The French Quarter Bar Guide: Where to Drink for a Bachelorette Party in New Orleans

Why This Neighborhood for a Bachelorette?

The French Quarter is one of a handful of places in the world where drinking in public is not just legal but culturally expected. You can carry your cocktail out of a bar and walk to the next one, which is a logistical superpower for a bachelorette group trying to cover ground on a single night. The Quarter is dense, walkable, and open at 3am.

But what makes it genuinely special for a group that wants more than Bourbon Street is the depth of the cocktail culture. New Orleans invented most of the classic cocktails you order everywhere else: the Sazerac, the Vieux Carre, the Ramos Gin Fizz. The best bars in the Quarter take that history seriously and make these drinks the way they were originally meant to taste. Build your night around those bars and save Bourbon Street for one loud stop in the middle.

Where to Eat

Arnaud's Restaurant

Arnaud's is one of the great Creole restaurants in New Orleans and the anchor dinner spot for any group that wants to eat seriously in the French Quarter. The shrimp remoulade ($18) is the essential appetizer, the trout meuniere ($42) is a benchmark version of the classic, and the bananas Foster baked Alaska ($16) is the dessert to order even if you are already full. The dining room is formal, beautiful, and exactly as old-school as you want it to be.

After dinner, walk directly into Arnaud's French 75 Bar next door, which is one of the best bars in the city. The transition from dining room to bar is seamless and feels like exactly the right New Orleans move.

"Arnaud's is the real thing. We did a bachelorette dinner here and it was flawless: the staff, the food, the old New Orleans atmosphere. Shrimp remoulade, trout, and then the French 75 Bar for nightcaps. Perfect night." - Yelp Review

Napoleon House

Napoleon House is one of the most atmospheric restaurants and bars in New Orleans, a 200-year-old building with crumbling plaster walls, classical music on the speakers, and the best muffuletta sandwich ($18) in the city. It is a lunch and early dinner spot primarily, and the bar program runs parallel to the food with the house Pimm's Cup ($12) as the signature drink.

Come here for a late afternoon meal before the evening starts. The atmosphere alone is worth the stop and photographs beautifully for the group.

"Napoleon House feels like walking into a different century. The muffuletta is the best I have had in New Orleans and the Pimm's Cup is the most refreshing thing you can drink in this heat. Go for a late lunch." - Yelp Review

Cane and Table

Cane and Table is the best proto-tiki cocktail bar in New Orleans and also serves legitimately excellent Caribbean-influenced small plates. The cocktails run $14 to $18 and are deeply, carefully made: the Caribe Daydream is the signature, but anything with rum here is going to be exceptional. Food plates run $12 to $28 and the coconut ceviche ($16) is perfect with a tropical cocktail.

This is the ideal pre-dinner drinks stop or a late-night food option when everything else has closed down. The space is dim and candlelit and exactly the right vibe.

"Cane and Table might be my favorite bar in New Orleans. The cocktails are serious and the food is actually excellent. The coconut ceviche and a rum sour in that candlelit room is one of the better experiences the Quarter has to offer." - Yelp Review

Where to Drink

Carousel Bar at Hotel Monteleone

The Carousel Bar is the most famous bar in New Orleans and it deserves the reputation. It is a literally rotating circular bar that completes a full revolution every 15 minutes, installed in the lobby of the Hotel Monteleone on Royal Street since 1949. The Vieux Carre cocktail ($18) was invented here and you should order it immediately. The bar seats 25 people, so come at 5:30pm before the hotel guests arrive or accept that you may be standing.

This is the non-negotiable stop on any French Quarter bachelorette itinerary. No exceptions. The photo of your group on the rotating bar is worth the price of the cocktail alone.

Arnaud's French 75 Bar

The French 75 Bar at Arnaud's is the most civilized place to drink in the French Quarter. The bar was built in 1918, the tuxedoed bartenders make the French 75 ($18) with cognac the way it was originally intended, and the room is exactly as beautiful as a 100-year-old New Orleans bar should be. It is not loud, it does not have Jell-O shots, and the Sazerac ($17) is one of the best in the city.

This is the place to bring the group before Bourbon Street, to remind everyone that New Orleans has one of the world's great cocktail cultures underneath all the neon. Come here first and come back sober enough to appreciate it.

