Fives; Photography by @coryjames_fontenot
New Orleans R&B legend Ernie K-Doe once remarked, “I’m not sure, but I’m almost positive that all music came from New Orleans.” The same could be said of all cocktails.
Famously, visitors drive cross-country and fly over oceans to try New Orleans’ famous beverages in their birthplace: a Sazerac at the mural paneled Sazerac Bar; a Vieux Carré at the spinning Carousel Bar, a crimson hurricane on Pat O’Brien’s flaming fountain-lit patio. Don’t be too cool to do the same; there’s a reason many of these institutions have been in business for actual centuries.
With that kind of history, the classics loom large, but New Orleans bars hit so many other notes, too, from new designer dens to timeworn, dank dives. And there’s just as much to appreciate in a frozen daiquiri on a steamy summer afternoon, or in a can of Paradise Park, as there is in a well-executed Brandy Crusta.
For those of us lucky enough to live here, we know a special part of the city’s soul lives in our neighborhood bars. Stitched into residential blocks, they function as community centers connecting generations of residents and catalyzing conversations. In my corner of the Bywater, my neighbors take volunteer shifts pressing fresh ginger juice for gingeritas at Vaughan’s Lounge (some even pick up their mail there). At other longstanding locals, Mardi Gras Indian tribes gather to sew feathers and beads onto their celestial suits before they march through the streets.
With so much
