Oz on Bourbon Street, opened in 1993 across from Bourbon Pub, runs the big-floor gay dance club with dancers on the platforms, a drag cast and a long balcony over the street.
Tip: Open seven nights, 12:00 to 04:00 Thursday to Sunday. Drag shows nightly; weekend cover charged at the door.
Address: 800 Bourbon Street, New Orleans, LA 70116
Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop at Bourbon and St Philip is the candlelit 1772 cottage commonly cited as the oldest standing structure used as a bar in the United States, with no electric lighting.
Tip: Open until 03:00 most nights. Order the purple Voodoo Daiquiri; cash and card both work but the line in the back is faster.
Erin Rose on Conti, half a block off Bourbon, is the locals' Irish pub with frozen Irish coffees out front and Killer PoBoys serving sandwiches from the back kitchen until late.
Tip: Open 21 hours a day. The frozen Irish coffee is the order; cash bar runs faster than card on Saturday nights.
The Phoenix on Elysian Fields opened in 1983 as the leather, bear and Levi command bar of the Marigny, with the upstairs Eagle running its own dress-coded fetish nights Wednesday to Sunday.
Tip: Open 24 hours, no cover. Upstairs Eagle closed Mondays. The Levi-Leather Lords of Leather host regular fetish nights.
Bacchanal Wine in Bywater runs an outdoor backyard with nightly live jazz, a wine and cheese deli inside the cottage and Mediterranean small plates plated from the kitchen upstairs.
Tip: Music seven days a week. Pick a bottle from the shop, take it to the back patio. Weekend brunch sets start around 12:00.
Three Muses on Frenchmen pairs a small-plates kitchen with a low-volume music room, where Linnzi Zaorski and the Sam Doores rotate through the corner stage from early evening.
Tip: Reserve a table via the venue site; the bar walks in. Music starts around 19:00 with no cover, the room enforces quiet listening.
Compère Lapin's bar, inside the Old No. 77 Hotel, is Nina Compton's Caribbean-French cocktail room, with an exposed brick warehouse wall, mosaic floor and a long zinc-topped bar.
Tip: Walk in for the bar, Resy for tables. Order the goat curry with sweet potato gnocchi; the dirty rice arancini are the house snack.
Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop at Bourbon and St Philip is the candlelit 1772 cottage commonly cited as the oldest standing structure used as a bar in the United States, with no electric lighting.
Tip: Open until 03:00 most nights. Order the purple Voodoo Daiquiri; cash and card both work but the line in the back is faster.
Erin Rose on Conti, half a block off Bourbon, is the locals' Irish pub with frozen Irish coffees out front and Killer PoBoys serving sandwiches from the back kitchen until late.
Tip: Open 21 hours a day. The frozen Irish coffee is the order; cash bar runs faster than card on Saturday nights.