Best Bars in the French Quarter
Photo courtesy of The Bombay Club on Facebook
The numbers don’t lie: According to numerous studies, New Orleans is permanently wedged on the list of top cities that have the most bars per capita in the nation. And according to our unofficial calculation, the lion’s share of those bars is concentrated in the French Quarter. With watering holes of every type and persuasion harkening from the corners, alleys and thoroughfares of the Vieux Carre, how is one to choose the best drinking option?
We’ve narrowed down the selection to standout bars in a few categories. Choose your favorite and check it out… or get a drink to go and hit up several.
Jazz club: The Bombay Club
830 Conti Street
Let’s face it: You came to New Orleans to hear great music, eat great food, and drink — and in this old-school jazz and blues club, you can accomplish all three. Settle yourself into a curtained booth or deep leather chair, order a classic martini and charred hanger steak, and savor the smooth sounds of trad jazz.
Dive bar: Aunt Tiki’s
1207 Decatur Street
You know you’ve spent too long at this 24-hour bar when morning light begins to filter through the dirty plastic strips that serve as a door. But it’s an easy mistake to make when the bartenders pour heavily and the Halloween decoration-filled interior is dark as night. You won’t meet many fellow tourists in this cash-only joint, but you will find cheap drinks and a good time. (P.S. Contrary to what the name may suggest, Aunt Tiki’s is definitely not a tiki bar.)
Gay bar: Oz
800 Bourbon Street
If you’re looking to dance, take in a drag show, and unwind in a LGBTQIA+-friendly space, walk past the strip clubs and three-for-one beer stands until you arrive at this two-story dance mecca. If the dance floor gets too packed for your liking, head to the second-floor balcony for some air and quality people-watching.
Photo courtesy of Beachbum Berry’s Latitude 29 on Facebook
Tiki bar: Beachbum Berry’s Latitude 29
329 N. Peters Street
In a nutshell, Latitude 29 is a Tiki-style gastropub serving up exotic drinks and island-inspired cuisine such as pineapple bread. The menu for both drinks and food isn’t extensive, but everything is done well. The drinks range from the classics like Mai Tai to the inventively named in-house creations. The food matches the cocktails, offering sticky ribs, Filipino-style egg rolls, pimento cheese rangoons, and chickpea curry.
Photo courtesy of Molly’s at the Market on Facebook
Irish pub: Molly’s at the Market
1107 Decatur Street
Located on lower Decatur Street, steps from Frenchmen Street’s nightlife, Molly’s on the Market serves as an ideal jumping-off point for the evening. With old signs, T-shirts, newspaper clippings, and other paraphernalia on the walls, it has the lived-in feel of a longtime neighborhood hang. Try the frozen Irish coffee, but don’t expect a fancy craft cocktail here. Molly’s is a beer-and-a-shot type joint.
Craft cocktails: Bar Tonique
820 N. Rampart Street
Located on N. Rampart Street, right on the streetcar line, Tonique, is a candlelit, intimate place to canoodle with a date over beautifully constructed craft cocktails. There’s also a thoughtful mocktail menu in the weathered, brick-walled bar. On a pretty day, there’s nothing nicer than getting the second round to go and drink it in leafy Armstrong Park, which is right across the street.
The Grand Dame: French 75
813 Bienville Street
Well, we can’t leave out French 75 from our roundup of great cocktail bars, considering this is a bar that is, hey, named for a cocktail (although interestingly, the French 75 was not invented here — that honor goes to Paris, France). French 75 is located inside Arnaud’s Restaurant and has a fantastic cocktail list that includes both New Orleans classics and some fruit-inspired goodness — the perfect compliment to a hot New Orleans day. There’s also an elegant small-place bar menu with French items like escargot and the restaurant’s signature shrimp Arnaud.
The interior of the bar is as lovely as the drinks that come out of it — this is a true grand dame New Orleans institution, accented in dark woods and elegant furniture such that you feel as if you’re drinking in a particularly well-appointed parlor.
Romantic: Sylvain
625 Chartres Street
Sylvain sells itself as a gastropub, and while the food is excellent, we don’t want to ignore the excellent drinks that are prepared behind the bar. It helps, of course, that Sylvain has an absolutely lovely courtyard, and did we mention the food? Because nothing compliments your drink like their New American rustic fare. Oh, they also serve “fried and champagne” — a bottle of champagne and hand-cut fries — which is just perfect.
Great for Groups: Black Penny
700 N. Rampart Street
If you’ve got a big group of friends and need a chill bar to sink beer and cocktails, it’s hard to do better than the Penny, which sets at the edge of the Quarter. It’s a good alternative to some of the, shall we say, louder large bars along Bourbon Street — no volume-splitting karaoke happening here.
It’s also notable for both friendly bartenders, good prices, strong drinks, and a fantastic selection of craft beer (most of which is served by the can). Unlike a lot of Quarter bars, the Penny is pretty spacious, so you’ve got room to mingle, but there are booths and seating for those who want to make a more intimate night of it. Worth noting: This spot also happens to have excellent top-shelf scotch, and is publicly and loudly LGBTQIA+-friendly.
Iconic: The Carousel Bar & Lounge
214 Royal Street
One of the most iconic of New Orleans bars, the Carousel sits at the excellent intersection of old-school elegance and off-the-wall quirk, which is a description that could really be applied across the whole of New Orleans, now that we think about it. The bar, which includes a piano lounge, is in fact a 25-seat merry-go-round, so hold on to your seat as you hold onto your drink. We’re kidding — the bar doesn’t spin particularly fast, although if you’ve had a few of their stronger libations, you might start feeling dizzy.
