Destinations

24 Best Bars in New Orleans

In the spiritual home of the cocktail, there's no shortage of storied places to drink.

October 20, 2023

New Orleans is the spiritual home of the cocktail; there are several places where you can order one at the very bar where a drink was invented. Whether you’re at a historic, high-end hotel bar, a cutting-edge mixology spot, or even a neighborhood pub, you’ll find skilled, friendly bar staff ready to pour you a glass of New Orleans’ charm. Try a Sazerac (the rye whiskey drink that’s synonymous with the city) or one of the famed brunch cocktails, like a Brandy Milk Punch or a Ramos Gin Fizz. There's also plenty of easygoing wine lists and locally made beers, with something delicious to snack on alongside it. No matter what you're drinking, these are our picks for the best bars in New Orleans.

Read our complete New Orleans travel guide here.

This gallery has been updated with new information since its original publish date.

Christian Horan
bar
Hot Tin
$$
As the elevator doors open onto the rooftop of the recently-refurbished Pontchartrain Hotel, two things hit you almost immediately: the buzz of conversation and the eclectic décor, with weird and wonderful artefacts and posters lining the way to the bar. The main room itself feels like a cool, post-war loft, festooned with sepia photographs, vintage typewriters, and even old letters and postcards. The cocktail menu deviates from the classics (though you can order those, too) but not in too pretentious a way. Rums and gins blend with recognizable ingredients and are accessibly renamed: The Skyliner, The Seersucker.
Courtesy Barrel Proof
bar
Barrel Proof
$$
The local Lower Garden District doyens have taken to this whiskey bar in droves. There aren’t many dedicated whiskey bars in New Orleans, so if you’re into brown liquor, this low-ceilinged, windowless room—with more than 300 whiskies, bourbons, ryes, and scotches—is the place to be. You could keep coming for a whole year and never get bored: Selections range from the usual barroom suspects to rare Japanese imports. And if you’re not sure where you stand on whiskey, there are affordable flights to guide your palate.
Courtesy Bacchannal Fine Wine & Spirits
bar
Bacchannal Fine Wine & Spirits
$$
A Bywater bottle shop that happens to host the city's best backyard parties. And guess what? Everyone's invited! The backyard patio pulses nightly with live music and a sea of heads bobbing along to it. The vibe here is truly unique; it rattles and hums like the rest of NOLA's great jazz clubs, but it's much more laid-back due to its location and sprawling, moonlit layout. It feels like your best friend's backyard—if your best friend had one hell of a wine cellar.
Stephen Johnson
bar
Bar Marilou
$$
Bar Marilou, tucked secretively along the side of the new Maison de la Luz hotel, is the most striking library you’ve ever seen, with scarlet bookshelves, orange ceilings, and tiger-striped carpets. It’s currently the only bar in the United States designed by the acclaimed Paris-based dreamweavers Quixotic Projects. If you’re lucky enough to be a hotel guest, you can push through one of the bookcases into a smaller, but equally plush, private parlor. It’s as decadent a bar as you’ll find in New Orleans, which is saying something.

