New Orleans is the cocktail birthplace of America. The Sazerac, the French 75, the Vieux Carré, the Brandy Crusta. Every one of them has a room here that still pours it the way it was meant to be poured. The modern programs at Jewel of the South and Cure are continuing the tradition; the Bywater wine garden and the Magazine Street institutions are widening it.
What follows is the directory. The bars worth a seat, the restaurants worth a reservation, the hotels worth the stay.
Where We Drink
French Quarter, Freret, the Roosevelt lobby, Bywater, and the Garden District. Six rooms across central New Orleans, in the order that makes sense for a long week.
- BAR
Jewel of the South
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.
Order: the Brandy Crusta, Hannah's signature riff on the 1850s New Orleans original (cognac, triple sec, maraschino, lemon, sugar rim).
1026 St Louis Street, New Orleans, LA 70112 - BAR
Cure
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.
Order: the Howitzer, Bodenheimer's bourbon-and-peach French 75 riff, named for an American gun.
4905 Freret Street, New Orleans, LA 70115 - BAR
Arnaud's French 75 Bar
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.
Order: the French 75 (cognac, lemon, sugar, Champagne), made the way Arnaud's invented it.
813 Bienville Street, New Orleans, LA 70112 - BAR
The Sazerac Bar at the Roosevelt
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.
Order: the Sazerac, made with Sazerac rye, Peychaud's bitters, and an absinthe rinse, the official cocktail of New Orleans.
130 Roosevelt Way, New Orleans, LA 70112 - BAR
Bacchanal Wine
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.
Order: a glass of natural orange wine downstairs, or a Nightbloom cocktail upstairs while watching the courtyard.
600 Poland Avenue, New Orleans, LA 70117 - BAR
The Columns Bar
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.
Order: a Sazerac on the porch as the streetcar passes, or a Gold Rush (bourbon, honey, lemon, thyme) inside.
3811 St. Charles Avenue, New Orleans, LA 70115
Where We Eat
An Algiers oak-grove restaurant on the West Bank and the Magazine Street institution from a James Beard chef.
- RESTAURANT
Saint Claire
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.
1300 Richland Road, New Orleans, LA 70114 - RESTAURANT
La Petite Grocery
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.
4238 Magazine Street, New Orleans, LA 70115
Where We Stay
The 2021 Lower Garden District restoration and the 2018 Marigny conversion of a deconsecrated 1848 Catholic church.
- HOTEL
Hotel Saint Vincent
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.
1507 Magazine Street, New Orleans, LA 70130 - HOTEL
Hôtel Peter and Paul
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.
2317 Burgundy Street, New Orleans, LA 70117