Don’t miss out on all the excitement the French Quarter has to offer all year round, round the clock! Book your room at any of these historic hotels today!
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History of the French Quarter
Founded as a military-style grid of seventy squares in 1718 by French Canadian naval officer Jean Baptiste Bienville, the French Quarter of New Orleans has charted a course of urbanism for parts of four centuries. Bienville served as governor for financier John Law’s Company of the Indies, which in naming the city for the Regent Duc d’Orleans sought to curry Court favor before failing spectacularly in the “Great Mississippi Bubble.”
The French Period legacy endures in the town plan and central square, the church of St. Louis, the Ursuline Convent and women’s education, the old-regime street names such as Bourbon and Royal, the charity hospital, and a mixed legacy of Creole culture, Mardi Gras, and the important effects of African enslavement combined with a tolerant approach to free persons of color.
The “Spanish” Quarter
In 1762, the indifferent Louis XV transferred Louisiana to his Bourbon cousin Charles III of Spain. Emboldened by a period of Spanish vacillation in taking power, Francophile colonists staged a revolution in 1768, summarily squelched by Alejandro O’Reilly with a firing squad at the Esplanade fort.
Spanish rule lasted for four decades, imparting a legacy of semi-fortified streetscapes, common-wall plastered brick houses, and walled courtyards used as gardens and utility spaces with separate servants’ quarters and kitchens. Olive oil cooking and graceful wrought iron balconies, hinges and locks in curvilinear shapes, and strong vestiges of civil law remain from the Spanish presence.
After the great fires of 1788 and 1794, The Cabildo, or town hall, The Presbytere, or priests’ residence, and ironically named “French” Market arose to take a permanent place in French Quarter history.
After the Louisiana Purchase
The 1803 Louisiana Purchase, signed within the elegant salon of the Cabildo, transferred the colony to the United States, inaugurating an era of prosperity. American culture made slow inroads, largely owing to the arrival of 10,000 refugees from the French and Haitian Revolutions and Napoleonic wars.
The “glorious victory” of the 1815 Battle of New Orleans, led by Indian fighter and future president Andrew Jackson over numerically superior British forces, fixed loyalty to the American nation. The French Quarter’s golden era followed as cotton, sugar and steamboats poured into the city. American, Irish, German, African, and “Foreign French” immigrants swelled the population, creating a heterogeneous matrix of culture, language, religion, and cuisine.
Civil War to WPA
Civil War and Reconstruction, played out politically on the streets of the French Quarter, put an end to prosperity and inaugurated a tug of war between reform and machine factions as the Old Square declined. Creoles moved to Esplanade and later Uptown, and famine-driven Sicilian immigrants found cramped lodging in the grand spaces of French Quarter mansions of the 1890s.
The birth of jazz in the 1900s in nearby Storyville nurtured musical legends Jelly Roll Morton, Louis Armstrong, Buddy Bolden, King Oliver, Bunk Johnson, Nick LaRocca, and other jazz and ragtime greats.
By 1920, the legacy of a storied past first celebrated by George Washington Cable and Lafcadio Hearn in the 1880s attracted writers and artists in increasing numbers. William Faulkner, Sherwood Anderson, Tennessee Williams, and Truman Capote were among American writers attracted to the French Quarter for its freewheeling urbanism, quaint surroundings and creative stimulus, even as the building stock declined.
The Vieux Carré Commission
Nineteen thirty-six marked the onset of regulatory controls in the form of the state-sanctioned Vieux Carré Commission. Residents dug in to preserve the quaint and distinctive character of the old Quarter as art galleries and antique stores sprouted on Royal Street and brassy Dixieland-style jazz flourished in Bourbon Street nightclubs and strip joints.
By 1960, with traditional jazz in decline, Preservation Hall emerged to serve beleaguered musicians. Here Sweet Emma Barrett and other traditional and largely African-American musicians found appreciative and sober audiences. Today, these and other preservation battles are the order of the day as increasing pressure from a tourist-driven economy lures some 10 million visitors annually to the time and foot-worn streets of the Vieux Carré.
Sally Reeves is a noted writer, historian, translator, and archivist. She is known for her work in the New Orleans Notarial Archives as “Louisiana’s premier archivist” and her publications on New Orleans history.
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Searching for Laffite the Pirate
Jean Laffite “The Corsair” by E.H. Suydam
Laffite the pirate, a curious fellow, has been evading the establishment. If once he escaped the sheriff, today he still eludes the historical authorities.
Who was the real Jean Laffite? Was he born in the former colony of St. Domingue or in the cities of Bayonne or Bordeaux? Did he die still practicing his trade as a pirate in the Yucatan in the middle 1820s or as a middle-class American citizen of the 1850s?
Should we judge him a cutthroat pirate, a patriotic privateer, or a gentleman rover? Why did he return to pirating after he received a pardon from President Madison for his support of Americans in the Battle of New Orleans? Why did he spy for Spain after the War of 1812 was over, when he claimed that his aim had always been to punish the Spanish for their cruelties? Did he really have a Jewish grandmother anyway, whom the Spanish persecuted?
Did he have a blacksmith shop on Bourbon Street? If so, where is a scrap of evidence connecting that famous tavern to him? What about his journal, now at the archives in Liberty, Texas? Is it real? Was it his or some other fellow’s of the 1840s? In it, the writer claims to love the downtrodden, hate the Spanish, respect the Declaration of Independence, and have contempt for the English. If Jean Laffite loved the downtrodden so keenly, why did he make a living smuggling slaves into America after Congress had prohibited their importation?
