The 25 Best Bars in New Orleans

In case you haven't heard, New Orleans is a fantastic drinking town. Arguably the best in the world, in fact. Unfortunately, the perception that many have of New Orleans is that everyone goes to Bourbon Street, gets blackout drunk, and loses all control of their faculties. Sure, there are people who regularly do that in New Orleans; they're called tourists.

The local drinker, however, is a seasoned veteran at the art of imbibing, capable of having their first drink of the day with breakfast and maintaining the ability to deftly argue with a stranger about where to get the best po-boy in town twelve hours later. Additionally, the local drinker doesn't just drink all day at Mardi Gras—the local drinker drinks all day on your average Tuesday. New Orleanians just know how to drink better than most others do.

A big part of knowing how to drink is knowing where to drink. With a couple of rare exceptions, people who live in New Orleans do not step foot into the dens of filth, despair, and douchebaggery one finds on Bourbon Street. We view it with the same disdain a New Yorker would view Times Square.

Here are the places where the average tourist would never go: the 25 Best Bars in New Orleans. Happy drinking.

Written by Brett Michael Dykes (@thecajunboy)

RELATED: The 25 Douchiest Bars in New Orleans
RELATED: The 10 Best New NYC Bars of 2012

Address: 2240 St. Claude Ave.
Website: theallwayslounge.net

I don't go to Allways Lounge very often, but each time I do something memorable seems to happen. For instance, the last time I was here about six months ago, there was a burlesque show, and one of the women on stage fucked herself with a crucifix. So yeah, my kind of place.

Address: 949 N. Rendon St.
Website: palslounge.com

One of the many great things about New Orleans is that you can drink in public, AS REASONABLE HUMAN BEINGS SHOULD BE ALLOWED TO DO. So, if you're not finished with a drink, you don't have to choose between slamming it and tossing your hard-earned money into the trash; you can take that drink with you in a "go cup." Rather than giving you a cheap clear plastic cup, Pal's supplies patrons with nice go-cups with the bar's name and logo emblazoned on it. Something you can use for another day. For this, among other things, Pal's will always be alright in my book.

Address: 3067 St. Claude Ave.
Website: N/A

If you came to New Orleans and told me that "boning a NOLA hipster girl" was at the top of your list of priorities, Saturn Bar is where I'd send you, specifically on MOD dance party night. Yes, that about sums it up.

Address: 930 Poydras St.
Website: saintemarienola.com

Just a few months ago, Ste. Marie wouldn't have been included on this list. It's a restaurant with a giant bar that's a frequent stop on Sunday afternoons in the fall, due to its proximity to the Superdome, but it wasn't a drinking destination for most locals. However, the recent hire of Murf Reeves, one of NOLA's great cocktail men who helped establish Bar Tonique and Sylvain as exceptional drinking destinations (more on those two to come) vaults it onto the list. His presence has already paid dividends with a revamped cocktail menu that's full of goodness.

Address: 2604 Magazine St.
Website: traceysnola.com

Tracey's is my second favorite bar on the block it's on, but it's my favorite place in NOLA to watch a game. While not a "sports bar" per se, it features a slew of televisions. The food and ambiance are much more appealing than the unremarkable in every way traditional sports bars like Mannings and Walk-Ons, which both feel more like places you'd find in Baton Rouge or Atlanta than you would NOLA. Come here for a change of pace.

Address: 4905 Freret St.
Website: curenola.com

Cure is widely credited for both sparking NOLA's cocktail bar craze and revitalizing a broken-down neighborhood. How many bars can claim that? Additionally, Cure arguably uses the best ice in the city—large, solid, crystal-clear cubes—for the drinks they serve. I enjoy this.

Address: 1125 St. Mary St.
Website: halfmoonnola.com

Pool tables? Check. Old, comfy sofas for lounging on? Check. A kitchen that serves above average late night bar food? Check. A bad ass tattered neon sign? Check. Cheap ass drinks? Check. Yes please, all around!

