29 Best Nightlife in French Quarter, New Orleans

With its elegant, understated Caribbean decor, dim lighting, and low volumes, this rum house is a refreshing relief from the general chaos of the neighborhood. The friendly barkeeps love making "ProtoTiki Cocktails" (specialty rum drinks with modern twists), but there's a sophisticated list of Spanish wines to choose from as well. The space offers a large marble bar, charming courtyard out back, and small tables for intimate dining. Come for the cocktails and atmosphere, but don't miss out on the food: the menu combines Caribbean and Southern culinary traditions, and the dishes are inventive and intensely flavorful.

A favorite New Orleans drinking destination since 1949, the revolving bar has served the likes of Tennessee Williams, Truman Capote, and Ernest Hemingway. If the famed carousel bar is too crowded, there's a second (stationary) bar and a stage that hosts free shows by local musicians Wednesday through Saturday.

Before you see it, you'll hear this Bourbon Street landmark, New Orleans's most popular karaoke bar. Given an ideal corner location, the bar's tall doors and windows open onto two streets, luring undergrads, conventioneers, and bachelorette parties to hit the dance floor and grab the mic. High-energy MCs and DJs keep the night spinning along, but get on the sign-up sheet early if you want a chance at French Quarter fame.

This is a must-visit for any who love to submerge themselves in old-time elegance. Adjoining Arnaud's, the classic New Orleans Creole restaurant, this dark-wood bar is complete with leather-backed chairs and imposing columns. The bartenders work magic with their encyclopedic knowledge of cocktails and arsenal of ingredients. Be sure to venture upstairs to the free Germaine Wells Mardi Gras Museum, a slightly bizarre showcase for memorabilia and ball gowns worn by the original owner's daughter.

Perhaps the most photographed building in the Quarter after St. Louis Cathedral, this 18th-century blacksmith shop was once a front for the eponymous pirate's less legitimate business ventures—or so says local legend. Today, it's an atmospheric piano bar with a rustic, candlelit interior and a small outdoor patio shaded by banana trees. Despite the addition of a few flat-screen TVs, a drink here just after sundown, under the soft glow of candles, lets you slip back in time for an hour or so. It's also known as the oldest bar in New Orleans as well as one of the most haunted.

It's a living shrine to what may be called the semiofficial New Orleans school of decor: faded grandeur. Chipped wall paint, diffused light, and a tiny courtyard with a trickling fountain and lush banana trees create a timeless escapist mood. The house specialty is a Pimm's Cup (here they top Pimm's No. 1 with lemonade and 7-Up). This vintage restaurant and watering hole has long been popular with writers, artists, and other free spirits, although today most customers are tourists. But even locals who don't venture often into the French Quarter will make an exception for Napoleon House.

An eclectic spot on North Rampart Street, this brick-walled room with private nooks and intimate corner booths looks like a cross between a dive and a lounge on the Riviera. The book-length drinks menu, with everything from pre-Prohibition classics to modern creations, practically recounts the history of the cocktail. The talented staff can turn out any of those offerings with aplomb.

It's impossible to miss this 24-hour video bar at the corner of St. Ann and Bourbon streets, especially in early evenings, when the doors are open and the dance crowd spills into the street. There's usually a cover charge on Friday and Saturday nights after 10 pm; Sunday afternoon is devoted to vintage videos by assorted gay icons.

This Bourbon Street stalwart attracts a somewhat older and very casual group of gay men. The second floor has a pool table, pinball machine, and wraparound balcony with a bird's-eye view of the lively street scene below. Sunday afternoon, when the oldies spin and the paper-napkin confetti flies, is especially popular.

Unpretentious even by New Orleans standards, this little dive not far from Canal Street draws a good number of locals from the Quarter and beyond for inexpensive drinks and wide-open doorways that offer table seating just off the sidewalk. Note that it's cash-only.

Filmmaker John Waters reportedly counts the Pocket as a New Orleans favorite, and with skinny, tattooed strippers on the bar and an inebriated drag queen emcee, it's easy to see why. Sleazy fun on a good night, but keep your wits about you.

Few tourists make their way to this hip neighborhood hangout, in a far corner of the Lower Quarter. A short flight of stairs leads to a darts and billiards room. Quirky wagon wheel–shape ceiling fans, ample windows, and a friendly vibe make it a low-key place to wind down. Food options include pizzas, burgers, and Cosimo's famous fried green beans.

These swanky digs in the Ritz-Carlton are home to their namesake, Jeremy Davenport, an old-school crooner in the mold of Sinatra and Crosby. With a hot trumpet, Davenport plays Wednesday through Saturday and draws a mixed crowd of visitors and locals to the swinging dance floor.