What can we all agree upon, or almost? He burst on the scene in the Gulf of Mexico about 1803, preying on shipping and selling smuggled slaves and merchandise from the swamps of Barataria. He thumbed his nose at the governor, “parading arm-in-arm on the streets of New Orleans with his buddies.”
The crafty lawyers Livingston and Grymes always managed to get his people out of jail when arrested for piracy. Laffite’s older brother Pierre sold slaves openly through notaries in New Orleans, but was jailed in 1814. He spent the summer in chains in the heat of the Calaboose on what would later be Jackson Square.
Dominique You and Renato Beluche were his compatriots in what German merchant Vincent Nolte described as a “colony of pirates” infesting the shores of Louisiana. They were all surprised by federal agents in September 1814 at Grand Terre island.
Not long later, Laffite turned down an offer from a British navy captain to join the Limeys in the ongoing War of 1812. Instead, he offered his troops to Governor William Claiborne, received a huffed refusal, and ended up being welcomed into the rag-tag American army by Andrew Jackson.
For the great Battle of January 8, 1815, he provided the flints and the gunpowder from his stolen stores in Barataria. With Jackson’s Kentuckians, his marksmen helped to trounce the advancing British army on that wintry battle morning. Armed with a pardon for his whole company, Laffite walked the streets of New Orleans a free man for a year or so afterward.
But law-abiding was not to his liking. He left the city to found a community of smugglers at Galveston and a new base for “privateering.” After the federal government got serious and blew him out of Galveston, he turned to the Yucatan and was never heard from again after the middle 1820s.
That is, until his “journal” surfaced. Uncannily authentic-looking, on genuine century-old paper, and written by a person who knew all the players, it surfaced in the 1940s. Its author had it in for the Spanish, mentioned all the right people, and had the right signature. He also spelled the name correctly, with two “F’s” and only one “T.”
Purportedly, Laffite had lived until the 1850s and died as a prosperous middle-class citizen with traceable posterity. The journal turned up with family papers in a trunk inherited by a purported descendant of an apparently parallel character.
For 50 years the “Journal of Jean Laffite” has stirred controversy worthy of its subject. Transcribed, translated from the French, and issued twice, it has writers scrambling to deal with its substance as well as its provenance. The persona that emerges from its pages is a moralistic, inwardly-focused paranoid with perfect recall of names and events and complete ignorance of his own failings.
This Laffite is not the suave gentleman depicted by historians. And yet they sensed from the beginning that there was something in the person in addition to a pirate.
Writers have been penning their thoughts on Laffite since the 1820s. A biographer of the 1950s claimed that he had so much evidence that no further work would be needed. Since that moment, eight more Laffite biographies have been published. And counting.
Sally Reeves is a noted writer, historian, translator, and archivist. She is known for her work in the New Orleans Notarial Archives as “Louisiana’s premier archivist” and her publications on New Orleans history.
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The Many Lives of the Steamboats Natchez
Top to bottom: The first-ever Natchez, built in 1823. The 206-ton fledgling made history in 1825 transporting General Lafayette through the Mississippi Valley.
The Natchez of racing fame, built in 1869. A colossal gamble to preserve the steamboat freight buisiness, it was not the most elegant of the Leathers’ seven steamboats.
Currier and Ives’ iconic Great Race on the Mississippi from New Orleans to St. Louis/ 1210 Miles bet. the Steamers Robt. E. Lee, Capt. JW Cannon, and Natchez, Capt. T.P. Leathers is history’s most famous steamboat image. Commemorating the bally-hooed 1870 match race between riverboat titans, the print shows the boats pouring telltale clouds of fiery smoke from towering stacks.
With bettors from as far away as Europe waiting for the outcome, Captain Cannon of the Lee won the race some three hours faster than his rival. Leathers had refused to limit passengers or strip his boat, insisting ever after that the Natchez was faster.
Whoever the winner, in many ways the international attention to steamboat speed was as important as the race results. For the real struggle was less between high-profile steamboats than between the steamboat and its destiny, between the survival of steamboats facing railroad competition.
That a boat could make it to St. Louis in fewer than four whole days was a widespread notice of a fast-paced capacity to deliver cotton, rice, corn, and coal downstream and manufactures upstream.
Both the Lee and the Natchez were high-stakes gambles by the most experienced steamboat men in history. Falling into a particular niche in transportation history, they were built at enormous expense in the teeth of the depressive post-Civil War years while railroads completed tracks from New Orleans to Chicago.
The Lee, Natchez and such leviathans as the 313-foot J.M. White, the 335-foot Great Republic, and the 255-foot Frank Pargoud, were designed to carry unprecedented volumes of freight at a competitive rate of speed. Their better-known, extravagant, paneled, and gilded passenger accommodations were a luxurious extra.
They were in a different class altogether from the workaday pre-war steamboat. For all their enduring fame, the racing Lee and Natchez were atypical to steamboat history. They were colossal bluffs that, for a time, worked.
The Natchez was the eighth of 12 steamboats to carry the name and one of seven built for the legendary Thomas P. Leathers (1820-1896). The Kentucky-born captain was not, however, the first to name a boat The Natchez. That honor goes to a 206-ton fledgling that made history in 1825 carrying Revolutionary War hero General Lafayette on his triumphal tour of the American heartland. A more ambitious, 792-ton Natchez succeeded it in 1838, only to be lost in an 1842 collision.
Leathers had his first-ever Natchez built in 1846 for the New Orleans to Vicksburg cotton trade. He built his second in 1849, and his third just four years later as a packet vessel departing New Orleans every Saturday afternoon.