Denny Culbert/Jewel of the South
bar
Jewel of the South
$$
The tastefully colorful Creole cottage in a relatively quiet corner of the French Quarter is a suitably historic home for Jewel of the South, a new venture from two of the city’s most renowned bartenders. Named for a 19th-century local bar that was among the first in the city to serve cocktails, Nick Detrich and Chris Hannah have opened up this small, perfectly formed rustic tavern—think bare brickwork and dark woods—in miniature, which pays homage to those early days with an interesting and esoteric list of sours, cobblers and more.
Daymon Gardner
bar
Saint-Germain
$$
Wine is the main focus at Saint-Germain, and it’s a robust but not overly extended list that concentrates mainly on European labels. The sparkling selection is all French and German, with Spanish and Italian (and even Lebanese) nosing into the whites, reds, and roses. There are at least a dozen wines by the glass, some as cheap as $6 a pour. This spot is perfect for a lazy Sunday afternoon with a group of friends, hanging out in the courtyard dipping into bottles of wine and bar snacks.
Kevin O'Mara
restaurant
Cane & Table
$$
Set amid a row of dive bars on a vaguely insalubrious block of Lower Decatur is the anonymous bar and restaurant that started the city’s mini-Tiki trend. There’s a sense of Old Havana as you enter, though you have to imagine the cigar smoke. Up front is a colonial-looking bar with high ceilings and chandeliers, then out back there’s the kind of tropical courtyard that NOLA does best, all leafy greenery and convivial seclusion. The Tiki-skewed drink menu ranges from familiar Piña Coladas to less-known creations such as Bombos and Bellowstops.
Courtesy Carousel Bar
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The Carousel Bar & Lounge
$$
Part hotel lobby bar, part fairground ride, there’s no mistaking the singular design of this old school New Orleans institution. The revolving bar is a century old, the centerpiece being a fully illuminated, gold and red, 25-seat circus merry-go-round with a 360-degree bar carved into the middle of it. The novelty aspect alone makes the bar worth a trip, especially on a slow afternoon without the evening and weekend crowds. The historic and cultural aspects only add to the experience, as does the drinks program, long on New Orleans traditions, which belies the fairground gimmickry.

Tim Black
bar
Black Penny
$
Housed in a building that dates back to the early 19th century, the dimly lit Black Penny has an old-fashioned spit-and-sawdust feel—in the best kind of way. The layout is simple: a lounge with cream booths, and a small barroom that displays the Penny’s crown jewels: around 100 regional, national, and imported craft beers. Fortunately, the bar staff treats everyone like a local and will patiently mentor you as you take on the extensive drinks menu. They know their beer, and that enthusiasm is infectious.
Courtesy Elysian Bar
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Elysian Bar
$$ | Gold List 2021
As part of the newish Hotel Peter and Paul, which is located in a nest of buildings associated with a former church, The Elysian Bar has a somewhat ecclesiastical entrance. Classic cocktails skew European, with Campari and gin featuring heavily alongside some nods to tiki. The wine list is short but solid, and the beer list deftly avoids cliches, and there's an aperitivo hour with $10 drinks (from 3pm-6pm daily). It's a little quieter than other spots, and it possesses an air of grace and beauty that’s hard to find.
Courtesy Arnaud's French 75
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Arnaud's French 75
$$
Formerly the gentlemen’s bar of the legendary Arnaud’s Restaurant, this bijoux annex has the feel of a high-class French brasserie, with its polished mahogany, tiled floors, and exotically-covered armchairs around small tables. The staff wear white tuxedos and the sense of refinement is palpable. A fair number of people are here for their signature drink, the eponymous French 75, a mix of cognac and champagne that has a couple of solid variations here.
W. Rush Jagoe V
bar
Twelve Mile Limit
$
If you just happened by 12 Mile Limit, you’d assume from the nondescript exterior and ordinary interior (low ceilings, pool table) that you’re at a regular New Orleans neighborhood bar. But the owner, one T Cole Newton, is a very respected alumnus of the city’s craft cocktail scene, credited with bringing mixology to the masses in one of the new waves of lower-key cocktail bars that have popped up in New Orleans. The cocktail menu coaxes you in with drinks made from only a few ingredients, but with weird unexpected twists that elevate the selection.

