Where We Drink
Jewel of the South
BAR1026 St Louis Street, New Orleans, LA 70112 · French QuarterNorth America's #4 in 2025; World's #25; Best Bar in South USA three years running. Chris Hannah's French Quarter cocktail bar inside an 1830s Creole cottage. Polished but unpretentious; a quiet courtyard out back, classic Southern hospitality at the bar, and a program built around historic Southern drinks done correctly.
Cure
BAR4905 Freret Street, New Orleans, LA 70115 · FreretNorth America's #21 in 2025; James Beard Outstanding Bar Program 2018; the bar that sparked New Orleans' modern cocktail renaissance. Neal Bodenheimer and Matt Kohnke restored a 1903 Edwardian fire station on Freret Street and opened in 2009; sixteen years later it remains where the city's bartenders still come to drink. Tropical courtyard, candle-lit tables, a kitchen that holds up.
Arnaud's French 75 Bar
BAR813 Bienville Street, New Orleans, LA 70112 · French QuarterTucked into a corner of Arnaud's, the 1918 French Quarter Creole institution, named for the cocktail Chris Hannah popularized here before opening Jewel of the South. Tin ceilings, oil portraits, and the quietest tasting-bar in the Quarter. The cocktail that built its reputation is still the cocktail you order.
The Sazerac Bar at the Roosevelt
BAR130 Roosevelt Way, New Orleans, LA 70112 · Central Business District (Roosevelt Hotel)The Sazerac at its institutional source. The African walnut bar, the Paul Ninas WPA-era murals on the walls, the chandeliers; restored to the spirit of the 1930s original inside the Roosevelt Hotel. Huey Long held court here, calling it his New Orleans office.
Bacchanal Wine
BAR600 Poland Avenue, New Orleans, LA 70117 · BywaterThe Bywater wine garden that's been a backyard institution since 2002 and a James Beard nominee for years running. Curated wine and beer service, live jazz nightly under string lights, and a kitchen turning out small plates from the upstairs window. Nightbloom, the upstairs craft cocktail bar, services the full property with small-batch spirits, citrus, and bitters on a chalkboard menu, making the wine garden a genuine multi-format drinking establishment.
The Columns Bar
BAR3811 St. Charles Avenue, New Orleans, LA 70115 · Garden District (The Columns Hotel)The 1883 Italianate mansion on St. Charles Avenue, restored in 2020 with a James Beard-nominated cocktail program reinvigorating the historic mahogany bar. Wraparound porch overlooking the streetcar line, garden seating, and several distinct drinking rooms inside one historic property. Old-world New Orleans.
Where We Eat
Saint Claire
RESTAURANT1300 Richland Road, New Orleans, LA 70114 · Algiers (West Bank)The 2025 Algiers oak-grove restaurant from Cassi Dymond and Melissa M. Martin, on the New York Times's list of America's 50 Best Restaurants 2025. A historic riverbank property restored over six months; sourdough rabbit rillettes, gnocchi with jumbo lump crab, duck confit. Worth crossing the Mississippi for.
La Petite Grocery
RESTAURANT4238 Magazine Street, New Orleans, LA 70115 · Uptown / Magazine StreetJustin Devillier's Magazine Street institution, James Beard Best Chef South 2016, in a 19th-century corner grocery building. New Orleans cuisine through a refined Creole-French lens: blue crab beignets, duck confit, the namesake gumbo. Forty seats, white tablecloths, and a bar at the front pouring proper cocktails before dinner.
Where We Stay
Hotel Saint Vincent
HOTEL1507 Magazine Street, New Orleans, LA 70130 · Lower Garden DistrictLiz Lambert and Larry McGuire's 2021 restoration of the 1861 St. Vincent's Infant Asylum on Magazine Street, into a 75-room Lower Garden District hotel of vintage-grand-hotel decadence. Three bars on property including Paradise Lounge (the airy, mural-walled lobby bar) and the Saltillo-tiled pool courtyard; San Lorenzo for coastal Italian dining; Elizabeth Street Café for French-Vietnamese all-day fare. The reference standard for the new generation of design-led New Orleans hotels.
Hôtel Peter and Paul
HOTEL2317 Burgundy Street, New Orleans, LA 70117 · MarignyThe 2018 conversion of the former Saints Peter and Paul Catholic church (1848 parish, deconsecrated 2001) into a 71-room Marigny boutique hotel, by Ash NYC. Rooms occupy the converted church, schoolhouse, rectory, and convent, each preserving original cypress wood, marble fireplaces, stained glass. The Elysian Bar in residence (a collaboration with Bacchanal Wine) is one of the city's most considered hotel-bar programs, with live music in the courtyard most nights.
Where the Chapter Begins
Click through for what to drink between flights.