After only six weeks of service, the boat was consumed in the great New Orleans wharf fire of February 1853. Of the three lives lost, one was Leathers’ brother James. Undefeated by tragedy and the short life expectations of his steamboats (they lasted an average of just over seven years), Leathers built them bigger and better, all for the New Orleans-Vicksburg trade.
He built his fifth in 1855; the sixth just five years later. After Natchez No. 6 burned in the Civil War, he was back in 1869 to build the boat of racing fame. At 1547 tons, it was over seven times more massive than his first. It ended up scrapped after putting in a decade of service. Leathers’ final Natchez lasted from 1879 to 1887, when he left the river with it.
At 67 and nationally famous, Leathers was ready to retire to his elegant 1859 Garden District mansion, where he lived alternately with a home in Natchez, “Myrtle Terrace.” (Both houses still stand.) Unfortunately, a bicycle hit and killed him on St. Charles Avenue.
His son and daughter-in-law, the path-breaking female captain Blanche D. Leathers, succeeded him with the Natchez No. 10. Built in Jeffersonville, Indiana in 1891, it was not dismantled until 1918 after Mrs. Leathers’ long and compelling career. One more Natchez would follow before the current boat was begun in 1975.
The last of the steamboats Natchez was built in Plaquemine Parish for Wilbur Dow and the New Orleans Steamboat Co. With 1925 oil-burning engines from the stream tow Clairton, the 236-foot boat is all steel. Her first captain was New Orleans’ own Clarke C. “Doc” Hawley. She is a regular in the harbor of New Orleans.
Steamboats Natchez played a salient part in the greatest moments of river history. They were born in the years of the small-scale, 200-ton side wheeler operating with no set schedule or itinerary. Coming to life again as the 1840s packet boat, they operated with regular departures, fixed destinations, and reliable returns.
The early boats had cramped and narrow cabins divided by curtains and meals on common tables that passengers provisioned themselves from shore-side merchants. Later Natchez steamboats had sumptuous gilded-era “stateroom” interiors with lavish, seven-course meals accompanied by a dozen wines.
If the most well-known Natchez was the boat of racing fame, it was not the most elegant. That honor goes to T. P. Leathers’ seventh and final vessel of 1879, with its 100 cabin transoms picturing Native American chiefs and its 34-cylinder engines.
The Natchez name lived on in the early 20th century with the triumph of Blanche Leathers as the river’s most famous female captain. When the steamboat ended up in the excursion business, the Natchez came to life again as today’s elegant harbor cruiser. Its hoarse whistle across the port of New Orleans reminds us daily of the glory of the steamboat age.
Sally Reeves is a noted writer, historian, translator, and archivist. She is known for her work in the New Orleans Notarial Archives as “Louisiana’s premier archivist” and her publications on New Orleans history.
Image credits (top to bottom): Donald T. Wright/Joseph Merrick Jones Steamboat Collection, Manuscripts Department, Tulane University Libraries Courtesy Tulane University Special Collections.
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First Notes: New Orleans and the Early Roots of Jazz
Top to bottom: Buddy Bolden, Sidney Bechet, Bunk Johnson
New Orleans has always been different, complex and intriguing, so it’s fitting that jazz, the musical style the city created and gave to the world, should follow the same tune.
Jazz is a byproduct of the unique cultural environment found in New Orleans in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with the vestiges of French and Spanish colonial roots, the resilience of African influences after the slavery era and the influx of immigrants from Europe. The ways these cultures mingled, collided and evolved together in the Crescent City produced America’s most distinctive musical style.
From the French Opera House to Congo Square
One of the key components to the birth of jazz was New Orleans’ long and deep commitment to music and dance, says Bruce Raeburn, a jazz historian and curator of the Hogan Jazz Archives at Tulane University. The city was home to the first opera house in North America, for instance, and many of the rich musical traditions of Europe were embraced and celebrated here going back to the city’s early colonial days.
Long before jazz was established, musical events were part of the social fabric of the city, from formal balls where European dances competed for the public’s attention with more exotic sounds migrating north from Latin America to the marching bands that comforted mourners after funerals.
Another element driving this musical heritage toward the creation of jazz gets down to race and the distinctive black experience in New Orleans. Though the city was a leading slave port and segregation persisted long after slavery was abolished, people of different races mixed much more freely in New Orleans than in other American cities.
“There were opportunities for interaction, in spite of segregation, and many neighborhoods were a crazy quilt with blacks, whites and Creoles living together,” says Raeburn.
New Orleans is not your typical American city
Raeburn points out that while the rest of the antebellum South was trying to stamp out any remnants of African culture slaves might cling to, New Orleans’ city fathers tried to regulate it, allowing at least a small venue for traditions to continue and evolve. For instance, slaves were allowed to congregate, make music and dance in Congo Square, an area that is today part of Louis Armstrong Park on North Rampart Street on the edge of the French Quarter.
“This was not your typical American city, there was much more of a Mediterranean mentality here,” Raeburn says.
In addition, New Orleans was home to the largest population of free people of color during the slavery era. Many of these people had access to European musical traditions, and in some cases formed the bands that played at the city’s balls and concerts.
To this cauldron, the waves of history added spiritual music from the church, the blues carried into town by rural guitar slingers, the minstrel shows inspired by plantation life, the beat and cadence of military marching bands, and finally the syncopation of the ragtime piano, America’s most popular music for a time in the early 20h century.
Sampling from and experimenting with all of these diverse influences, New Orleans musicians added the touchstone ingredient of improvisation to produce something completely new.
Jazz defied the then-dominant Western musical tradition of following a composer’s music precisely, and replaced it with a dedication only to following a feeling or emotion in music.