An old-school gem in the midst of Bourbon Street's many venues with bad cover bands, this Dixieland music club, built in the style of the old jazz halls, has tight rows of seating close to the stage and floating barmaids. Drinks cost a little more, but there's never a cover charge. Shows nightly.

With its tasteful decor and reasonable volume level, this is a slightly more upscale, sedate alternative to the blasting disco bars down the street. The Queen's Head Pub on the second floor, open weekends, has darts, a wraparound balcony, and respectable martinis. Brush up on your show tunes at the popular Sunday afternoon piano sing-along.

Despite its name, blues rarely makes the bill at this Decatur Street link in the national chain. The midsize venue embraces rock, country, soul, funk, and world music, and it's one of the city's most reliable destinations for national touring acts. The adjoining restaurant hosts a popular gospel brunch. The Parish, a more intimate offshoot upstairs from the main house, books edgier, up-and-coming groups.

This well-worn favorite has a pool table, a jukebox stocked with the Pogues and Flogging Molly, and, of course, Guinness on draft. A small stage at the back hosts Irish musicians, singer-songwriters, and R&B or jazz musicians nightly with no cover charge. It's one of the last venues for Irish music in the Quarter.

Grab a perch almost any time of day at one of the best-known and most popular bars along the far stretch of Decatur Street, where you'll find perfect pints of Guinness, generously poured cocktails, and gregarious bartenders. From a window seat, you can watch the crowds of shop-goers, sightseers, and all-day revelers. Everyone from politicians to punk rockers eventually drifts through these doors.

The only gay bar in New Orleans that's also attached to a large hotel, this narrow space is in the heart of St.-Ann-and-Bourbon gay central; it's a must-visit during the annual Southern Decadence festival. The comfy sofas and handsome bartenders are a plus, and the crowd tends to be a bit dressier than at similar venues.

In its 200-year history, this low-key oasis with its famous marble absinthe fountain has served guests including Oscar Wilde, Mark Twain, Franklin Roosevelt, and Frank Sinatra. It's now mostly frequented by tourists and casual local characters who appreciate a good brewski or cocktail to go. Thousands of business cards stapled to the wall serve as interesting wallpaper. Walk through the courtyard next door to find Belle Epoque, a speakeasy-style lounge and sophisticated extension of Old Absinthe House.

This former Toulouse Street theater hosts rock bands, as well as local up-and-comers, '80s nights, and even the occasional female arm-wrestling competition. The 19th-century saloon interior provides an appropriately decadent backdrop for Fleur de Tease, the resident burlesque troupe.

A spacious dance club that mainly attracts young gay men also draws straight men and women, largely because of the scarcity of good dance floors in the French Quarter. It's open around the clock and tends to peak very late.

Banjo player Danny Barker immortalized this restaurant in his song "Palm Court Strut." Traditional New Orleans jazz is presented in a timeless setting with tile floors, exposed-brick walls, and a handsome mahogany bar. There are decent creature comforts here; regional cuisine is served, and you can sit at the bar and rub elbows with local musicians. A wide selection of records and CDs are available for sale.

High-energy disco is the rule at this dance club above the Bourbon Pub. If it gets to be too much, a quieter back bar and a balcony offer respite. The crowd is mostly male and young, but women are welcome.

Dapper Patrick Van Hoorebeek holds court at his wine bar in a clubby atmosphere of dark wood and red upholstery. Wines by the glass are the specialty, but there's also an excellent selection of cocktails and beers, including Van Hoorebeek's own Belgian brew. Major oenophiles can rent personal wine lockers. Only a few steps from Bourbon Street, Bar Vin feels like another world. It opens at noon on Friday to catch the lunch crowd.

As the name indicates, this is a rowdy—and sexually charged—leather-and-Levi's gay bar. It's two blocks from Bourbon Street and is open around the clock.

The Lower Quarter has become a lot more upscale since this neighborhood gay haunt's heyday, but (the officially named) Tubby's Golden Lantern soldiers on. The bartender's whim determines the music, the drinks are strong, and happy hour runs from noon to 8 pm Monday and Tuesday, and from 8 am to 8 pm every other day. The bar is best known as ground zero for the annual Southern Decadence drag parade, when a crowd gathers out front for the kick-off. It's cash-only.

Serious music lovers converge on this intimate lounge with a modern aesthetic. Top-notch local jazz and brass acts like the Glen David Andrews Band and the Brass-A-Holics are a refreshing change from the loud rock and blues cover bands that have become the Bourbon Street norm. There are multiple sets of local talent daily between 5 pm and midnight. There's no cover, but you can pay $20 in advance for guaranteed preferred seating.