Jewel of the South

Jewel of the South is the cocktail bar that serious New Orleans drinkers point you toward when you ask where the bartenders drink. The menu is built around classic and neo-classic New Orleans cocktails, the spirit selection is extraordinary, and the bar team has serious credentials. Cocktails run $16 to $22 and are worth every dollar.

The Clover Club ($18) and the Ramos Gin Fizz ($19) are both benchmark versions. Order the Gin Fizz and appreciate that it takes the bartender three full minutes to make it correctly.

The Sazerac Bar

The Sazerac Bar at the Roosevelt Hotel is technically just outside the Quarter on Canal Street, but it is close enough to include and important enough to require. The room is a stunning Art Deco masterpiece from the 1930s, the namesake Sazerac cocktail ($18) is the best version in New Orleans (which means the best in the world), and the staff is knowledgeable enough to guide a group through the full history of the drink if you want.

This is the cocktail history bar. Come here early in the night when the group can still fully appreciate what they are drinking.

Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop

Lafitte's is one of the oldest buildings in the country still operating as a bar, a brick cottage on Bourbon Street dating to the early 1700s. It is lit entirely by candlelight at night, has a piano bar in the back that runs late, and serves strong, cheap drinks to a crowd that ranges from first-time tourists to locals who have been coming for thirty years. The Purple Drank ($10) is the bar's signature frozen drink and it will get the job done.

Come here late, after the serious cocktail bars, when you want to drink in a 300-year-old building by candlelight while someone plays piano. That is an experience available only here.

Molly's at the Market

Molly's is the Quarter's great Irish pub and the bar where locals end up at 1am when everywhere else has gotten too crowded. It sits on Decatur Street near the French Market, stays open until the last person leaves, and serves cold beers ($6 to $8) and simple cocktails ($9 to $12) without any pretension. The jukebox is excellent.

This is the end-of-night bar. Come here last, stay as long as you can, and walk to Cafe Du Monde for beignets and coffee when you finally close it out.

What to Do

The French Quarter is dense with experiences beyond drinking. Start any bachelorette afternoon with a walk through Jackson Square, where tarot card readers, street musicians, and portrait artists set up daily. A tarot reading costs $20 to $40 and is genuinely fun for a bachelorette group.

The French Market on Decatur Street runs daily and is a good place to pick up hot sauce, pralines, and New Orleans-specific snacks to bring home. Plan 30 to 45 minutes and come with cash.

For a structured activity, New Orleans cocktail history tours run through the Quarter and cover the origin stories of the Sazerac, the Hurricane, and the Brandy Crusta while stopping at historic bars. Tours run about $45 to $65 per person and are a genuinely fun way to start a bachelorette afternoon before dinner.

A Sample Night Out

Start at the Sazerac Bar at the Roosevelt Hotel at 5:30pm for the best Sazerac you will ever drink. Walk to the French 75 Bar at Arnaud's by 6:30pm for a round of French 75s before your 7:30pm dinner reservation at Arnaud's Restaurant next door. After dinner, walk to the Carousel Bar at the Hotel Monteleone by 9:30pm for a round on the rotating bar. From there, head to Jewel of the South around 10:30pm for a serious cocktail while the night is still early enough to appreciate it. Hit Cane and Table around 11:30pm for tropical drinks and a snack. End at Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop after midnight for candlelit piano bar energy, then walk to Cafe Du Monde on Decatur Street for beignets and cafe au lait before calling your Uber.

Getting Around

The French Quarter is entirely walkable. Most of the bars on this list are within a 10-minute walk of each other, and you can carry your drink on the street between them. Uber drop-off and pickup work best on the edges of the Quarter at Decatur Street or Canal Street, since the interior streets are often blocked by foot traffic on weekends.

Pro Tips

• The Carousel Bar takes walk-ins only but gets extremely crowded after 8pm on weekends. Arrive at 5:30pm for first call and you will almost certainly get seats.
• Bourbon Street is unavoidable and at least one stop there is basically mandatory for a bachelorette group in New Orleans. Go between 11pm and midnight when you have already done the good bars and just want to experience the chaos once.
• New Orleans allows open containers of alcohol on the street, but only in plastic cups. Most bars will transfer your drink to a go-cup if you ask. Glass is not allowed outside.
• Cafe Du Monde is open 24 hours and the beignets cost $5.50 for an order of three. This is the best $5.50 you will spend in New Orleans and the non-negotiable end to every night in the French Quarter.