Top to bottom: Joe “King” Oliver, Kid Ory, Jelly Roll Morton
Buddy Bolden, Sidney Bechet, Bunk Johnson, Jellyroll Morton, Kid Ory, King Oliver…
Historians generally point to Buddy Bolden, a cornet player, as the first jazz musician. Beginning around 1895, he assembled a band that was popular at New Orleans street parades and dances and included musicians who would later become prominent figures in early jazz development, including Sidney Bechet and Bunk Johnson.
Bolden’s personal theme song was called “Funky Butt” and today the jazz club on North Rampart Street of the same name pays him tribute. He was followed by a long list of musicians who each left their stamp on the evolving style of jazz in the early part of the 20th century, including Joe “King” Oliver, Kid Ory and Jelly Roll Morton, generally considered the first great jazz composer.
Jazz diaspora
While rooted in New Orleans, the city’s jazz pioneers traveled extensively for work. This artistic diaspora was accelerated when the city’s official red light district, Storyville, was ordered closed by the federal government in 1917, thus shuttering the saloons and bordellos that had proved such reliable venues for early jazz musicians. Wherever the musicians went, they played, and the sound stuck, later evolving on its own into differentiated styles in Chicago, New York, Kansas City, and West Coast cities.
“The original jazz idiom started in New Orleans, and it spread,” says Raeburn. “As it spread, it changed, but the original sound came from New Orleans.”
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A First-Timer’s Guide to the French Quarter
Welcome to New Orleans — and the French Quarter. This neighborhood was the original city of New Orleans, a literally walled city founded by the French so they could command commerce coming up and down the Mississippi River.
Although this is the “French” Quarter — and is also known as the Vieux Carre (“Old Square”) — much of the historical architecture here is Spanish in origin. During its long history, New Orleans has been administered by the French, the Spanish, the French (again!), and the USA. Here are some can’t-miss destinations for those exploring the Quarter for the first time.
Jackson Square
If New Orleans has a town square, Jackson Square — dominated by St. Louis Cathedral and an eponymous statue of Andrew Jackson — is it. There’s a crackling energy here, which manifests amidst street artists, friendly fortune tellers, and busking brass bands.
The Square is hemmed in on either end by the Pontalba Buildings, one-block-long four-story brick buildings built in the late 1840s. Besides their handsome appearance, the top floors of the Pontalba Buildings house supposedly the oldest rented apartments in the USA (the ground floors are given over to shops).
St. Louis Cathedral, the oldest cathedral in the country, is the dominant landmark in the Square.
The Cabildo in Jackson Square courtesy of Louisiana State Museum on Facebook
The Cabildo
Jackson Square
New Orleans fairly drips with history, more so than almost any other American city (alright, we see you Boston, Philadelphia and St. Augustine). If you want an introduction to that history — indeed, to the story of Louisiana itself — make sure to drop into The Cabildo. Once a seat of local government and judiciary, today the building is managed by the Louisiana State Museum. Each floor gives insight into the past via exhibits on the different ethnic groups that have inhabited the state, the local history of colonization and Francophone identity, and the legacy of slavery and Civil Rights.
Pirate’s Alley
Off Jackson Square
This thin thoroughfare almost feels like an urban afterthought given the scale of some of the other streets in the French Quarter, but walking down Pirate’s Alley — which takes but a few minutes — is a quintessential French Quarter stroll.
This little street (it’s only 600 feet long), backed by historical buildings and packed with unique businesses like Faulkner House Books and the Pirate’s Alley Cafe and Absinthe House embodies a certain element of French Quarter identity: an unreplicable hybrid of architectural preservation and idiosyncratic eccentricity.
For what it’s worth, the legends that Andrew Jackson met pirate Jean Lafitte here for a clandestine pow-wow are probably that — myths. If a powerful official was going to meet with a wanted pirate, they probably wouldn’t do so on a pedestrian alley that ran alongside the city’s then-largest church.
Beignets from Cafe du Monde by Peter Burka
Cafe Du Monde
800 Decatur Street
We’ll be brutally honest here: Sometimes, when you hit Cafe du Monde during the busy part of the day (which can vary, although there’s almost always a crowd on weekends), it can be a bit too much. The whole point of sipping a cafe au lait and snacking on a beignet is to slow down, open your eyes and take in the street scene of New Orleans in a state of relaxed contemplation.
It’s tough to do this when you’re standing in line with 40 other people. But the times when du Monde is relatively slow (we like visiting late at night or early in the morning — don’t forget, it’s open 24 hours) are something like magic — it’s you, the city, some good coffee, and a pastry dusted in enough sugar to fund several dentists’ offices.
French Quarter Visitor Center
419 Decatur Street
This small branch office of the National Park System may seem a little underwhelming at first blush, but stop in and talk with a ranger and you’ll understand why this is one of the cultural cornerstones of the Quarter. The staff here are intimately tied to the city’s music scene and can direct you to any number of concerts and events where the best of New Orleans music will be showcased.
(Note: Due to ongoing projects to repair damages suffered from Hurricane Ida in 2021, the visitor center has temporarily moved to 916 N. Peters Street.)
Photo courtesy of French Market on Facebook
French Market
1008 N. Peters Street
Back in the day, when the French Quarter was more of a residential neighborhood, the French Market was truly that: a large, open-air bazaar where folks could find their daily produce and groceries. Today the market is divided into two portions: an upriver side collection artist stalls and food stands to showcase some excellent local crafts and cuisine, and a downriver side flea market, where you can find all kinds of souvenirs and trinkets ranging from cheap sunglasses to giant belt buckles to African wood carvings.
