Where to eat

How to Spend a Big Fat Weekend in Bywater, New Orleans

Leave the French Quarter behind to find corner store po’boys, backyard wine bars, and an interactive musical playground.
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Alex Lau

There’s no place like New Orleans, and no place in New Orleans like Bywater. Just two miles from the French Quarter and its throngs of tourists, here’s where you go to taste inventive Caribbean-meets-Louisiana cooking, take a break from beignets with some local kombucha, and hear live jazz music under trees draped with lights.

The primarily residential neighborhood, with its long-standing artist community, has changed dramatically in the years since Katrina—for better, and for worse. (Having survived the storm somewhat intact, it was quickly targeted by developers and new residents alike.) Now historic corner stores and thrift shops peek out between technicolor Victorian homes, and once-abandoned warehouses are being converted into the city’s most compelling new restaurants and galleries. Put simply, it’s become one of the most exciting places to experience the food defining the city today. Here’s where to go.

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    Photo by Aliza Abarbanel
    1/11

    Bywater American Bistro

    Boozy brunch is a New Orleans tradition (some residents claim the city invented the meal), but it can sometimes translate into sub-par waffles and watered down mimosas. There’s none of that at Bywater American Bistro. Nina Compton’s Caribbean-inspired Louisiana cuisine is straight-up fun—think: breakfast corn dogs, confit chicken Caesar sandwiches, and bright passion fruit mimosas. Plus, the crispy rice with maitake mushrooms, tossed with peas and drizzled with ribbons of yolk jam, is one hell of a hangover cure. Keep an eye out for the sparkly Krewe of Muses stiletto on the hostess stand—a prized Mardi Gras float catch.

  • Photo by Aliza Abarbanel
    2/11

    Frady's One Stop Food Store

    New Orleans used to be filled with corner stores—mom and pop shops that offer groceries, hot plates, and neighborhood gossip—and those that remain are fiercely loved. Every day, neighbors gather on the benches outside Frady’s One Stop Corner Store to eat "grumpy old man” breakfast plates (two eggs, home fries, bacon, and toast) and shoot the shit. Order a shrimp po’boy at the register (plastered with prayer cards and a picture of the Evil Queen from Snow White), locate a bag of Zapp’s Voodoo Chips, then head out to the sidewalk tables or down to the river to eat.

  • Photo by Aliza Abarbanel
    3/11

    Satsuma

    Let’s be real: After a few days of muffalettas and Bloody Marys, you’re going to need something green. Head to Satsuma, a healthyish all-day cafe that’s stocked with plenty of local kombucha, freshly made cold-pressed juices, and salads to reset your system. Grab an avocado toast piled high with feta and arugula to soak up last night’s sins, then soak up some sun on the patio.

  • Photo by Aliza Abarbanel
    4/11

    Pizza Delicious

    Pizza Delicious comes from humble beginnings: Two New Yorkers who came to the city for college, missed their hometown pizza, and decide to teach themselves how to make a killer pie. Almost ten years later, the Sundays-only pop up has grown into a lively family-friendly restaurant that slings some of the best pizza in the city. (Their dough is fermented for two days, resulting in a chewy, tasty crust.) Order the daily special and some garlic knots for the table, plus a round of rum punches for good measure. Don’t skip the rotating salad either—radicchio and citrus on my first visit, roasted carrots and orzo on another—which is always bright, bracing, and extremely satisfying. Try to snag a spot on the patio, or grab a $2 to-go slice on the way to your next stop.

  • Photo by Aliza Abarbanel
    5/11

    N7

    Echoes of the city’s French colonial history are everywhere, but walking into N7 is like plummeting straight into Paris. Filmmaker Aaron Walker and chef Yuki Yamaguchi’s jewel box of a restaurant is charming but decidedly unpretentious, with walls covered in old gallery posters, a vintage red Citroën parked in the garden, and a sprawling natural wine list focused on small European winemakers. The French menu pays homage to Yamaguchi’s Japanese roots with escargot tempura, pork katsu with beef puree, and a kabocha daikon tarte tatin.

  • Photo by Aliza Abarbanel
    6/11

    Bacchanal

    Bacchanal is part wine shop, part outdoor restaurant, part live music venue—a triple threat that guarantees a good time. Enter through the wine and cheese shop, where chilled-out clerks will direct you to a juicy Gamay or thick hunk of Humboldt Fog goat cheese. Then take your bottle and assembled snacks out to the sprawling backyard, where some of the city’s best jazz bands play for zero cover. The full Mediterranean menu (fregola sarda, sardines in escabeche) and touches of Southern hospitality (heat lamps for winter, bug spray forever) will keep you there well into the evening. Don’t forget to bring cash to tip the band.

  • Photo by Aliza Abarbanel
    7/11

    Parleaux Beer Lab

    This microbrewery has a big backyard and even bigger ideas. Their ever-changing tap list is full of funky co-ferments, juicy double IPAS, and brett-forward farmhouse ales. Parleaux isn’t afraid to get weird—their Two Shuck Chuck Oyster Stout incorporates oysters throughout the brewing process, and balances their brine with notes of chocolate and coffee. The taproom and backyard frequently host free community yoga, restaurant pop ups, and comedy nights—check their website to time your visit accordingly.

  • Photo by Aliza Abarbanel
    8/11

    Euclid Records

    Euclid Records was founded in Saint Louis in 1983; their sister store was established in NOLA near the banks of the Mississippi River in 2010. The sprawling two-story space is home to an impressive collection of old gems and new releases, with a stretch of jazz and blues by the register and comedy records in the rafters. I scored a copy of Funkadelic’s One Nation Under a Groove, but pined for countless other albums. Definitely reserve some extra space in your carry-on.

  • Photo by Aliza Abarbanel
    9/11

    Studio Be

    R&B floats through this 35,000-square-foot warehouse, which has been converted into a four-hall gallery space by artist Brandan “B-mike” Odums. His work studies the complexities of modern Black life through mixed media sculptures and huge spray painted portraits, covering themes like police brutality, Hurricane Katrina, and the Black Panther Party. The sweeping mural outside—a young Black girl with her arms outstretched toward the sky—is a community landmark.

  • Photo by Aliza Abarbanel
    10/11

    Music Box Village

    Music Box Village is a non-profit musical playground that creates interactive sound art installations from bells, drum kits, and MacGyvered everyday objects. The artist-built sculpture garden trades in the unexpected, placing a drum kit inside a gazebo and rigging a sliding door’s wires to be plucked like a bass string. Children and adults alike run from station to station, creating a beautiful wall of sound, and the outdoor spaces is often home to flea markets, concerts, and other community events.

  • Photo by Aliza Abarbanel
    11/11

    Dr. Bob's Folk Art

    Forget “Laissez les bons temps rouler”; “Be Nice or Leave” is NOLA’s real catchphrase. It was popularized by legendary local folk artist Dr. Bob, whose funky hand-painted signs hang in restaurants, bars, and homes across the city. The self-taught artist has operated out of his current Bywater studio since the ’90s, and runs an attached gallery with work available for purchase. Stop by to check out his collection of found objects and pick up a sign for your kitchen. If you’re lucky, you’ll meet Dr. Bob himself.

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