Best Bars in New Orleans for the DayDrinker

The following is a list of the best Bars in New Orleans for the DayDrinker. It's broken up into Neighborhoods. Please feel free to do the same for you city.


French Quarter

The Erin Rose
811 Conti St.
Home base, the office. I love this bar. Sassy, rude, loud, awesome bartenders. Good jukebox. Right off Bourbon but very local. Tourists wander in and some even stay. Very entertaining, especially after 4am when the strippers get off work.

Molly’s at the Market
2400 block of Decatur
This bar stayed open during and after hurricane Katrina. Stone floors, local vibe, almost always open. Another great place to watch people. There is nothing funnier then smiley tourists sitting next to lower Decatur locals.
Aunt Tiki’s
1207 Decatur
Heavy metal Jukebox, horror movie themed place with Tikki elements. Strange. This is a great dive.

The Abby
1123 Decadur
If you are still awake at 9am and can’t even think of sleeping, go to the Abby. Light is not able to pass into the Abby even though the door is always open. The king of all dive bars.

Ryan’s Irish Pub
241 Decatur
Pool table, nice bartenders, open and sunny. Daydrinkers meet here to start the day.
Boondock Saint
731 Saint Peters St
It used to be the Velvet Dog. Right in the middle of the quarter. Right next to Yo Mamma’s.

Yo Mamma’s
727 Saint Peters St
Best Burger in the quarter, fuck Port of Call. Yo Mamma’s has a one pound burger…Mmmmm gluttony Also, great Tequila selection.

Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop
941 Bourbon St
This is one of the oldest structures standing in the quarter. It’s dark and cool. Makes you feel like a pirate. There is a senile old man who plays the piano. It’s one of those piano’s that’s also a bar. He sings songs that everyone sings along to. You will probably here Sweet Caroline twice every hour. If you want to drink, expect to go broke before getting drunk.

The Dungeon
738 Toulouse St
Dark, goth metal. Stone walls. It’s a dungeon.

The Alibi


Uptown

Monkey Hill
6100 Magazine St
Upscale bar with a full size pool table. Sexy bartenders. Yuppie feel unless you go at the right time. Right time: before 8pm or after 3am.

The Bulldog
3236 Magazine St
Good food. Excellent daydrinkers spot. Lot’s of beer taps, good looking uptown people, dog friendly. Patio with a beer tap fountain.

Snake & Jakes Christmas bar
7612 Oak St
This bar is in the top five New Orleans dive bars. Surrounded on both sides by residential houses in a residential neighborhood, Snake & Jakes was built in a house. It opens late but stays open long after the sun is high in the sky. Christmas lights and fucked up college students. I was there at 7am when a car pulled up, crashed into a parked car and the owner got out brushed himself off and went inside.

The Saint
961 St Mary’s St
It looks like a 1970’s basement. There is a picture booth in the corner in case you need an excuse and a place to hook up. They play cult classics on the tv and you can get a Papst Blue Ribbon and a shot for something ridicules like 3 dollars. This Bar was opened by Sean Yseult, who was the sexy chick bassist for White Zombie. That alone makes it cool.

BalconyBar
3201 Magazine St
Old New Orleans house converted into a bar. Big Balcony where you can eat, drink and spit at people down below. Opens at 4pm, not convenient to datdrinkers.

Rendezvous
3101 Magazine St.
Pool table, great happy hour specials: Two for one well drinks. Also they have a video game machine that has 1980’s games like Donkey Kong and Zaxxon. Of course I’ve never played. I’ve just heard about it.

Le Bon Temps
4801 Magazine St.
I would call this place a roadhouse. Great music and a cool look to it. It’s very New Orleans. Good at night, shitty during the day. Not good for daydrinkers, unless you forgot to go home when the sun set.

The Circle Bar
1032 St Charles
Another old house converted into a bar. Beautifully divey. Local music at night. Cool drinks like a martini with beef-jerky olives.

Columns
3811 St Charles
Big, old, stately hotel with a wood paneled upscale bar. Large front porch great for a gin and tonic on a hot day.