Adjacent to the upriver food stalls is Joan of Arc Park, a small plaza that includes a statue of the Lady of Orleans (i.e. “old” Orleans, i.e. the one in France).
Royal Street
Sure, you’ve heard about Bourbon Street — everyone has. Heck, we’ve even got the complete block-by-block guide to Bourbon Street. But it’s amazing how many visitors know plenty about Bourbon, yet rarely venture a block towards the river to see Royal Street — a thoroughfare that is equally fascinating, fun, yet sometimes seemingly a world away from the admittedly fratty behavior that can characterize Rue Bourbon. On Royal Street, you’ll find gorgeous architecture, elegant wrought iron balconies, and a glut of art galleries and antique stores — plus, some of the city’s finest restaurants.
Photo courtesy of The Chart Room on Facebook
The Chart Room
300 Chartres Street
There’s no shortage of great bars in the French Quarter, but few spots are as appealingly gritty and real as The Chart Room. It’s cheap, it’s cheerful, and it’s a world away from some of the other neon-bedecked theme bars you’ll find elsewhere in the neighborhood. They may not serve craft cocktails or fancy beer, but if we need a go-cup while we wander the Quarter, we head to The Chart Room.
The Moonwalk
Woldenberg Park
The Moonwalk is named for former mayor Moon Landrieu. It’s a pleasant little walk that offers excellent views out onto the largest river in North America, the mighty Mississippi. You’ll often find street performers, folks having a picnic, families on a walk, and a generally eclectic cast of New Orleans characters strolling around up here. Spot a riverboat, snap a picture, and soak up the scene.
Coop’s Place
1109 Decatur Street
Look, if you’re visiting New Orleans, you should eat your way through the whole city, but as you do, don’t miss Coop’s. Its blends the two distinct cuisines, Cajun and Creole, onto one excellent menu, the interior looks like a mad hallucination dreamed up by a bartender on a pirate ship, and the beer is cold. Sample some rabbit jambalaya or redfish or… well, you can’t really go wrong. Bon appetite!
Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop by Teemu008
Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop
941 Bourbon Street
Housed in a little stone building that looks like it dropped out of a timewarp (but for the modern mixers doling out frozen “Purple Dran”), Lafitte’s lays claim to being the oldest structure in the U.S. operating a bar. Come on in, listen to the local crooners bang out some piano tunes, and enjoy a drink in a true New Orleans landmark.
Are you planning to spend some time in New Orleans soon? To stay close to all the action, book a historic boutique hotel in the French Quarter at FrenchQuarter.com/hotels today!
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The Historical Significance of Canal Street
Streetcars on Canal Street. Photo by Tom Bastin on Flickr
At a grand 171 feet wide, traversed by streetcars, taxis, automobiles, cyclists, and pedestrians, Canal Street is more than just a major downtown thoroughfare. Throughout its 216-year history, it also has served as an entertainment district, shopping destination, parade route, and above all, a gathering place for New Orleanians.
Stand on this broad, bustling street and you can see New Orleans’ history all around you — from the historic French Quarter to the Central Business District. You just have to know where to look. Here’s a guide to Canal Street, and what it means to the city of New Orleans.
The origins of Canal Street
Canal Street dates back to 1807, when French surveyor Joseph Antoine Vinache first conceptualized it. A canal linking the Mississippi River, Bayou St. John and Lake Pontchartrain was planned in the empty green common area that now comprises Canal Street, but it never came to pass. Instead, the wide median became the heart of downtown.
The “neutral ground”
Residential, commercial and government buildings flourished along Canal Street in the 1800s, which became the dividing line between the primarily Creole French Quarter side, and the primarily American sector, which is now known as the Central Business District. Tensions often arose between these two groups, but Canal Street was a “neutral ground,” a name that now extends to any median in New Orleans.
It’s electric
Canal Street is not only one of the widest streets in the country, but it was also one of the first streets in the world to be lit with electric lights, joining London, Paris and New York in this early technological achievement. By the mid-1880s, Canal Street was completely lit by electric lights.
Department stores Maison Blanche and D.H. Holmes dazzled pedestrians in the late 1800s with brilliant displays of electric bulbs that would pave the way for neon displays in the 1920s and 1930s. Some signs, such as The Joy Theater and the Saenger Theatre, look very much the same today as they did in the mid-20th century.
A shopping destination
Many older New Orleanians recount their childhood shopping experiences at Canal Street department stores with a nostalgic smile and a sigh. It was common to don one’s Sunday best, along with hats and gloves, to shop at Canal Street’s department stores.
Though these businesses had mostly shuttered by the end of the 20th century, recent years have seen a resurgence in downtown shopping. The upscale Canal Place, the recently renovated Outlet Collection at Riverwalk, and the two-story H&M in the French Quarter are all evidence that downtown is resuming its place as a shopping destination. Some retailers, such as the family-owned menswear store, Rubensteins’, open since 1924, or Meyer the Hatter, open since 1894, have never left the Canal Street area.
A gathering place
Canal Street is a place to congregate, celebrate and be entertained. Its movie palaces, now music and performance venues include the Saenger Theatre, The Joy Theater and Loew’s State Theatre (sadly, now shuttered and in disrepair). Each year, during the weeks leading up to Mardi Gras, hundreds of thousands of people congregate to watch Carnival krewes roll down the traditional Canal Street route, just as they have since 1857.
A glance at old photographs of past Mardi Gras reveals that while many aspects of Canal Street have changed, many others have remained the same. In Canal Street, perhaps more so than in any other part of the city, it’s easy to see both present and past shifting alongside each other, like a holographic snapshot of New Orleans’ many stories.
