The Friendly Bar, New Orleans

About The Friendly Bar

The Friendly Bar lives up to its name: a low-key neighborhood dive on Chartres Street in the Marigny, just downriver from the French Quarter. Inside you'll find a pool table, darts, a jukebox, and cheap, cold drinks; out front, a porch flying rainbow flags where regulars post up on warm evenings. It reads as a gay bar without being exclusively one. The crowd is a genuine mix of LGBTQ+ locals and longtime neighborhood faces, with none of the spectacle of Bourbon Street, and that's the appeal. It's where you go when you want to actually talk to people, play a round of pool, and drink without a markup. For a traveler tired of the tourist crush, it's one of the most honest, easygoing rooms in the Marigny.