New Orleans has a permissive relationship with alcohol — you can drink on the street, bars stay open until the last customer leaves (which can be very late indeed), and the city's cocktail history is deep enough to fill a museum. The Sazerac, invented here in the 1830s, is considered the world's first cocktail; the Hurricane was invented at Pat O'Brien's in 1942; the Ramos Gin Fizz has been shaken in New Orleans since 1888.
Bourbon Street is the loud face of New Orleans drinking — open-air bars, frozen daiquiris in go-cups, the smell of beer on hot pavement. Frenchmen Street in the Marigny is the alternative: live jazz in small clubs, local crowds, no cover charge. The Napoleon House on Chartres Street is the most atmospheric bar in the city for a quiet afternoon drink. Preservation Hall is something else again — less a bar than a sacred space for traditional jazz, with musicians who play it straight and audiences who listen. Café du Monde is open twenty-four hours and serves chicory coffee and beignets in a cloud of powdered sugar, at any hour of the day or night.