The Pool Club on the 13th floor of Virgin Hotels New Orleans pairs a wraparound pool deck with cabana seating, resident DJs and a skyline view across the CBD into the Quarter.
Tip: Bar open later than the pool on Thursday to Saturday. Day pool access for non-guests via the hotel's day-pass option.
Address: 550 Baronne Street, New Orleans, LA 70113
French 75 at Arnaud's has poured the city's defining gin-and-champagne cocktail since 1918, a wood-panelled side room behind the dining hall with a small bar and antique military prints.
Tip: Walk in for the bar; reservations for the dining room only. Order the French 75 with a side of soufflé potatoes.
Jewel of the South, by Chris Hannah and partner John Stubbs, runs the renovated 1830s Creole cottage as a World's 50 Best cocktail room with a stocked back garden and a small dining menu.
Tip: Reserve via Resy; the garden tables sit two and four. The Brandy Crusta is the order, served at the front bar.
Cure on Freret Street, opened by Neal Bodenheimer in 2009, took the James Beard Outstanding Bar award in 2018. The room sits inside a restored 1905 firehouse with a copper-clad back bar.
Tip: Walk in for the bar, Resy for a back-room seat. The seasonal menu changes quarterly; the bartenders will riff if you give them a flavour to chase.
Cane & Table on Decatur runs a rum-forward tropical cocktail menu inside a worn 1830s shopfront, with a courtyard out back and a small late-evening kitchen of Caribbean small plates.
Tip: Open 17:00 to 22:00 nightly. Sunday dinner is the easier walk-in; weekend nights book the back courtyard via Resy.
The Carousel Bar in the Hotel Monteleone opened in 1949 as the city's first rotating bar. The merry-go-round counter turns once every fifteen minutes around a single barback well.
Tip: Stools at the carousel itself rarely free up; arrive at 16:00 if you want one. The Vieux Carre cocktail was invented here in 1937.
Café Lafitte in Exile at Bourbon and Dumaine has run continuously since 1933, the bar that opened after Café Lafitte was evicted from 941 Bourbon, claimed as America's oldest gay bar.
Tip: Open 24 hours. The Sunday Napoleon House drag brunch carries on across the bar; Tea Dance Sunday afternoons are the institutional draw.