W. Rush Jagoe V
bar
Kermit's Treme Mother in Law Lounge
$$
Local music fans, neighborhood drinkers, and curious tourists all come to see one of the city's favorite sons, Kermit Ruffins, in action at his namesake bar. Inside has the feeling of a tricked-out family basement, but with Mardi Gras colored tiling. The drinks are cheap, the food is (often) free, and the music flows like the lifeblood of the Seventh Ward.
Courtesy The Will and the Way
bar
The Will and the Way
$$
For many years, this spot on one of the less frenetic streets of the historic French Quarter was the well-liked Longway Tavern. The LeBlanc + Smith restaurant group took time to recalibrate the concept and revamp the property into a focus on wines and cocktails in a ‘French Quarter lobby’ with Murphy tables around the counter, a refurbished L-shaped bar, and an evolution of the tavern-style decor—and there’s a lovely courtyard as befits a downtown New Orleans watering hole. There’s certainly a much more discerning clientele than the lurid neon havoc on nearby Bourbon Street, and a young-skewed crowd who want to socialize over smaller plates and well-crafted drinks take up tables in the various new nooks and crannies of the building. The globally-diverse wine list has prices that allow for adventure while remaining solidly in mid-double figures for a bottle, while local classics are of course well-represented on the cocktail menu; it wouldn’t be a serious New Orleans bar without at least one well-made classic daiquiri and sazerac. The specials keep things relatively simple and include a fun pickletini, as well as a frozen selection that's a real winner given the tropical weather in these parts.
Courtesy Erin Rose
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Erin Rose
$
No matter what time you roll up to Erin Rose, you’re unlikely to have the place to yourself. This is the French Quarter after all, and this small Irish pub is always busy. The drink standouts are a Bloody Mary that uses a house-made mix and the frozen Irish coffee, both of which are a real hit during the first third of opening hours. The beer list has a good local and regional selection, and the Guinness flows freely.
Courtesy Tonique
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Bar Tonique
$
The line between dive bar and cocktail bar isn’t an easy one to navigate, but this cozy Rampart Street joint manages it with aplomb. It's a simple, square room with a central bar so that everyone can see each other, high ceilings, traditional wooden décor and a wealth of booze on the walls. The big draw is the menu of happy hour cocktails for $5 during the week. The cheapest Aviations and Old Fashioneds in town, and made well. When you find yourself staying into the night, you can meander through an extensive list of local classics such as sazeracs and juleps.

Tim Black
activity
Courtyard Brewery
$$
Small breweries are a familiar fixture in even the smallest cities by now. There’s a few to choose from in New Orleans, although it’s a place where the movement took a while to catch on given its deep marination in cocktail culture. The leafy residential environs of the Lower Garden District weren’t an obvious location for what was the city’s first nano-brewery, but brewer Scott Wood isn’t shy of challenges or doing things a little differently, and this scrappy ‘dive-brewery’ that has slowly evolved, expanded, and has an undeniably strong reputation. The menu at the time of writing had about 25 beers on tap; to relative brewing laymen, most breweries seem to roll out endless IPAs thanks to its continued cultural dominance, and although this beer species is represented here, your palate can definitely enjoy a little more variety—chocolate stouts and milds, sours and pale wheats, all line up, mostly with amusingly pithy names (‘Existence is Elsewhere’) and with a seasonally-sensitive list. You’ll find much to delight in and explore whenever you choose to visit.
Courtesy The Avenue Pub
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Avenue Pub
$$
Before the (mostly very good) microbreweries came to New Orleans, there was the Avenue Pub. Sitting nonchalantly on St Charles in the Lower Garden District, it’s been a beacon for serious beer fans in the city for years. The charmingly ramshackle building has been around since the late 19th century, and there’s a British pub feel to the place, with wooden beams and furniture, plus a spacious balcony that overlooks the streetcar and one of the city’s busiest streets.
bar
Vaughan's Lounge
$$
From the outside, Vaughan's Lounge may not look like much more than another neighborhood dive. Inside, though, are over-the-top decorations and dozens of photos that point to a bar that’s well-loved by locals (it’s been here since 1959). Add in the fact that it’s one of the few places to watch live jazz that isn’t a busy, tourist-packed club or hotel lounge, and you’ve got a good reason to search out this Bywater treasure. The drinks menu is simple, straightforward, and reasonably priced, and though there's no official food menu, there are occasionally pop-up BBQ pits or crawfish boils to accompany sports games or live music.
Kevin O'Mara
bar
Cure
$$
This upscale cocktail bar is housed in a former fire station that dates back to 1903. The long, narrow room has striking arched windows at one end, casting light onto the bar, which frames a truly awe-inspiring wall of spirits and liqueurs. Most people come here for the ever-evolving menu of house cocktails. Some are twists on old favorites, some are true originals, and you can always just give your flavor preferences to the bartenders and see what they whip up.

