New Orleans French Quarter: Bourbon Street Is Not the Real Thing

The French Quarter is where New Orleans started in 1718. It contains some of the finest Creole and Spanish colonial architecture in North America, one of the most serious food cultures in the United States, and music that has been developing here in specific forms since the 19th century. It also contains Bourbon Street, which is a different thing entirely – a commercial entertainment strip that trades on proximity rather than quality.

This matters because most visitors base their French Quarter expectations on Bourbon Street and miss what the neighbourhood actually offers.

What Bourbon Street Actually Is

Loud, commercially aggressive, selling large plastic cups of alcohol to tourists walking between bars. Some bars on Bourbon have good live music; many have cover bands. The strip delivers exactly what it promises to people who want that experience. Judge it on that basis.

For the actual music scene: Frenchmen Street in the Marigny, six blocks east, is where working musicians play multiple nights a week. The Spotted Cat, d.b.a., and the Maison are small venues with no covers and serious jazz, brass band, and funk. Arriving at 10pm on a Wednesday and finding a New Orleans jazz quartet playing to 30 people in a dim room is the experience Bourbon Street’s reputation suggests but does not deliver.

The Better Quarter

Royal Street, one block from Bourbon, is the antiques and art gallery street. Quality dealers in 19th and 20th-century American paintings, Louisiana folk art, and antique silverware. Even casual browsing along Royal Street is more interesting than anything on Bourbon.

Jackson Square is the civic heart: the Andrew Jackson equestrian statue, St. Louis Cathedral (the oldest continuously operating cathedral in the US, consecrated in 1794), and the Pontalba Buildings flanking the square. The Cabildo and Presbytère museums on either side of the cathedral hold Louisiana history collections.

The French Market, operating in some form since 1791, runs along the riverfront from Jackson Square. Café du Monde at the square end serves café au lait and beignets 24 hours a day. The beignets are worth the queue; order three at a time.

Tujague’s at 429 Decatur Street has served the same boiled brisket and shrimp remoulade since 1856, making it the second-oldest restaurant in New Orleans.

Food

Gumbo is the local staple: a dark roux-based stew with okra, shrimp, sausage, or crab. Good gumbo is smoky and complex and takes hours to make. The Gumbo Shop on St Peter Street is reliable.

Muffulettas were invented at Central Grocery at 923 Decatur in 1906, a round sesame-seeded sandwich with Italian cold cuts and olive salad. A whole muffuletta feeds two people; this fact is frequently ignored.

The Sazerac (rye whiskey, Peychaud’s bitters, absinthe rinse) was invented in New Orleans in the 1830s and is the city’s official cocktail. The Carousel Bar at Hotel Monteleone on Royal Street (a rotating bar in operation since 1949) makes a considered version alongside the Vieux Carré cocktail it invented.

Staying and Timing

Hotel Monteleone is the most storied address in the Quarter: 600 rooms, and every significant 20th-century American writer appears in the guest registry at some point. The wartime bunker beneath the hotel is open for tours.

Jazz Fest (late April) and Mardi Gras (February/March, date varies) make the city extraordinary but prices triple and rooms sell out months ahead. September through November is the most local, least crowded, and genuinely good period.