Kim Welsh

Let’s toast to the New Year! May all your joys be true joys, and all your pain champagne! What a year 2021 has been! Yet New Orleans is always a place for celebration, and we will be among the first to pop a champagne cork or toast with a drink crafted for the season. The “holidaze” and cocktails go together like gumbo and filé! At this most festive time of year, cheers and toasts abound! Pop that cork at one of our local brand-new or classic traditional bars for holiday memories to cherish. There’s always a reason to gather with friends and family to toast each other and celebrate life.

When my friends come to town, invariably their first question is “Where is an interesting and unique place to go for a drink?” shortly followed by “Will you meet us there?” Therefore I thought it may be helpful to share two of my favorite new bars, as well as one of my most beloved staples from the past decade.

In 18th-century America, the first lodgings which offered a bed and breakfast came into existence. With more travelers than rooms available, locals began renting out extra rooms in their homes to guests. It later became a way for homeowners to make money, and for travelers to cut expenses during the Great Depression. By the end of World War II, several middle-class Americans, inspired by trips to Europe, began establishing their own bed and breakfast services. Today’s tourists enjoy the benefits of staying in a home, sharing experiences with locals, and relishing in true hospitality.

Let the good times roll! The newest addition to the New Orleans riverfront and sister vessel of the Steamboat Natchez, the renovated riverboat City of New Orleans offers unforgettable daily jazz brunch and dinner cruises down the Mississippi River. On the cruise, visitors are offered an inside look at the artists at work on our Mardi Gras tradition. Mardi Gras World, where they build the floats that will eventually make their way down St. Charles Avenue in the grand and opulent Mardi Gras parades, offers a tour that rounds out a uniquely New Orleans experience.

Take a look around at your surroundings in the French Quarter and try to imagine what it was like one hundred years ago. In the Roaring Twenties, the neighborhood attracted artists and writers with its low-rent, faded charm, and colorful street life. Jackson Square was the center of a vibrant yet short-lived bohemia. The Quarter was mostly a gritty working class slum where people spoke French as often as English. Women lowered baskets to the street to grocers who loaded them with food and added a pint of gin. Artists and writers had taken to the area, seduced by its cheap rent.