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Alberta
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Alberta is the most vini-conscious of the new restaurants to have opened along the "sliver by the river" that remained dry following last year's hurricanes. Dana Stovall, who manages Alberta's compact list, meets Chef Melody Pate's lamb loin and cranberry beans with wines like a cabernet from Galante Vineyards in Carmel. She stocks three Tobin James "palate busters," as the New Orleanian need for gastronomic speed survived the storms and remains unabated.
- Sara Roahen
Alberta, 5015 Magazine St., New Orleans; 504-891-3015
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Azul
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Azul is where the Central Business District clocks in for happy-hour mojitos, tropical salsa beats and Cuban noshes like papa rellena (creole beef tucked into a fried potato ball). Eagle-eyed connoisseurs will notice chef- owner Alfredo Diaz's side obsession behind the bar: the top-quality, fairly text999999d tequila selection, including fine reposados from Milagro and Corazon, Corralejo blanco and Patron's entire line. For himself, Diaz mixes Patron Citronge orange liqueur with Cuban materva or jupiña sodas.
- Sara Roahen
Azul, 535 Tchoupitoulas St., New Orleans; 504-599-2111
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Belle Forché
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Belle Forché is yet another reason to avoid the half-gallon daiquiris on Bourbon Street. Just a block beyond the French Quarter, locals from all neighborhoods flock to hear klezmer bands and African beats while sipping chef and part-owner Matt Yohalem's cocktails in a chicly renovated 200-year-old building. While you'll want to sip Pyrat Cask 23 rum and Chinaco Blanco tequila straight, "Mr. Raoul's Lemonade" (reposado tequila, Cointreau and lemon) puts a welcome chill on a muggy evening.
- Sara Roahen
Belle Forché Criolle Restaurant and Bar, 1407 Decatur St., New Orleans, LA; 504-940-0722
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Byblos
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A Lebanese hotspot where the barbecued lamb ribs are as smokin' as the belly dancers, is distiller John Blair's moonlighting gig. By day Blair crafts spirits at New Orleans Rum, but at night he channels his inner cocktail guru here, sporting a cane rum t-shirt as he works one of Uptown's busiest restaurant bars, shaking and stirring four local single-barrel and blended rums-all made with Louisiana blackstrap molasses-into Mai Tais, Mojitos, Dirty Frenchmen and Partly Cloudys.
- Sara Roahen
Byblos, 3218 Magazine St., New Orleans, LA; 504-894-1233
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Cobalt
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Cobalt marks the third venture for Bayona chef Susan Spicer, whose name and culinary sensibilities have helped temper the industrial-meets-lava-lamp motif of this hotel restaurant, along the St. Charles Avenue streetcar line. The value-oriented wine list stays true to the New World with sauvignon blanc from New Zealand's Allen Scott and a South African pinotage from Spice Route among others, but it's at the late-night bar where local specialties enter the limelight. Forget champagne: Gulf oysters on the half-shell slide down just fine with a mojito made with New Orleans Rum. After a show at the historic Saenger Theater around the corner, few wines flatter a panini-style muffaletta as well as Susan's Sazerac can. Her version is a husky mix of rye whiskey and Peychaud's Bitters served chilled in an Herbsaint-laced glass.
- Sara Roahen
Cobalt, Hotel Monaco, 333 St. Charles Ave., New Orleans, LA; 504-565-5595
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Doc Smith's Lounge
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Doc Smith's Lounge, on the surface, is simply a new bar inside a Smith & Wollensky steakhouse. But if you're hankering for a Sazerac before a Hornets basketball game or an Abita Turbo Dog (a local micro-brew) afterward, it's the only bar equipped with such libations within dribbling distance of the New Orleans Arena. Don't have tickets? Snuggle into a leather loveseat with filet tips, a Bordeaux from the 10,000-bottle cellar and a front-row view to several flat-screen televisions.
- Sara Roahen
Doc Smith's Lounge, Smith & Wollensky, 1009 Poydras St., New Orleans, LA; 504-561-0528
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Loa
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Loa is the kind of urban-chic, trendsetting bar that every pencil skirt in the Central Business District trots to when drinks like the Cosmo and Caipirinha hit New Orleans. Bar manager Chuck Avery's staff is equally versed in classic cocktails, too, and his shelves are well-stocked with the "manlier" spirits. To prove it, Avery reaches for a 21 Year Old Auchentoshan Lowlands Scotch. "It's sweet, but there's some nice peatiness, and it doesn't make you snarl." Other single-malt gems among the usual suspects are a 20 Year Old Highland Inchmurrin, a 17 Year Old Lowland Littlemill, and a 15 Year Old Ledaig from the Isle of Mull.
- Sara Roahen
LOA, International House Hotel, 221 Camp St., New Orleans, LA; 504-553-9550
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The Delachaise
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The Delachaise (Le Grande Comptoire) may nudge up against the well-known historic Garden District, but a trip inside the streamlined, vaguely streetcar-shaped building can be as compelling as stumbling upon Little Vietnam in eastern New Orleans, or taking a boudin tour of Cajun country. It opened last year with a wine-bar buzz, and while it does offer more interesting vintages by the glass than any other watering hole uptown, The Delachaise distinguishes itself with what may be the brainiest - and broadest - selection of beers, vintage ports, sherries and spirits in the city. That includes at least a dozen single-malts, many of them old enough to drive. Co-owner and bartender Evan Hayes serves up cocktails of every shape and size, he is most fond of a refreshing shake of Scotch, lemon and iced tea that he calls "a little bit country club".
- Sara Roahen
3442 St. Charles Ave., New Orleans, LA; 504-895-0858
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