The Bar Inside Pat O'Brien's Bar

This week, Pat O’s was officially awarded the coveted SBIG Award (So Bad It’s Good Award). Now for the fourth and final exhibit…

Exhibit D: Pat O’Briens' Bar

So Bad: Believe it or not, in addition to the 14 places to get a drink inside Pat O’Briens and the 59 servers on staff at any given hour – Pat O’s also offers a full bar, away from the restaurant, courtyard, and piano bar, to round out its effort to be “an everything you could ever want in an establishment”, kind of establishment.

The first time I walked into this area of Pat O’s I was so confused that it was even slightly necessary for it to exist. Pat O’s has so much other crap going on that having an area where I can approach a bar and order something besides a hurricane from an actual bartender just seemed like too much. I remember asking the bartender if he knew how to make a gin fizz, he responded “of course, this is a regular bar”. Just the fact that his first instinct was to come back with this response makes me wonder if the even the employees know they are a small part of the large circus that is Pat O’s.  

I don't get it. What are these drinks and why aren't they Hurricanes?

It’s Good: Pat O’s must have expected I would be perplexed with this ‘bar inside a bar’ concept and as a result, they concertedly organized a wee bit of voodoo magic to change my mind…

So let’s just preface that I don’t smoke. I mean, rarely, if ever do I smoke. Yet… on this particularly peculiar night… I was smoking. So I had just bummed a cigarette off a fellow patron (obviously non-smokers don’t have their own packs…) And just as I was unclasping my purse to look for a light (like I even own a lighter…) when the bartender whisked an open pack of matches across the surface of the bar, with one lit match sticking straight up from the rest, landing dead smack in front of me. Wow, Pat O’s arbitrary bar. Wow. 

Bartenders at Pat O's Bar's Bar look like this.

Ok so to reiterate…am I a regular smoker? No. Do I think that smoking is sexy? No. Did I think this 45-year old, pot bellied, balding bartender was sexy? My. God. Yes. In fact, I’m still unsure if I have seen anyone sexier. So fine, Pat O’s utterly unnecessary bar, you can stay. But only because you gave me the sexiest, most magical 30 seconds of my life. Now that’s some New Orleans Voodoo for ya. And I encourage you to go and experience it yourself.

“Laissez les bon temps rouler”

          - Circus Freak

Insider Tip:

At this point I would like to apologize for submitting the longest review to date but as you can see Pat O’s is 4 bars in one and you might as well knock everything out while you’re there. Because you definitely won’t want to go back…unless you do… as I have… because you’ll love it.