18 Best Bars in New Orleans, Louisiana

In the far reaches of the Bywater, Bacchanal is part wine shop, part bar, part music club—and 100% neighborhood hangout. Enter the old building first, then beyond the wine racks you'll find a courtyard with seating and a spacious bar upstairs that serves beer and liquor. You can have a bottle uncorked on the premises or order by the glass. The kitchen supplies gourmet cheese plates and small tasty dishes that go well with the wine selections—osso buco, mussels, and confit chicken leg are among the best. Local bands play seven nights a week.

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, this 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 mike. 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.

One of New Orleans's most traditional drinking experiences, enjoy an Old Fashioned or a Sazerac here on the expansive front porch, shaded by centuries-old oak trees and overlooking the St. Charles Avenue streetcar route. Built in 1883 as a private home, the Columns has been the scene of TV ads, movies, and plenty of weddings. The interior scenes of Louis Malle's Pretty Baby were filmed here. The Victorian Lounge, with its restored period decor and a fireplace, has a decaying elegance that transports you to a previous era. There's a great happy hour, too, and a fantastic live jazz trio plays here most Monday nights.

Under new ownership since 2023, dba remains a leading music venue on Frenchmen Street. The selection of drinks—including international and craft beers on tap, bourbons and scotches, and obscure tequilas, all listed on chalkboards above the bar—is reason enough to visit. Live music most nights and the Marigny's best people-watching in a narrow cypress-lined room make it a neighborhood favorite.

A long, slender room with plush banquettes in a charming sliver of a building on a busy stretch of St. Charles Avenue looks as if it were air-dropped straight from Paris. Offering a carefully chosen (and reasonably priced) selection of beer, spirits, and wines by the glass, the menu also includes upscale small plates, like goose-fat fried pommes frites served with a peanut satay and malt vinegar aioli.

Created by devoted soccer fans from Belfast, this popular and expansive neighborhood bar opens up as early as 6 am for European soccer matches. Fan groups of all sports teams as well as neighborhood regulars flock here for its ample TVs, indoor and outdoor seating, pool and darts, and a kitchen serving tasty pub fare. On Monday night, there's popular and competitive trivia, and if you happen to be in town for St. Patrick's Day, don't miss their rollicking daylong festival.

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.

The view from this hip penthouse bar is unbeatable, but if you can't get a seat outside, curl up in a plush booth under the plated tin ceiling and enjoy the Tennessee Williams-inspired memorabilia filling the walls. Even the cocktails are served in antique glassware.

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.

Local acts from a wide range of genres—including the Soul Rebels with their standing Thursday-night gig—shake the walls of this ramshackle Magazine Street nightspot. The music normally gets started after 10 pm. Pool tables and a limited bar-food menu keep the crowd, including young professionals and students from nearby Tulane and Loyola universities, occupied until the show starts.

The phrase "New Orleans institution" gets thrown around a lot, but this place, now over 50 years old, deserves the title. It's wonderfully atmospheric, with pressed-tin walls and a lush tropical-theme patio, and it's also one of the city's best venues for blues, New Orleans–style R&B, funk, zydeco, and jazz. On Sunday afternoon, the bar hosts the south's longest-running poetry reading, and on Sunday night, Joe Krown plays a show with his band. Rebirth Brass Band's standing Tuesday night gig is a show everyone should see if they're in town. It's a long haul from the French Quarter, but worth the trip, especially if combined with a visit to one of the restaurants clustered near this commercial stretch of Oak Street.

Napoleon House is 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.

This dim elegant bar is a perfect marriage of New Orleans cocktail culture past and present. Owners of Cure—the forefather of NOLA craft cocktail bars—transformed the former home of the 19th century Creole apothecary into a sophisticated spot to try expertly crafted classic drinks that would make the bitters inventor and his friends proud. The inner courtyard, which backs up to Court of Two Sisters, is one of the best in the Quarter.

At this cultural landmark founded in 1961, a cadre of distinguished New Orleans musicians, most of whom were schooled by an ever-dwindling group of elder statesmen, nurture the jazz tradition that flowered in the 1920s. There is limited seating on benches—many patrons end up squatting on the floor or standing in back—and no beverages are served, nor are there restrooms. Nonetheless, legions of satisfied music lovers regard an evening at this all-ages venue as an essential New Orleans experience. You must buy a ticket online in advance (nothing is sold at the door any longer), and you are asked to arrive 20 minutes before the performance.

Jazz, old-time, and swing bands perform nightly at this rustic club right in the thick of the Frenchmen Street action. Sets start at 2 pm and the music continues until at least midnight. Drinks cost a little more (it's cash only), but there's never a cover charge and the entertainment is great—from the popular bands to the cadres of young, rock-step swing dancers.

Rub the bust of legendary New Orleans pianist Professor Longhair (aka "Fess") inside this Uptown landmark named for one of the late musician's popular songs. The old concert posters on the walls read like an honor roll of musical legends, both local and national. The midsize venue boasts an eclectic and well-curated calendar year-round, but particularly during the weeks of Jazz Fest. The long-running Sunday afternoon Cajun dance party takes place monthly and still packs the floor. Although the neighborhood isn't dangerous, it's far enough out of the way to require some sort of rideshare, cab, or public transit option.