#2473 - Galatoire's, New Orleans - 3/21/2014

The whooping we heard coming from the elegant dining room, the bartender informed us, was Tennessee Williams' granddaughter. But of course it was -- here in the restaurant that has been here since 1905, here where her grandfather preferred the seat near the main front window and which he inserted into A Streetcar Named Desire.

The bar section was nearly empty this time of night, far from the thronged lunch and dinner hours, where before they started taking reservations recently the line would stretch down Bourbon Street to Iberville. After 5pm, jackets are still absolutely required for men, as they have been since 1905, when local saloon keeper Jean Galatoire purchased a restaurant called Victors in this space, which had already hosted such establishments for half a century. Jean served French Creole cuisine that included dishes from the small village in which he had grown up, in the foothills of the Pyrenees Mountains. His family owned and operated the eponymous restaurant for five generations, before finally selling all but a few minor ownership shares in 2009.

We had a nice, sedate nightcap -- something like a sazerac, which virtually every New Orleans bar can make well -- and along with a bowl of French Onion soup. Then we made our way down Bourbon Street, the gay laughter of the playwright's granddaughter and her friends fading into unknown stories.

209 Bourbon St, New Orleans, LA 70130 - (504) 525-2021               
Est. 1905
Web site: galatoires.com - facebook
Reviews: esquire - nola.com - neworleans.com - thedailybeast - palmbeachillustrated - yelp - tripadvisor - neworleansonline - coolinaryneworleans

#2472 - Cafe Amelie, New Orleans - 3/21/2014

Cafe Amelie is one of the best options in New Orleans for brunch and is especially loved for the portion in a 150-year-old courtyard. It is named for Amelie Miltonberger, who lived nearby and gave birth to Alice Heine, who eventually left the French Quarter to marry Prince Albert I and become the princess of Monaco. The bar is sufficient, and the food quite fine, but it is temperate, sunny days amidst the fountains and foliage that make it memorable.

912 Royal St, New Orleans, LA 70116 - (504) 412-8965
Est. 2005
Web site: cafeamelie.com - facebook
Articles ranked: neworleansrestaurants - notesonneworleans - lettucespoon - thefabliss - memeing - yelp - musingsofthebigredcar 

#2471 - Tonique, New Orleans - 3/20/2014

If you like craft cocktails and you're in New Orleans you go to Tonique. Tonique is often included in lists of top cocktail bars in the city or the entire country. On this visit I particularly enjoyed a Bitter Harvest Cocktail (Bernheim's Wheat Whiskey, St. Elizabeth Allspice dram, Averna Amaro, Bitter Truth orange bitters)

There are a few other attractions -- it also functions as an affordable, neighborhood beer bar with several cocktails at $5 before 5pm, and even an extensive menu of non-alcoholic classics. It can also come as a soothing, welcome respite from the more gregarious regions of the French Quarter. But these are the things you use to convince your odd teetotaler friend to come along -- YOU will come for the cocktails.


820 N Rampart St, New Orleans, LA 70116 - (504) 324-6045
Est. 2008
Web site: bartonique.com - facebook
Articles ranked: neworleans.com - nola.com - nola.com - offbeat - nytimes - gonola - nola.com - thefabliss - neworleansonline - liquor.com - tripadvisor - yelp

#2470 - Bourbon Pub and Parade, New Orleans - 3/19/2014

When I come in the TVs are replaying Pink's version of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" from the Oscars show and the entire bar area is entranced -- with most of the patrons are gesturing and mouthing the words.The Bourbon Pub, along with rival Oz across the street, are party central for clubbing gays in New Orleans. "Michael Paul Castrillo, who worked as a bartender at Oz in the early 2000s, recalls a rivalry between Oz and Bourbon Pub and Parade that was so heated that each of the bar's managers would send over customers or staffers to the other's place to spy on the crowd, get a head count and report back." (nola.com)  They are both large clubs (this one slightly larger), with multiple bars on two floors, and both open 24 hours.


801 Bourbon St, New Orleans, LA 70116 - (504) 529-2107
Est. 1974
Web site: bourbonpub.com - facebook
Reviews: gaycities - huffpo - yelp - tripadvisor

#2469 - Cutter's, New Orleans - 3/19/2014

Neighborhood bar in the Marigny, known as gay but a mixed crowd, with tailgate buffets for Saints games and free red beans and rice on Mondays,

706 Franklin Ave, New Orleans, LA 70117 - (504) 948-4200
Reviews: nola.com - yelp - gaycities

#2468 - Big Daddy's, New Orleans - 3/19/2014

Big Daddy's, Marigny, New Orleans

Not to be confused with the identically named, only recently closed strip club with the iconic mannequin legs swinging over Bourbon Street, this Big Daddy's is a relatively placid, unassumingly gay, unapologetically divey bar in the Marigny. It is open 24 hours, many of them with a small, mostly older crowd mixed with young people who swing in when Mimi's across the street is clowded, closed, or just to full of hipsters. But as one article notes, "It's not unusual to find the place nearly empty at 8 p.m. and crowded at 8 a.m."

Both the staff and patrons are friendly, and we chatted with Edgar Riley Jr., who played with Frank Zappa and was most notably the vocalist and keyboardist for 80s metal band Axe. The band toured with acts like KISS, Ozzy, and Judas Priest before breaking up after a tragic auto accident in which one member was badly injured and another killed.

2513 Royal St, New Orleans, LA 70117 - (504) 948-6288
Reviews: nola.com - yelp - gaycities

#2467 - Mimi's in the Marigny, New Orleans - 3/19/2014

Mimi's in the Marigny, New Orleans

Mimi's is a really nice couple of bars -- a more neighborhoody joint with a pool table and video games downstairs and a dining room upstairs -- with good cocktails and excellent tapas. But I will miss the old upstairs -- the one still there at the time of this visit, but subsequently relinquished after several years of legal battles with the neighbors. On this night we came upstairs and stepped into a cheery scene of swing dancing, to the beats of a band playing dixieland and roots music. But since 2012, the city has been clamping down on establishments, and in the summer of 2014 Mimi Dykes and her lawyers threw in the towel and converted the upstairs to a dining room, with music events limited to nine a year.

2601 Royal St, New Orleans, LA 70117 - (504) 872-9868
Web site: mimismarigny.com - facebook 
Articles ranked: fooddat - nola.com - nola.com - eater - curbed - roadtrippers - yelp - travelandleisure - bestofneworleans