Are you planning to spend some time in New Orleans soon? To stay close to all the action, book a historic boutique hotel in the French Quarter at FrenchQuarter.com/hotels today!
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Type Spotting: Historic Building Styles in the French Quarter
A keen eye and quick list can unveil the salient patterns of French Quarter building types. Most antebellum sorts come in “Creole,” “American,” and a mix of the two. Those built after the Civil War and later are generally “Eastlake,” or sometimes “Craftsman” cottages.
There are subtle but fundamental differences among the types, and one must watch for variations not in “style” or décor, but in roof framing, massing, and floor plan. The entrance to a building is a clue to its original inside arrangement.
French & Spanish Influences
Public monuments on the Square include The Cabildo, begun in 1795 as a Spanish town hall in a modified Baroque style. The Presbytere, or priests’ home, is similar but, not completed until 1813, it was used as a courthouse. Both were built with Renaissance-style roof balustrades, with the Mansard roofs being added in 1847.
St. Louis Cathedral, built to designs of French architect de Pouilly, was begun in 1849 and is the fourth church on the site. The flanking Pontalba Buildings consist of two long rows of Creole townhouses, built by Baroness Pontalba in 1849 to embellish the square and increase her rents.
Glorious Creole Townhouses
The glory of the Quarter is its mass of Creole townhouses, with shops below and homes above. Of nearly equal significance is the distinctive Creole cottage, of squarish form, with side gables and steep, dormered half-story for children’s bedrooms.
The walls are frequently built of French-style bricks-between-posts and the roof slants front-to-back or may be hipped at one or both ends. This salient feature contrasts sharply with the roof of the later “shotgun cottage,” where the roof slopes side-to-side and is too low to accommodate an upper level. This allows decorative jigsaw embellishments to dominate the façade of the “shotgun.”
The Creole townhouse took shape after the fires of 1788 and 1794 removed the town’s freestanding French Colonial houses. These late Spanish years saw the rise of the tall, narrow, three-story brick house, set at the sidewalk, or banquette, with three bays or openings, all doors.
Inside the family entrance, but exterior to the shop, the house has a ground-level flagstone passageway leading to a loggia in the rear with a curving stairway. This is sometimes reached with a porte-cochere or carriageway. Stairs are never in a hallway.
Outside, doors are tall and surmounted by arched and barred transoms. Above them, one should note the narrow second-floor balcony, just two or three feet deep and supported by scrolling brackets of hand-wrought iron from the forge.
The cast-iron “gallery” of later vintage is different — wide and supported on columns, all cast from molds in commercial foundries, not from mom-and-pop blacksmith shops. These were frequently added in the 1850s to houses first built with balconies in the 1830s.
Look for the “Entresol Houses”
One may occasionally find a balcony oddly high up on the façade, as at Bourbon and Bienville (The Old Absinthe House) or Chartres and St. Louis (Maspero’s). These are examples of the enigmatic, interesting “entresol house” — the special cases of the Creole townhouse. With a short middle level or “entresol” between the shop and the residence that was used for stock and storage, these mezzanine spaces get light and air from extra high, arched and barred, first-story transoms. They were an experiment with full-service vertical living in the growing 18th-century city.
American Townhouses
The American townhouse looks like the Creole, but has an interior stair hall, post-and-lintel openings, and may have a five-bay center hall façade as at the Xiques House, 521 Dauphine. Dating from 1825 to the Civil War, they always have late Federal or Greek Revival ornament and are found in superb rows with cast iron galleries.
The American-style store has heavy granite columns and lacks an upper residence and thus a family entrance. The “corner store-house,” whether cottage or townhouse, has a beveled corner doorway, but keep an eye out for the subtle family entrance with molded door surrounds on a side wall.
Watching for these features will make Quarter sightseeing more readable for newcomers. The vigilant Vieux Carré Commission has jurisdiction over exterior walls, both front and rear, which preserves a fairly high level of historical accuracy in French Quarter streetscapes.
Sally Reeves is a noted writer, historian, translator, and archivist. She is known for her work in the New Orleans Notarial Archives as “Louisiana’s premier archivist” and her publications on New Orleans history.
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French Quarter Dining Al Fresco
Photo courtesy of Louisiana Pizza Kitchen on Facebook
Despite its steamy reputation, the weather in New Orleans for most of the year is actually quite mild and pleasant. Winter days and summer nights and mornings often feel just as spring-like as an April afternoon. With this abundance of great weather comes the ability and the desire to spend as much time outdoors as possible. Al fresco dining combines fine dining with a Sunday afternoon picnic, and the French Quarter has many restaurants and cafes that offer a breath of fresh air.
Mornings in the Quarter are filled with locals tending to their hanging gardens and shopkeepers preparing for the first customers of the day. Take a leisurely stroll to the Lower Quarter and visit the Croissant D’Or Patisserie, a charming European-style pastry shop with extremely reasonable prices. Enjoy fresh coffee, pastries, soups, salads, sandwiches, and quiches in a quiet courtyard or the shop’s tiled, old-world dining room.
Is it lunchtime? Louisiana Pizza Kitchen sits just steps outside of the French Market, with sunny sidewalk tables offering a welcome break from sightseeing and bargain hunting. Gourmet, wood-fired pizza is the specialty here, with ingredients such as sun-dried tomatoes, barbecue chicken, banana peppers, Portobello mushrooms, and even shrimp topping the unbleached flour or whole wheat crusts. Traditional toppings are also available for the less adventurous, as well as a large selection of appetizers, wood-fired sandwiches, fresh salads, and creative pasta dishes.
