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Pub Clubbing in New Orleans
– Bourbon Street Bars!
Beads, breasts and
balconies come together like nowhere else on Bourbon Street.
Few places on Earth possess the year-round
party atmosphere as does New Orleans. And it all starts on Bourbon Street.
This is New Orleans' most famous street, the Amsterdam of America, a place dominated by drinks and drinkers where the cocktail
is king and bars stand side-by-side block after block. Weekdays are
hardly distinguishable from weekends. In most cities, the weekend starts
on a Thursday. In New Orleans, it has no beginning or end.
Packed with people and bars, Bourbon Street is America's Greatest Party.
That Allan Jackson/Jimmy Buffett song "It's Five O'Clock somewhere"
has a home here. It's always Five O'Clock in New Orleans.
Bourbon Street is neither decadent nor elegant, seedy nor snazzy, cheesy
nor charming. It is simply a friendly block party and it goes on until
you decide to leave .
For some, the body says its time to leave far before the clock does;
for others, it's the last man (or woman) standing. In New Orleans, and
in particular on Bourbon Street, it's all a matter of mind, body and
soul and spirit(s).
 The
heart of Bourbon Street is only about 7 blocks in length, but it's an
intense seven blocks. Located right in the middle of the French Quarter,
it is a collection of bars, souvenir shops, more bars, strip clubs and
sex shows (though it hardly compares to the Red Light District of Amsterdam),
and even more bars. Sprinkled in are a few restaurants, jazz clubs and
hotels.
The bars range from dives to small clubs with live bands to places
with counters serving frozen drinks, beer and jello shots (some made
with Everclear). There is no cover charge at any of them, athough bars
with bands generally charge more for drinks. Often, people are allowed
to roam freely from one to the other arriving or departing with cocktails.Just
pour unfinished drinks in plastic "to go" cups and hit to
the street.
In between bar stops, people walk and gather on Rue Bourbon, many peering
up at the balconies for girls willing to lift their top for a peek at
their breasts in exchange for a string of Mardi Gras beads. People gather
by the hundreds to witness or participate and the balconies are packed
for hours on end. This scene reaches its peak, so to speak, in front
of the Cat's Meow.
Bourbon Street action starts early. The band-and-dance bars along the
St. Louis Street intersection offer 3-for-1 specials at Happy Hours
until 9 p.m. On nice days, all tables on the Pat O'Brien's garden patio
are full. (Hurricane Warning: They serve Hurricanes in the souvenir
glass in the daytime but will refund $3 if you turn it in when you leave.)
For New Year's Eve, Mardi Gras and JazzFest Bourbon Street is one of the World's Great Parties. This NYE, it is serving as Gator Bait for fans from Florida and Cincinnati (who created the Parrothead term) in town for the Sugar Bowl. Gator Chomp is going to be be seen on Bourbon Street.
The Bars of Bourbon Street [MAP]
The people party
all up and down Bourboin Street.
When it's time to get off the street and check out the bars, there
are multitude of choices.
The prime cut-loose bars for the young and dancing are the Cat's
Meow, The Famous Door, Razzoo, Bourbon Street Blues and
Utopia.
Cat's Meow is a wildly-uninhibited karaoke bar where drunk (or well
on their way to getting drunk) patrons take the stage and light up the
scene. Friends often "perform" in groups and the crowd sings
along and dances. Upstairs, it's a totally different scene. Cat's Meow
has that famous balcony where most of the bead-tossing guys and breast-showing
girls hang and hang out. On the street below, it's a madhouse. It has
karaoke on weekdays,, which is quite popular.
Live bands rock
the bars - and the people - up and down Bourbon Street.
 The
Famous Door, simply put, rocks. The bands go hard with Guns 'n Roses,
AC/DC and those bourbon Street favorites, Lynyrd Skynrd. Always crowded
and often packed, this one-room bar is one of the most lively on Bourbon.
Razzoo is often Bourbon Street's best pickup bar. In the front, a band
blasts out rock and dance tunes. In the back, people gather on the large
patio, the perfect place to meet and mingle.It's one of the rowdiest
bars on Bourbon. After about midnight it's rock beat turns to hip-hop.
Bourbon Street Blues might sound like a sedate blues club, but in reality
it is an energetic dance bar.
Also offering live music is the Krazy Korner. The bands are
rock 'n roll and party dance. Right around the corner from Pat O'Brien's,
it's aways a lively stop on the way back to Bourbon.
No trip to New Orleans is complete without a visit to Pat O'Brien's.
The Home of the Hurricane is actually three bars in one: The garden
patio with its signature fountain is like a giant outdoor house party,
the piano bar features two baby grands going crazy in "Howl at
the Moon" style and the side bar. The latter is often the most
fun. It has great music, a totally kick-back atmosphere and is filled
mainly with locals. There's no dance floor at Pat's, just hanging, drinking
and meeting (other than the piano bar's sit-down show).
Parties or partiers
make their way into the bars, and they are always smiling..
The drink of choice at Pat O'Brien's is the Hurricane, a red rum mixture
that has made this bar famous well outside of New Orleans. Drinks are
more expensive in the piano bar, incidentally.
The second-most famous drink on Bourbon Street is the Hand Grenade.
It's served up at a Jimmy Buffett-style bar called Tropical Isle,
and it's ingredients are a closely-guarded national secret (or so they
pretend). Let's just say it's green and potent – they promote it
as New Orleans' strongest drink – and the tall plastic green cups
in which they are served can be seen all over Bourbon Street. Go in
or get 'em to go from the side window bar. There's also good food –
wings and great half-pound cheeseburgers with a stack of fries.
The Tropical Isle has a pretty good band, a small and crowded dance
floor and a balcony for bead tossing/retrieving. It also has a small
sister location around the corner on Toulouse Street that is preferred
by locals. It usually has one guy on stage playing lots of Buffett.
Late at night, after many of the restaurants and even some bars begin
to close, staffers make their way to Johnny White's at the end
of Bourbon. A small bar with a pub and balcony upstairs, it has an Aloha
spirit because the owner is from Hawaii.
The Pirate bar, just down from the Bourbon Street Tropical Isle,
is to people in their 40s and 50s what the Cat's Meow, Razzo's and Bourbon
Street Blues is to people in their 20s and early 30s. That is to say,
a prime place to drink and meet.
New Orleans is known for its jazz and the city's best place for it
is the Funky Butt on Rampart.
Just another night
on Bourbon Street.
RELATED ARTICLES:
• Off Bourbon Street Bars: The French Quarter
• More
Bars – Where the Locals Party
• Take
A Pub Crawl Aboard the St. Charles Street Car
 PubClub.com
PubClub.com covers nightlife, bars, festivals and party events around the world. The staff has been to New Orleans – and Bourbon Street – many times.
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