For years, family, friends, and total strangers have hounded us for tips about the best French Quarter bars. Now, we’re putting our hard-earned knowledge to use in a new guidebook called The French Quarter 100: A Drinking Companion to America’s Most Eccentric Neighborhood.
What makes the French Quarter unique? Apart from the historic architecture and open container laws, it’s mostly a matter of geography. Technically speaking, the Quarter covers less than one square mile, but it contains countless worlds within, seamlessly slipping from upper-crust to low-rent in a space of 30 feet. You can start with a Sazerac at the seersucker-friendly Carousel Bar, toddle out the front door, and before you’ve hit the midway point, you’re whooping it up with the frisky transsexual clientele at Le Roundup.
Over the course of the book, the three of us wander from bar to bar, taking notes as we go: what’s playing on the jukebox? Who’s passed out in the corner? And most importantly, what the heck are these people drinking? Read along, and you’ll vicariously join us on the dance floor, sample some improvised shots, eavesdrop on the bar patrons, and of course, check out the bathroom.
We know this pocket guide will prove useful to the 8,000,000+ tourists (and several hundred thousand locals) who descend upon the French Quarter in search of their next cocktail. You may never make it here yourself, but we guarantee you’ll want to read about what might happen if you did.