For those who prefer gumbo to gourmet, the Gumbo Shop offers all of the New Orleans favorites such as jambalaya, red beans and rice, crawfish etouffee, blackened fish, po-boys, and, of course, several varieties of gumbo. This busy restaurant has a small courtyard for dining outside of the packed main dining room, and prices are reasonable. Lunch is usually less crowded than dinner, and the central French Quarter location makes an easy mid-day stop during sightseeing or shopping.
Dinner in the French Quarter is superb cuisine served in historic and charming surroundings. Muriel’s offers these things and more in an opulently restored townhouse complete with balcony dining. French doors open the restaurant to Jackson Square, just steps away. Watch the French Quarter go by while enjoying dishes such as seafood gumbo and crawfish and goat cheese crepes, and wood-grilled selections such as filet mignon plus seasonal vegetables. For dessert, the vanilla bean crème brûlée is a standout.
Bayona Restaurant is also located in a beautifully renovated French Quarter home, but the surroundings are more intimate. Several small dining rooms and a romantic courtyard are available for dining on Chef Susan Spicer’s creations. The menu is subject to change, but expect impeccably executed Southern classics like grilled Gulf shrimp and sweetbreads.
Up on Decatur Street, towards the “bottom” of the Quarter and the beginning of the Marigny, Cane & Table serves Caribbean-inspired small and large plates and excellent cocktails, all deliverable in one of the Quarter’s great courtyards, a tropical-chic delight that makes us want to sip a negroni or a frozen paloma.
Whether it be a sunny spring morning, breezy fall afternoon or warm summer night, the French Quarter offers a bounty of al fresco dining options. The above suggestions are only the beginning — on almost every block you will find both quaint cafés and elegant bistros offering a chance to dine and soak up the classic Quarter atmosphere while actually becoming a part of it at a street-side table or balcony. Explore all the Quarter has to offer and find a favorite of your own.
Are you planning to spend some time in New Orleans soon? To stay close to all the action, book a historic boutique hotel in the French Quarter at FrenchQuarter.com/hotels today!
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New Orleans Lingo: A Few Words to Know
Photo courtesy of Dirty Coast on Facebook
New Orleans is often described as the most European city in the United States — or the northernmost Caribbean island. Settled by Native Americans, colonized by the Spanish, French and American governments, populated by Creoles, African slaves and European immigrants, and surrounded by Acadian settlers (known as Cajuns), it’s no wonder the Crescent City’s residents have a way of speaking that doesn’t sound like anyone else’s.
The downside? This unique lexicon can make New Orleanians hard for outsiders to understand.
Here’s a list of key words to know before you go.
Alligator pear: Yat speak for an avocado (that skin DOES look like a gator’s tough hide).
Banquette: A sidewalk
Bo bo: A bruise, cut, scrape or other minor injury, usually sustained by a child. Never called a “boo-boo.”
Brake tag: An inspection sticker placed on a car’s windshield to indicate it is in good working order.
Cher: A Cajun term of affection derived from French and often pronounced “sha.” E.g., “You’re looking good, sha!”
Chicory: A bitter, roasted root brewed in lieu of coffee during France’s 1808 Continental Blockage and the U.S. Civil War, which New Orleanians continue to add to coffee because of its strong flavor. Best enjoyed in sweetened café au lait.
Coffee milk: A treat for young children, it consists of a dash of chicory coffee mixed with a cup of warm milk and sugar.
Dressed: A po-boy served “dressed” comes with lettuce, pickles, tomato, and mayonnaise.
Fixing to: Getting ready to do something. E.g., “I’m fixing to go to the store.” Also shorted to “fixina” or “finna.”
Gris gris: A Voodoo spell or charm, usually in the form of a small bag filled with rice, herbs, small stones, coins, or other amulets.
Go-cup: Like a to-go box you’d get at a restaurant to carry your leftovers, a go-cup is any plastic cup used to transport your unfinished alcoholic drink when you’re ready to leave the bar.
Gumbo: A spicy stew made with a roux base and thickened with okra, gumbo comes in seafood, chicken, sausage, and z’herbes (green) varieties, to name a few. Its name is derived from the African name for okra.
King cake: A delicious ring-shaped cake made of a cinnamon roll-like dough and topped with purple, green and gold sugar, with a tiny plastic baby inside. Whoever gets the baby has to buy the next king cake. Served only from Epiphany (January 6) until Mardi Gras.
Lagniappe: A little something extra, similar to a bakers’ dozen. E.g., when you dine at Brennan’s and get a free praline, that’s lagniappe.
Mais yeah: Cajun French saying that translates literally to “but yes,” it’s used to express excitement or agreement.
Make groceries: Yat speak for buying groceries, it’s derived from the French phrase “faire le marché” (make the market).
Merliton: A pale green squash-like gourd.
Neutral ground: Known as a median in other locales, a neutral ground is the wide grassy strip between streets.
Parish: The equivalent of a county. “The Parish” (or “Da Parish”) specifically refers to Chalmette, a New Orleans suburb.
Pirogue: A flat-bottomed Cajun boat, pronounced PEE-row or PEE-rogue.
River side, lake side: New Orleans speak for north and south: River side refers to the Mississippi River, which borders the city to the south, and lake side refers to Lake Pontchartrain, which borders it to the north.
Shotgun house: A long, narrow, hall-less house common to New Orleans, which was named so because if one fired a shotgun through the front door, the shot would go straight through the house without hitting a wall and exit through the back door.
Ward: Designations dividing New Orleans into 17 regions, or wards, which are subdivided into precincts.
Where y’at: Yat speak for “How are you?”
Wardies: People who live in your ward. Also pronounced “whoadies.”
