New Orleans: Where to Drink

My theory on Yelp ratings: If a place has less than 30 ratings, the accuracy of those ratings is hit-and-miss. If a place has 50+, chances are the place will deliver on it's Yelp score.

FYI, this post was written in chronological order of our seven day bar crawl.
Click here for Where to Eat in New Orleans.

Your tour guides: my mom, myself and my dad.

We made it to just shy of 20 bars over the course of seven days, and a few were hit up multiple times. I regret that I don't have more original location photos for this post (a fact which I 100% blame on the alcohol), but I'll supplement from online sources where possible and necessary.

Here's what you will find in New Orleans: (mostly) unbelievable drink prices, phenomenal music and a ton of smoke (with one exception). You will also find energetic and entertaining "barkers" seducing you into their establishments with promises of cheap (sometimes free) drinks or shots. And you will find most places offering 3-for-1 specials (usually domestic beer or well drinks) late into the evening. Stay in a group with a factor of three and getting boozy in the Big Easy can be quite wallet friendly. There were only a few times that drinks were at premium prices, but this was usually in restaurants. I recommend that you use your meal time to pass on suds and re-hydrate yourself. You'll thank me in the morning, I promise.

I can't say with as much certainty that each of these places is as completely amazing as I perceived them to be (see the blame placed above), but beer goggles - and the right company - can make any place incredible.

There are four places that I really want to call to your attention to in this post:
Cafe Lafitte in Exile
Three Muses
Funky Pirate
Fritzels' European Jazz Club

New Orleans: Where to Eat

Before we get into everything, let me tell you my theory on Yelp ratings: If a place has less than 30 ratings, the accuracy of those ratings is hit-and-miss. If a place has 50+, chances are the place will deliver on it's Yelp score.

FYI... this post was written in the chronological order of our culinary adventure.

Here's what you will find in New Orleans: fried, savory, spicy & INCREDIBLE. We ate at the most amazing places and every single meal, with two exceptions, was nothing short of outstanding.
There are four places that I really want to call to your attention to in this post.
Meals from the Heart Cafe
Maximo's Italian Grill
St. James Cheese Company
Emeril's NOLA

First, an exception:
Cafe Pontalba
3 stars on Yelp based on 70+
546 St. Peter Street (at Chartres Street on Jackson Square)
We came across this place on our first night in town and picked it because it was open. A perfect example of Yelp's accuracy. Was it good? Sure. Was the service impeccable? Not really. Would I recommend it? With all the other options, not a chance. What I will tell you is that it set the bar pretty low, so by comparison every other place we went had nowhere to go but up.