Beachbum Berry's Latitude 29, New Orleans: Review
tropical thunder: Beachbum Berry's Latitude 29, new orleans
Review by Paul Oswell
There’s a decent choice of tiki bars in New Orleans, but there’s only one that’s been fashioned by one of the world’s foremost authorities on the subject. Jeff ‘Beachbum’ Berry is said expert, and this bar, one of the best of its kind in the country, if not the world, is an homage to the craft. Latitude 29 is a rum-doused church, where mid-century tiki cocktail culture is celebrated with passion (fruit). Located on the ground floor of Decatur Street’s Bienville Hotel, it’s a stylish lounge that’s been enthusiastically festooned with sacred tiki artifacts, maps, and iconography.
The bar is a place of pilgrimage for tiki fans, as well as being a fun adventure or an intriguing introduction to more casual cocktail drinkers. Expect a relatively high contingent of colorful, floral shirts among the parties of friends gathered around elaborate glasses, mugs and bowls. Drinks are passed around excitedly for sips and samplings, and there’s a fizzing, contagiously frivolous energy.
For me, no matter their focus, the best cocktail bars are always ones that properly acknowledge drinking history and traditions as well as being innovative, and that means more than just coming up with a zany but undrinkable martini. The tiki legends, many of which Berry himself is responsible for keeping alive, are names such as Don the Beachcomber and Trader Vic, and their classic Mai Tais and Zombies are about as good as you’re going to find anywhere. The bar’s originals, such as the Pontchartrain Pearl Diver and the Outcast of the Islands, are equally boozy and complex. All of the drinks are aesthetically playful, with fresh flower garnishes, creative ice arrangements, and of course, delightful drinking vessels.
There’s much to explore and enjoy on the food menu, which takes inspiration from Polynesia, but not in a limiting, dogmatic way. Korean and Filipino influences are noticeable in the bar-friendly wings and ribs, and they complement interesting flourishes such as salt and sake-cured salmon and pimento cheese rangoons. Desserts are available but with such masterful applications of sweet flavors in the drinks, I usually plump for another cocktail to round off dinner.
It’s a slick operation right from check-in, to stumbling back out into the French Quarter. With such a logistically-intense and multi-ingredient drinks menu, there’s a high risk of bartenders falling into the weeds. However, drinks are prepared with loving attention and impressive efficiency. With chatty and friendly staff engaging with guests at the bar as they muddle and shake, even the more involved concoctions don’t seem to take too long. The servers in the restaurant area are also well up-to-speed when it comes to navigating your course around the cocktails.
Latitude 29 is as impressive as you’d imagine it to be, having been built by a self-professed ‘tiki aerchitect’. Berry has devoted decades to unearthing long-thought-lost recipes and to documenting and innovating tiki cocktails. Us residents are incredibly lucky that he and his partner Aneen chose New Orleans as the location to set out their exotic-looking swizzle sticks, and visitors should make a special effort to share in out sweet-tasting bounty.
Beachbum Berry's Latitude 29 website
More New Orleans restaurant and bar reviews
There’s a decent choice of tiki bars in New Orleans, but there’s only one that’s been fashioned by one of the world’s foremost authorities on the subject. Jeff ‘Beachbum’ Berry is said expert, and this bar, one of the best of its kind in the country, if not the world, is an homage to the craft. Latitude 29 is a rum-doused church, where mid-century tiki cocktail culture is celebrated with passion (fruit). Located on the ground floor of Decatur Street’s Bienville Hotel, it’s a stylish lounge that’s been enthusiastically festooned with sacred tiki artifacts, maps, and iconography.
The bar is a place of pilgrimage for tiki fans, as well as being a fun adventure or an intriguing introduction to more casual cocktail drinkers. Expect a relatively high contingent of colorful, floral shirts among the parties of friends gathered around elaborate glasses, mugs and bowls. Drinks are passed around excitedly for sips and samplings, and there’s a fizzing, contagiously frivolous energy.
For me, no matter their focus, the best cocktail bars are always ones that properly acknowledge drinking history and traditions as well as being innovative, and that means more than just coming up with a zany but undrinkable martini. The tiki legends, many of which Berry himself is responsible for keeping alive, are names such as Don the Beachcomber and Trader Vic, and their classic Mai Tais and Zombies are about as good as you’re going to find anywhere. The bar’s originals, such as the Pontchartrain Pearl Diver and the Outcast of the Islands, are equally boozy and complex. All of the drinks are aesthetically playful, with fresh flower garnishes, creative ice arrangements, and of course, delightful drinking vessels.
There’s much to explore and enjoy on the food menu, which takes inspiration from Polynesia, but not in a limiting, dogmatic way. Korean and Filipino influences are noticeable in the bar-friendly wings and ribs, and they complement interesting flourishes such as salt and sake-cured salmon and pimento cheese rangoons. Desserts are available but with such masterful applications of sweet flavors in the drinks, I usually plump for another cocktail to round off dinner.
It’s a slick operation right from check-in, to stumbling back out into the French Quarter. With such a logistically-intense and multi-ingredient drinks menu, there’s a high risk of bartenders falling into the weeds. However, drinks are prepared with loving attention and impressive efficiency. With chatty and friendly staff engaging with guests at the bar as they muddle and shake, even the more involved concoctions don’t seem to take too long. The servers in the restaurant area are also well up-to-speed when it comes to navigating your course around the cocktails.
Latitude 29 is as impressive as you’d imagine it to be, having been built by a self-professed ‘tiki aerchitect’. Berry has devoted decades to unearthing long-thought-lost recipes and to documenting and innovating tiki cocktails. Us residents are incredibly lucky that he and his partner Aneen chose New Orleans as the location to set out their exotic-looking swizzle sticks, and visitors should make a special effort to share in out sweet-tasting bounty.
Beachbum Berry's Latitude 29 website
More New Orleans restaurant and bar reviews