Vodka venue - the French Quarter, New Orleans

     Photo by caitcolf

Exotic food, abundant, free live music, aggressive consumption of alcohol, and blithe removal of clothing; if you appreciate excess and unhinged frivolity, you will love New Orleans.  If you are there simply because New Orleans is a port of debarkation, and you have seven hours to kill before your cruise ship sails, then you may not.

Festooned with neon, teeming with revelers, and not saddled with restrictive business hours or open-container laws, New Orleans is like Las Vegas's older, less well-behaved, southern brother.  In fact, now that New Orleans has legalized gambling, through a legal loophole that no local seems to be able to understand or explain, New Orleans is just like Las Vegas, just with humidity, more history, and heaps of regional charm.

Despite being a near-cliche tourist attraction, and object of a fair amount of dubious publicity, visitors to New Orleans must experience the French Quarter, and specifically Bourbon Street.  The French Quarter possesses an energy that is rivaled only by London's Soho, and, well, Amsterdam's Red-Light District.  In spite of the comparison, New Orleans is safe, as long as you watch where you step, and control how much you drink.  This latter being no small feat, as the French Quarter boasts more bars per square-foot than most college towns.

The French Quarter requires focus, but for those willing to invest the energy, relax their inhibitions, and endure mild invasions into their personal space, an exciting, almost otherworldly experience awaits.  Venturing into the Quarter is an assault on every sense.  Creeping vines ascend the characteristically-weathered wrought iron facings of spectacular Spanish row houses (no, not French; the Quarter was rebuilt under Spanish direction after a fire in 1788), vaunting innumerable bars that never close; featuring live bands that you won't have heard of, but will stop to hear, and won't forget;  the scent of boiled shellfish, fried pastries, flowing and spilled beer, and something that reminds you of your high school locker-room permeate each block, and grow with the throng of hedonists that carry you along on an inexorable, perspiring tide.

    garlick truck

For sustenance, follow the advice of a local, as charm is a manufactured and universal product of New Orleans, or be lured by the most pleasing, prevalent smell.  Then stand in the middle of any of the pedestrian-only streets, and be drawn toward the nearest open-air bar by any of the number of under-represented, but brilliant rock and blues bands.  Delight in another legal anomaly, and wander from one establishment to another without having to finish, or abandon your drink.  Drinks are reasonable everywhere in the Quarter, but don't be afraid to shop around, as happy-hours abound, and several bars offer two-, three-, even four-for-one drink specials

For a clean, respectively-tranquil, and perhaps not wholly representative (see clean and respectively-tranquil) escape, retreat to Pat O' Brien's, New Orleans' famed courtyard and piano bar.  Take pictures at Pat's, that you may be able to show people back home that you did something respectable.  At least one member of your party is obligated to try a New Orleans Hurricane cocktail.  Make sure this is not the same member of your party who is charged with caring for your camera, or remembering the location of your hotel.

The New Orleans bar and music scene is well documented by Jeffrey Shaw, New Orleans Events Examiner.
For a crafty twist on an Absolut original, see Kansas City Drinks Examiner, Angie Rayfield's Bourbon Street Lemonade.