bar
Pigeon and Whale
$$
If you’re a negroni fan and want to navigate some unexplored shores, then this is the culinary port that you want to set sail for. House cocktails are divided into ‘Stirred/Stiff’ and ‘Shaken/Sour’ mini lists, with amusing names (‘Your Bum’s a Plum’ and ‘Hendricks Lamar’ among the stand-outs) and playfully maximalist nautical design must also be responsible for a few curious guests passing through. This being New Orleans, there isn’t exactly a shortage of seafood options (and the wine selections skew white, given the seafood-focused menu), but Pigeon and Whale brings in a noteworthy bounty that is drawn from beyond the more common Gulf Coast origins: Maine lobster rolls, Prince Edward Island mussels, and North Atlantic Scallops are a rarity in this part of the world, so they’re an especially welcome addition to the decent list of locally-made beers and ciders. Add to this a choice of oysters that from sources like Rhode Island and Washington, and you’ve got yourself a seafood spot that stands out.
Courtesy Waldorf Astoria Hotels & Resorts
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The Sazerac Bar
$$
You can almost sense the history as you walk into the Roosevelt Hotel’s signature bar. A small seating area gives way to the long, narrow bar room with its dark, African Walnut woods, leather-backed chairs and the striking colorful murals of old New Orleans that frame the entire scene. Even in a city of characterful hotel bars, it stands out, though it’s definitely upscale so you’ll want to dress appropriately. You’re drinking a Sazerac, obviously; a mix of rye whiskey and bitters in an absinthe-rinsed rocks glass that, and though it can be an acquired taste, the version made here is among the best in town. The bar also has history with the Ramos Gin Fizz, a cream-heavy concoction that puffs out of its tall glass like a boozy milkshake, and has its own creations, too, as well as a liquor and beer selection that you’d expect from the five-star hotel.
Beachbum Berry's Latitude 29
bar
Beachbum Berry's Latitude 29
$$
There’s a decent choice of tiki bars in New Orleans, but there’s only one that’s been fashioned by one of the world’s foremost authorities on the subject. Jeff ‘Beachbum’ Berry is said expert, and this bar—one of the best of its kind in the country, if not the world—is his homage to the craft. Latitude 29 is a rum-doused cathedral, where mid-century tiki cocktail culture is celebrated with flair and passion. Located on the ground floor of Decatur Street’s Bienville Hotel, it’s a stylish lounge that’s tastefully yet enthusiastically festooned with sacred tiki artifacts, maps, and iconography. The classic Mai Tais and Zombies are as good as you’re going to find anywhere, and the bar’s originals, such as the Pontchartrain Pearl Diver (iced and buttered Jamaican rum with passionfruit and lime) and the Outcast of the Islands (gin muddled with cinnamon, ginger, almond, and anise), are equally boozy and complex. All of the drinks are aesthetically playful, with fresh-flower garnishes, creative ice, and delightful drinking vessels.
bar
JusTini's
$$
It was a real joy to see life return to this charmingly labyrinthine building (that has been empty for several years) with this Bywater cocktail space. There’s the main bar and a dining room with some cute nooks just off the main space, plus a small courtyard with a striking mural; chandeliers bring a touch of illuminated elegance, and owner Jessica Robinson has created an elevated neighborhood bar/restaurant, gratifyingly bereft of knowingly-quirky decor or try-hard gimmicks. The cocktails are solid, creative enough to be interesting but still very accessible; the bar program knows exactly what it’s doing, but it won’t make you feel inadequate if you’re not an expert. Try the Krewe of Justini, which mixes tropical melon and pineapple with a potent punch of white spirits, or the Fuego for tequila, a piquant jab of muddled jalapeño, and a healthy slug of pineapple to cut through the spice. The happy hour specials include a $6 champagne and a $7 French 75 that should quickly establish a loyal clientele.