The place itself is airy, spacious, and polished, with lots of sunlight and a brick patio if you want a quiet conversation.
Happy hour brings a selection of wines and bubbles to $5. You can order half-glass flights hailing from all over the world in a range of prices. The spotlight, however, is on the champagnes, cavas, and proseccos of the world, from mind-bogglingly expensive champagne from the famed houses to artisanal, natural, and the lesser-known iterations of the bubbly, like Hungarian Tokaj and Lambrusco.
There’s a full bar and dozens of still wine by the glass and bottle, plus a limited beer selection. in March of 2017 and has become the destination for high-to-low sparkling wines from all over the world, champagnes, small plates, and live music. Effervescence opened its tall doors on N. Speaking of bubbles, the French Quarter has a champagne-centric bar to call its own. Try a rum old fashioned and triple-pea hummus with yucca chips in the weathered courtyard. Happy hour prices hover around $6 for cocktails and food. The rustic rum-based cocktail destination is helmed by Neal Bodenheimer, who pioneered New Orleans’ craft cocktail scene in 2009 when he opened Cure on Freret Street. Come for the martinis, and stay for live music! The $4 small plates are fresh takes on Cajun and European comfort food: Boudin Rangoons, Cajun Poutine with pimento, pork belly tacos, and house-made pretzels with Guinness cheese dip. Happy hour features select $3 beer and wine and a $5 cocktail of the day. The Bombay Club inside the Prince Conti Hotel has more than 50 specialty cocktails on the menu. Paired with steak frites or bahn mi, it’s tiki perfection. There are also communal drinks, meant to be shared by four to eight people. From a Mai Tai to a long list of cocktails with names like Missionary’s Downfall and Mississippi Mermaid, expect a lot of rum and pineapple. This tiki bar features loads of island-themes exotic cocktails. Overall it feels more like a neighborhood bar with specials chalked on the board (no food, no live music), not a cocktail lounge with a drink menu divided on the bar’s website into a staggering eight categories like “True Cocktails” and “Succulents.
It’s small, cozy, a tad romantic (there are comfortable couches, nooks, and a fireplace). Interestingly, for a destination revered for its perfectly crafted cocktails, there’s not an ounce of pretentiousness about Bar Tonique. Some are unique to the bar others are modern twists on the classics, with welcome deviations and house-made syrups. In addition to the $5 daily specials (whiskey flights Tuesdays and caipirinha Thursdays, for example), there are $5 cocktails from noon to 5 p.m. The Friday happy hour offers half-priced wines and $5 specialty cocktails. nightly) featuring shrimp spring rolls, oysters en brochette, cougeres, and shrimp and andouille calas. As iconic as the Creole restaurant itself, French 75 serves classic cocktails with high-shelf spirits and offers a bar menu (served 6-10 p.m.
The award-winning and accolade-gathering French 75 sports a vintage bar, custom built in the 1800s for another restaurant and eventually acquired by Arnaud’s owners, and has come a long way from being the restaurant’s “gentlemen only area” back when it was owned by the Cazenave family. These guys below are serious about what goes into every glass and onto every small plate, and about who gets to make it and serve it.
Fortunately, if you’re willing to venture outside of peak drinking hours, the world is your oyster (sometimes literally, as Red Fish Grill and Bourbon House offer oyster-centric happy hours). You could order the “3-4-1” specials on Bourbon Street, but these deals generally prioritize booze quantity over quality. The French Quarter-based bars and restaurants we recommend below take it up a notch in terms of the quality of the ingredients the inventiveness of the dishes and the cocktails the bargain factor compared to the regular price you’d pay for the same outside the happy hour and, of course, the level of expertise that goes into the preparation. And, beyond the obvious pleasure of socializing and unwinding they provide, happy hours are a surefire way to sample the restaurant’s cuisine or bask in a place’s ambiance - at a fraction of a price. Finding world-class food and expertly crafted cocktails at beyond-reasonable prices is easy enough in New Orleans on any day, but who can resist the lure of trying the best cocktails this city has to offer at a deep discount, along with some refined bar food compressed to a bite size and a small plate? In New Orleans, happy hours tend to start a little earlier and stretch a little longer.