The Best Beer Bars in New Orleans, by the Record
The best beer bars in New Orleans, by the professional record: Difford's Guide has weighed in, and their honors are what rank this list. D.B.A. comes out on top.
The Black Penny and Bulldog Pub hold the next two places.
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Rank 1. D.B.A.
Beer Bar
Frenchmen Street runs on live music, but D.B.A. is there for the beer, the spirits, and the wine, with bands as a bonus rather than the point. Two redwood-lined rooms share a central bar, one leaning lounge, one leaning jazz club, both dim and ceiling-fan slow. The New York sister bar genes show a little, which gives this New Orleans dive a slightly unlikely polish that the regulars seem happy to ignore.
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Rank 1. The Black Penny
Beer Bar
Three blocks from Bourbon Street and operating at a different frequency entirely, The Black Penny is a low-key craft beer bar with more than 70 canned options and the kind of room that actually makes you want to stay. One side runs plush leather banquettes against distressed plaster walls; the other is all dark wood and salvaged barge boards behind the bar. The crowd tends to know exactly why they came, and it isn't the tourists.
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Rank 3. Bulldog Pub
Beer Bar
The log-cabin feel is no accident: red wood ceiling, timber-clad walls, and a long solid bar give this neighborhood pub on Magazine Street the warmth of somewhere that's been broken in properly. It draws locals and Tulane students rather than tourists, with around fifty taps pouring everything from Abita Andygator to Belgian ales and American microbrews. A good place to disappear into a beer and feel like a regular by the second round.
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Rank 3. Cooter Brown's Tavern
Beer Bar