New Orleans Ranked: Eats, Drinks and Culture in The Big Easy

As far as I’m concerned, there’s one main rule for visiting New Orleans: while you’re there, the calories don’t count. One of the best ways to truly experience this soulful city is through its food, drink. So get ready. Here are my favorite ways to gain a few points in New Orleans, plus the best things to do while you’re making room for the next meal.

Now, we don’t have happy hour drink specials in Boston (and we haven’t had ’em since 1984), so fantastic drink deals make me more excited than those who live in other states might understand. Still, no matter where you live, New Orleans’ deals on food and drink are almost too good to be true. Okay, enough with the disclaimer. Let’s dive in.
Three Favorite Meals
Kingfish (337 Chartres St.). This was Alex’s birthday dinner, so we were prepared to go big and get full. Kingfish made that goal extremely easy. We started with the flavor-packed bacon-wrapped jalapeño-garlic-cheese-chorizo bites to share. For our entrees, I chose the seafood cassoulet with sautéed shrimp, crawfish and alligator sausage with a cheese crust. My plate did not look like this for long.

Alex chose the scallop special with shrimp, grits and bacon bits. Normally, I’m not a fan of scallops (it’s a texture thing), but these were perfectly cooked and seasoned and just melted in your mouth. 

After most meals out, we barely have enough room for dessert, but when we saw sweet potato bourbon pecan pie on the menu, we made a necessary sacrifice, and we’re still talking about that incredible dessert to this day. I’d show you a picture, but we’d had a couple cocktails and a couple beers at that point, so it’s really blurry. When in New Orleans, right?

Cochon (930 Tchoupitoulas St.). Alex and I stumbled upon this upscale, cajun-style restaurant on a whim. Located in the Warehouse District, it has a rustic charm and an extensive collection of hard-to-find (and just generally good) whiskeys. The menu is full of creative takes on local eats, like small plates of fried alligator with garlic chili mayo and crawfish pie. For a larger portion, there’s the shrimp and deviled egg gumbo or pork cheeks with cream cheese grits and dried figs.

Cafe Beignet (334 Royal St.). These fluffy, doughy powder-covered pastries are hotly contested throughout the city. Cafe Du Monde is the crowd favorite,, but a local suggested Cafe Beignet, and it quickly catapulted to number one on my list. Place your order, then stake your claim at one of the outdoor cafe tables while your treats are freshly made. Grab extra napkins because you WILL be covered in sugar no matter how neatly you try to eat.

Three Favorite Happy Hours
Lüke (333 St. Charles Ave). There’s a reason customers vie for a seat at the bar here when the early evening rolls around: 50 cent raw oysters and $1 fried, plus half-price drinks from 3–6pm. Even better? No matter how busy the bar got (and we witnessed this scene multiple times), the customer service was top-notch. One bartender let us place our order during the last 15 minutes of happy hour and only brought out our oysters when we had a comfortable place to eat.
SoBou (310 Chartres St.). Go ahead. Ask the bartenders for the history of your sazerac. You’ll get a spirited lesson with local origins from stylish bartenders who never seem to tire of telling these tales. Beer, wine, cocktails and bar bites range from $3–$6 from 3–6pm. I can speak to the deliciousness of the pulled pork tacos and the crispy chicken on the bone.
Broussards (819 Conti St.). This deal might sound too good to be true, but you aren’t reading the menu wrong. From 4–7pm every day, $3 gets you a bowl of PEI mussels in a choice of three sauces with a side of truffle-oil fries. Wash it all down with a $4 punch or wines that range from $4–$7.

In Between Meals: Three Favorite Stops for a Dose of Local Flavor
The Spotted Cat (623 Frenchman St.). Bourbon Street can be a bit…well… overwhelming on a Friday or Saturday night. If the phrase “free shots” shouted by bar promoters doesn’t sound appealing, (and it didn’t to us) keep walking until you get to Frenchman Street. There, you’ll be among locals and a tamer tourist crowd, sipping Abita beer while the sounds of live jazz fill the room and couples take the floor to show off their moves. It’s a crowded, but welcoming scene that’s well worth the walk.

New Orleans Pharmacy Museum (415 Chartres St.). This small museum is full of pills, potions and poisons that’ll make you thankful for modern medicine. Shelves and cases are filled with the cures of eras past, and an exhibit upstairs tells the story of alcohol’s medicinal past and offers up some valuable advice on herbal hangover remedies.

Voodoo Museum (724 Dumaine St.). We stepped inside purely out of curiosity and were greeted by an older, gray-haired man. He told us he was a voodoo priest and had a well-trained python living in his apartment upstairs. We decided not to go in and left. Halfway down the street, I realized this wasn’t something we were going to see anywhere else and convinced Alex it was well worth our money. The two small rooms, packed with voodoo artifacts and historical tidbits, did not disappoint. On the way out, I couldn’t help picking up two gris gris: one for creativity and one for love. The voodoo priest instructed me to keep them in my bag at all times. Couldn’t hurt, right?

There you have it! After assembling this list, I can see why friends who’ve visited New Orleans before were at a loss for recommendations: I’ve never been to a city so perfect for hopping from one location to the next, sipping a little bit here, nibbling on an appetizer there. Besides: you try remembering all the stops you made after a few half-price craft cocktails and see how it goes.