Rawhide Lounge, New Orleans

About Rawhide Lounge

Rawhide is the French Quarter's longtime leather-and-cruise dive, on the corner of Burgundy and St. Ann at the edge of the 'Fruit Loop' cluster of gay bars just off Bourbon. It built its name as a kink-friendly leather bar and still carries that DNA—a signature red pool table, a jukebox, screens running adult videos, and an outdoor area—but since reopening it markets itself more broadly as an inclusive dive and safe space for the whole LGBTQ+ crowd and allies. There's no cover and no pretense; it's the come-as-you-are, low-key end of the Quarter rather than a dance destination. Sandwiched among the Burgundy and Dauphine bars, it works as one stop on an easy crawl through the neighborhood's gay strip—go for the dark-bar, leather-leaning character, not a big night out. Locals treat it as a reliable neighborhood corner to land at.