Neighborhoods for Nightlife

Neighborhoods for Nightlife

The French Quarter and the Faubourg Marigny are the easiest places to hear music. Dozens of quality bands play nightly at clubs that are within walking distance of one another, and the myriad dining options make it convenient to spend a whole evening here. Frenchmen Street in the Marigny is currently the hottest music strip in town. Locals flock to this area because it's easier to park on the street and the drinks and cover charges are cheaper than in the Quarter. Much of Frenchmen's activity is within a three-block area. You can roam the streets and window-shop bars or loiter outside on the sidewalk—a popular activity on weekend nights and during peak festival seasons. Clubs along this strip charge a $5-$7 cover for music or none at all. Snug Harbor, the premiere modern jazz venue in town, is pricier, with shows usually costing $10-$20, but a seat is always guaranteed.

Uptown is rich in clubs, although they are far less concentrated, tucked instead down various residential and commercial streets. A minor hub has formed around the Riverbend area, far uptown where St. Charles Avenue and Carrollton Avenue intersect. Cooter Brown's, right at the levee, is a good stop for imported beers and local grub, served all night. Some blocks away, near Carrollton and Oak streets, the Maple Leaf hosts live music every night of the week. Around the corner you will find Carrollton Station, which has bands on the weekends, although walking the few short blocks is not a good idea. Another hub is Magazine Street in the lower Garden District, where you can sit at an outdoor table at the Bulldog or drink on the balcony at the Balcony Bar. Although driving the two minutes from one spot to the next might seem silly, it is not safe to walk. It's best to call a taxi.

The Warehouse District harbors a number of good bars and clubs, some of them in renovated 19th-century warehouses that hark back to the city's cotton exporting heyday. The enormous New Orleans Convention Center runs along the edge of this district, and many spots are often filled with dazed conventioneers. The Central Business District (CBD) has a few establishments, but at night it's mostly quiet.

Perhaps the edgiest local scene is in the Bywater District, home to a dozen low-key bars, straight, gay, and mixed. The corner of Royal and Franklin streets forms something of a hub, with a smattering of bars catering to a varied crowd. At the far end of the Bywater, you can be sure to find one of the hippest events of the week when Kermit Ruffins plays Vaughan's every Thursday. On Sundays a mini-party takes place in the courtyard of the wine retail shop, Bacchanal.

Mid-City, the area near City Park and Bayou St. John, suffered a lot of damage in Hurricane Katrina's flooding; restaurants and the handful of bars worth visiting in the area, like the residents themselves, were slow to return. As of this writing, however, a few stalwarts were back, most notably the ever-popular Rock 'n' Bowl shows at Mid-City Lanes and Banks Street Bar, which returned to a nightly live-music schedule fairly soon after the storm. Venues are fairly spread out and parts of the neighborhood are not the safest, so a car or taxi is recommended at night.