Golden Lantern

The Golden Lantern sits on Royal Street at the edge of the French Quarter's lower end, where the neighbourhood transitions into the Marigny, and it has been a neighbourhood gay bar at this address long enough that it has become inseparable from the character of the street. The bar is the antithesis of the Bourbon Street clubs: small, low-lit, unpretentious, and serving a crowd that skews toward older locals and visitors who have been coming to New Orleans long enough to know where to find the bars that are not performing for tourists. The Golden Lantern draws a genuinely mixed crowd — men, women, various ages — in the tradition of the neighbourhood gay bar that serves the community around it rather than a niche within it. The jukebox is legendarily well-stocked. The bar runs a programme of Mardi Gras events that have become Marigny traditions, including an annual Mardi Gras party that draws a crowd far exceeding the bar's usual capacity. For visitors staying in the Marigny or Bywater — increasingly popular as accommodation alternatives to the French Quarter proper — the Golden Lantern is the local gay bar, and it is exactly what a local gay bar should be.