Address: 941 Bourbon St.
Website: lafittesblacksmithshop.com

Built in the early 1700s, America's oldest bar is believed by many to be haunted (many French Quarter ghost tours start here) by the pirates who once ran the city from inside its stone walls. If you're biking around on a hot day, pop in and get a purple drank for the ride. I do it all the time.

Address: 609 Frenchmen St.
Website: N/A

This tiny Frenchmen Street institution isn't quite the same since esteemed local music icons/regulars like Uncle Lionel and Coco Robicheaux passed on (Robicheaux actually died at the bar). Still, it's one of the best of all the bars on the Frenchmen strip. Always filled with local characters, there's usually some good blues being played, the Bloody Marys are near perfect, and the Hi-Life is always ice cold.

Address: 1107 Decatur St.
Website: mollysatthemarket.net

There's a cat that resides in this bar named Mr. Wu. Sometimes you'll be sitting at the bar, just having a drink and minding your own business, when suddenly Mr. Wu will hop up on the stool next to you and order a drink. Swear to God.

Address: 2601 Royal St.
Website: mimisinthemarigny.net

The great thing about Mimi's is that it has a bar upstairs and downstairs. You start your night downstairs casually having drinks, maybe playing a little pool, and then when you're drunk enough to feel like dancing, you can just go upstairs. If it's a Saturday night, DJ Soul Sister will be spinning. Then you've really hit the jackpot.

Address: 240 Bourbon St.
Website: ruebourbon.com

This is the only bar in the disease-ridden, depressing part of Bourbon Street (seriously y'all, Bourbon Street is NOLA's Times Square) I'm willing to visit without hesitation. I mean, if Mark Twain, P.T. Barnum, and Oscar Wilde can drink here, then it's good enough for me. And I wouldn't consider ordering a Ramos gin fizz or a brandy milk punch anywhere else.

Address: 7612 Oak St.
Website: snakeandjakes.com

There are some people who refer to Snake and Jake's as a "dive bar." Those people are wrong. Snake and Jake's is a straight-up shit hole. I mean, it's a bar in a fucking trailer with low ceilings that's lit up with Christmas lights. I'm told a guy once got shot here years ago and now he drinks free at the bar for life. We can't be friends if this doesn't make you want to drink here.

Address: 1201 Magazine St.
Website: bridgeloungenola.com

My esteemed colleague Steve French included Bridge Lounge on his now-infamous list of NOLA's douchiest bars. Yeah, well, fuck Steve French. That dickface is WRONG, WRONG, WRONG. Bridge makes the best mojitos in the city, and is a place where locals and their dogs go to drink on weekdays. On weekends, it mysteriously transforms into a hip-hop club, and there's always a food truck cooking up something good to eat outside.

Address: 1100 Constance St.
Website: therustynail.biz

Here's how much I enjoy the Rusty Nail: it's the unofficial Alabama bar in NOLA, meaning that on Saturdays in the fall, its packed to the gills with mouth-breathing Gumps yelling "Roll Tide!" every time Nick Saban reaches down to adjust his nuts. Still, I find the place endearing. Its patio area is probably the best place to watch a game outdoors in all of New Orleans.

Address: 838 Esplanade Ave.
Website: portofcallnola.com

This beach/surfer-themed bar on Esplanade serves what I and many others regard as the best burger in the city, so there's that. But often overlooked is the fact that the bar's signature drink, the Monsoon, is the best of the city's many well-known tropical drinks designed specifically to get you shit-faced. It's so much better than the hurricane or the hand grenade. And to top it off, the bar plays a steady stream of '70s hits, which for some reason feels just right here.

Address: 2256 St. Claude Ave.
Website: kajunpub.com

Every great city has to have a great karaoke bar and Kajun's is, in my opinion, that spot in New Orleans. It's always filled with local characters who take the shit way too seriously, probably spending hours practicing their performances in front of a mirror before showing up at the bar. WARNING: It's also arguably the smokiest bar in NOLA these days, so don't wear anything there you don't mind smelling like an ashtray after spending about fifteen minutes inside.

