New Orleans is a cocktail town, and since it first opened over seven decades ago, the Carousel Bar in the Hotel Monteleone has enticed guests to take a coveted seat at the bar and enjoy one of its artfully crafted drinks. With an alluring selection of specialty cocktails (including a few that were first created at the famed bar), live music performances, and knowledgeable bartenders, the Carousel Bar remains a favorite of both locals and tourists.
The city’s only revolving bar was first installed at the Hotel Monteleone in 1949. The bar turns on 2,000 large steel rollers and makes one full rotation every 15 minutes, allowing patrons to overlook bustling Royal Street as they spin past the large fan windows. With its authentic carousel top, which was installed in 1992, and 25 hand-painted barstools depicting circus animals, the bar gives its guests the feel of a real carousel. Part of the fun is that the only way for its bartenders to get behind the circular bar is to hop up and over.
The establishment has a star-studded past, with performers such as Liberace stopping in for a nightcap after their shows at the famous Swan Room, a nightclub that operated alongside the Carousel Bar during its early days. The bar also attracted several distinguished authors, including William Faulkner, Tennessee Williams, Truman Capote, and Eudora Welty. The Friends of the Library Association deemed it a national literary landmark hotel. The hotel named several luxury suites after a few of its famed literary guests while the Carousel Bar honors Ernest Hemingway with a cocktail called Papa’s Daiquiri.
Two well-known cocktails were first invented by Carousel Bar bartenders, including the Goody and the Vieux Carré. In 2019, to celebrate its 70th birthday, the bar honored its history with a special anniversary menu highlighting classic cocktails throughout the decades, including other Carousel Bar originals such as the Fleur de Lis and the French 007, the latter of which was created in 2007 by Marvin Allen, the bar’s head mixologist.
The Carousel Bar & Lounge was renovated and expanded in 2011. In addition to opening up the room with coffered ceiling designs, crown molding, and glass chandeliers, the hotel also added an additional crescent-shaped bar and more seating for guests to enjoy beverages and live music. The carousel top and chairs remain the same, but the bar has more lighting and an updated bar surface.
Throughout the years, the Carousel Bar has earned a spot as one of New Orleans’ favorite places to have a drink, and it seems to become more and more iconic as the years go by.