Dos Jeffes
5535 Tchoupitoulas St
Cigar bar with New Orleans jazz. Good for a change of pace. Cheap pool table and good scotch selection.

Miss Mae’s
4336 Magazine St.
Cheapest drinks ever, it’s like the dollar store for drunks. Open during daydrinker friendly hours. The only problem is it’s filled with baseball cap backwards, dip chewing frat guys and their female counterparts.

Marigney/Bywater

Saturn Bar
3067 St Claude St
Add this bar to the top five dives ever. Enter the shady looking entrance and you will find a dark room full of flee market furniture and your creepy uncles knick knacks. Under the old ownership you had to walk over engine parts and broken air conditioners. Since then they have cleaned it up a bit., but only a little.

Markeys Bar
640 Louisa
Perfect daydrinker spot. Open all day and most of the night. Free pool, 50 cent shuffleboard. Good sleepy spot where you can sit and drink the day away.

MiMi’s
2601 Royal St
Mimi’s is a two story bar with a classic New Orleans feel. Candles on the wall, oversized windows, and an ancient air-conditioning unit that takes up half of the ceiling. The second floor has cool art work on the walls and live music. The decor is that of a comfortable living room. Good Tapas menu. Try the pork.
BJ’s
Lesseps & Burgundy
This is a neighborhood bar. Living room easy chairs, old TV’s. I once sat there all afternoon watching America’s Home Videos with a barfull of strangers. We laughed our asses off and drank the day away. Good jukebox.

Vaughn’s
800 Lessepps St
Another old roadhouse. This bar is like traveling back in time. Great blues and Jazz. Though there is no kitchen I was in there one night where they brought in soul food for the whole bar.

DBA
618 Frenchman St
Easy like a Sunday morning. This is a great place to waste a day. Great everything selection. Booze of every color. Tons of beer. Warm vibe, the floors, walls and ceiling are wood. It feels like a log cabin. DBA has some of the best live music in town. Go there in the afternoon, order a Mcshooof Belgian beer (however it’s spelled), strike up a conversation with a smart bartender and enjoy.

Spotted Cat
623 Frenchman
Shack full of live music. It can get crowded at night but is almost empty during the day. If it’s too crowded, order a drink, stand outside and enjoy the sounds and smells of a great New Orleans Street.

R Bar
1431 Royal St
This is one of the coolest places ever, without the bunch of douche bags who usually frequent cool places. Awesome tattooed bartenders. Airline seats, barber chair where they offer a drink and a cut one night a week, huge projection screen where they show movies you actually want to see, and shrimp boils, crawfish boils, and other food events all for free.

Other
The Crown & Anchor
200 Pelican St
This bar is Cheers from England. Beautiful English pub with authentic English owner. Cast of characters who entertain those who walk in looking for the Old Point (see below). C & A is a true neighborhood pub with theme parties and BBQ on Sundays and other events. Go in and tell them you want to have a party for Richard Millhouse Nixon’s wedding anniversary and the whole neighborhood will come out in costume.

The Naughty Knight
34 Westbank Expressway
I’m always nervous going into a bar when the door has no window. You never know what you are going to get. The Naughty Knight is a dive for pro’s only. It reminds me of Henry Hill’s Bar in Goodfella’s, the one where Ray Liotta and Robert De Niro helped Joe Pesci get rid of the body. Sketchy people on either side of the bar and I love it. How many places can you go these days where you don’t know if you are coming out alive.

Old Point
545 Paterson Dr.

Old historic bar in Algiers point. Great during the day. Pool table, cheap drinks, plastic chairs outside to pass the time. They must be in every historic tour book about New Orleans because tourists come from all over to see it. When they get there they see me, sipping a drink by myself. At night they have good music and a crowd. Some guy shows up and sells BBQ on the street.


----Go to all these places and you will know the city in and out. You will also have enough friends in high places to get away with a dead hooker in the trunk of your car. Can't wait to see what your chapter can put together.


J