat Café on Freret Street is a beloved Uptown neighborhood restaurant and bar with frequent live blues and soul performances, part of the revitalized Freret Street corridor that has become one of New Orleans's most compelling neighborhood dining and drinking districts outside the tourist areas.

New Orleans's Warehouse District entertainment ecosystem extends beyond the major venues to include cocktail bars, small galleries, and restaurants serving the Museum District alongside the Contemporary Arts Center, National WWII Museum, and performing arts venues.

Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop Bar is one of the oldest buildings in the United States, believed to have been used by pirate Jean Lafitte as a front business in the early 1800s. Today it's a beloved candlelit bar at the quieter end of Bourbon Street, serving stiff purple drinks called Purple Dranks and offering an atmospheric respite from the busier lower Bourbon scene.

Lost Love Lounge in Bywater is one of New Orleans's most beloved neighborhood cocktail bars, a small intimate bar with excellent cocktails, a pool table, and a neighborhood bar atmosphere that embodies the Bywater neighborhood's creative and unpretentious character.

Maison on Frenchmen is a two-floor venue with a downstairs bar hosting brass bands and local jazz acts and an upstairs dance floor for electronic and DJ performances — one of Frenchmen Street's most versatile venues. Known for late-night dancing and a welcoming, mixed LGBTQ+ and straight crowd that defines Frenchmen Street's inclusive character.

Maple Leaf Bar is an Uptown New Orleans institution on Oak Street, a legendary music bar and dance venue open since 1974 that has hosted everyone from the Rebirth Brass Band (who hold a weekly Tuesday residency) to visiting jazz legends. The tin ceilings, faded pool tables, and committed regulars make it one of the most authentic music bars in America.

Mimi's in the Marigny is a beloved neighborhood bar and dance club in the Faubourg Marigny, with a downstairs bar serving till late and an upstairs dance floor hosting everything from DJ nights to salsa dancing. A genuine neighborhood institution beloved by local New Orleanians for its welcoming atmosphere, affordable drinks, and music-driven energy.

NOLA Brewing Company in New Orleans is one of the city's most celebrated craft breweries, producing award-winning beers and operating a taproom in the Irish Channel neighborhood with regular live music, food trucks, and community events that serve the local neighborhood as a gathering place separate from the tourist-oriented French Quarter.

NOLA Brewing Company is New Orleans's most well-established craft brewery — an Irish Channel institution producing outstanding ales that are deeply integrated into the fabric of New Orleans bar culture. NOLA Brewing's remarkable Friday afternoon tap room tradition (free tastings, open to all) and its extraordinary community spirit create a brewery bar of genuine New Orleans neighborhood community significance.

Pat O'Brien's is New Orleans's most iconic tourist bar, home of the Hurricane cocktail that's been imitated around the world. The historic complex includes a main bar, a piano bar with dueling pianos, and a legendary flaming fountain courtyard. Established in 1933, Pat O'Brien's has welcomed everyone from Eleanor Roosevelt to countless Mardi Gras revelers over its nine decades.

Port Orleans Brewing Company is New Orleans's most vibrant neighborhood craft brewery — a Mid-City institution producing outstanding ales that capture the essence of New Orleans neighborhood culture. Port Orleans's extraordinary community investment and its remarkable integration into the fabric of New Orleans neighborhood life create a brewery bar of genuine Louisiana urban community significance.

Red Stick Social in downtown Baton Rouge is a 50,000-square-foot entertainment complex featuring bowling lanes, billiards, arcades, an event stage, multiple bars and restaurants, and outdoor gathering spaces that has become one of Baton Rouge's most comprehensive social entertainment destinations.

The Saint Bar & Lounge is a gritty, beloved dive bar near the Garden District hosting DJs, live bands, and karaoke in a dark, unpretentious space. Popular with musicians, artists, and locals, The Saint represents the authentic New Orleans bar culture that exists outside the tourist corridors.