Address: 2533 Constance St.
Website: parasolsbarandrestaurant.com

This Irish Channel neighborhood bar that recently lost its owner (RIP John) is probably the place you're most likely to see characters straight out of A Confederacy of Dunces drinking as if they were actual people. Coincidentally, it also serves what I believe to be the best roast beef po-boy in New Orleans. If you happen to be in town for St. Patrick's Day, Parosol's and Tracey's (just up the block) combine to form the epicenter of the celebration.

Address: 962 St. Mary St.
Website: thesaintneworleans.com

I never go to the Saint before two in the morning, and I'm usually exceptionally well-lubricated when I get there. It's the place my friends and I go late night when we're trashed and looking for a place to dance. The drinks are cheap, even by NOLA standards, the DJs are great, and it doesn't hurt that it's one of the best places to score party favors off of a random, if you're into that sort of thing.

Address: 20 Capdeville St.
Website: capdevillenola.com

When I'm in town on the weekend during football season and need a bar to watch a Saints or LSU away game, Capdeville is invariably where I go. It features what might be the best food of any bar in the city, to the point that some consider it a restaurant. But it's not; it's a bar that serves outstanding bar food. Each and every one of the burgers on the menu is outstanding, but the real gems here are the truffle mac and cheese and the poutine.

Address: 813 Bienville Ave.
Website: arnaudsrestaurant.com

If Don Draper were alive and living in NOLA, he would be a regular at French 75. Steeped in history, the bar was a watering hole of "gentlemen only" in its early days. The place just screams Mad Men, from the staff decked out in white tuxedos accompanied by black bow ties, to the dark wood that's been marinating in smoke for years. Further, it's home to Chris Hannah, the man many believe to be the best barkeep in New Orleans. And while Hannah's version of the drink that is the bar's namesake is excellent, you should go full Draper and order an Old Fashioned if you drop by. You can thank me later.

Address: 600 Poland Dr.
Website: bacchanalwine.com

I'm not really sure how to properly describe Bacchanal. The best I can do is to say that it's a wine store that serves food out of a small kitchen. Here's what you do when you visit Bacchanal: You go in and buy your wine (they recently added a cocktail bar, if wine isn't your thing) and then sit out back on old lawn furniture and eat food that you ordered through a window on paper plates with plastic utensils. This all happens while a jazz band plays and the winds blow in from the Mississippi. The food they serve you on paper plates at Bacchanal is probably better than 99.5% of the food I've eaten in traditional restaurants over the course of my life. Get there around sunset and you'd swear you've been transported to something resembling paradise.

Address: 625 Chartres St.
Website: sylvainnola.com

Sylvain technically isn't a bar; it's a restaurant with a great copper-top bar housed in it. As a restaurant, it's outstanding. The entire menu is a home run, but the pork shoulder they serve with grits is my favorite entree of any restaurant in the world right now. I recently recommended it to a friend, and he said that it was so good it brought tears to his eyes. That said, the bar at Sylvain is my favorite thing about the restaurant. The staff there—Darren, Liam, Lucy, Casey, and Sean, the owner—make the best damn Sazerac in New Orleans, and that's a big fucking deal in this town.

Address: 820 N. Rampart St.
Website: bartonique.com

The problem I have with a lot of the newer cocktail bars in New Orleans is that they don't feel like New Orleans bars. They feel like something you'd likely find in New York, Miami, or Los Angeles. They employ "mixologists," not bartenders. Fuck that.

The thing that makes Tonique special, besides it's ridiculously extensive menu of original, delicious cocktails, is that it toes the line between dive bar and cocktail bar effortlessly. It feels special while still being completely unpretentious. Sitting right on the border of the Quarter and the Treme, Tonique bills itself simply as "a New Orleans neighborhood bar with hand-crafted cocktails." It executes this mission statement perfectly.

The bartenders at Tonique are highly skilled— it's downright mesmerizing to watch them do their jobs at times— but they'll still stop to talk to you about the Saints or listen to you bitch about your girlfriend. For this reason, Tonique is the best bar in New Orleans.