NOLA BYCU
Bourbon and Frenchmen and a Few Streets In-Between
For some forsaken reason, you have only one evening in New Orleans and you're not sure what to do?
If you're debauched, you can just camp out on Bourbon Street for the night. Hit the heart of it, hop among the bajillion bars, go until you're comatose.
But if you want to expand a bit or abject debauchery isn't your thing, here's a proposed itinerary. It almost exactly recreates my Monday evening, so I can testify that it works well, but honestly? You can't fall out of a tavern here without hitting a great bar. You don't need an itinerary, but this one works well for drinkers who enjoy history, a bit of strolling, and music that doesn't pick-ax the eardrums.
4:00: The Old Absinthe House. Grab a drink, take in the early 19th-century ambience for 20 minutes, then (with your carry-out drink in hand) stroll the length of "core" Bourbon Street to . . .
4:45: Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop Bar.
Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop – built between 1722 and 1732 by Nicolas Touze, is reputed to be the oldest structure used as a bar in the United States.
Hang there for about 45 minutes, then (again, drink in hand . . . open containers are lawful (seemingly, encouraged) in NOLA), walk to the end of Bourbon Street (all residential . . . Lafitte's is the last stop of the Bourbon Street Bacchanalia Row), take a short jog to the right, and hit Frenchman Street.
5:45: Frenchman Street Books. One of the best little bookstores I've been to. Warning: Leftist territory.
6:05: Thirty Degree/90 Degree for pizza before heading to one of the iconic jazz bars. The few iconic jazz bars I considered either don't offer food or don't offer it until later in the evening, so we had to find a 90-minute way station, and this place, with excellent pizza and a pretty good jazz band, fit well.
7:30: The Three Muses, The Spotted Cat, or one or more of the other half-dozen iconic jazz bars.
9:30/10:30: Head back to Bourbon Street, stopping again at Lafitte's to drink nocturnally like they did in the 1700s: by candlelight. No electric lights (though they do have a TV and neon lights around the bar, which kinda detracts from the experience . . . go to the super dark back room, where there is neither neon nor TV, and listen to the piano player).
The rest of the evening: Head back to core Bourbon Street and pick bars that look good (consider Pat O'Brien's . . . birthplace of the righteous Hurricane drink) and continue as long as you want. People will stay drinking on Bourbon Street until the morning.