Traveling through the area, it almost feels like the city takes a right turn, angling inward to match the bend in the river, leaving Cooter Brown’s and its neighbors with a feeling of living on the edge of the city. Across a small park outside of Cooter Brown’s, a daquiri takeout spot. Next door, a Thai restaurant. This is a hodge podge of a corner and Cooter Brown’s has anchored it since 1979, a natural collecting point for the neighborhood locals.
The artwork outside lives up to the bar’s timeless status, an explosion of Wild West iconography, from the cowboy that features on the Cooter Brown’s sign above the door to the classic red awning that lines the front edge of the bar. Underneath, an extensive mural continues the theme, a cowboy on the side of the road beckoning all comers to Cooter Brown’s. Metal picnic tables allow for outdoor drinking, as is the New Orleans tradition.
Inside, the space stretches farther than looks possible given the view outside. The front room features Cooter Brown’s main bar, an extensive, winding offering flanked by case after case after case of beer, an array boasting what is reportedly over 400 varieties of canned and bottled alcohol. Not to be outdone, an array of taps across two bars (more on that later) ups the collection with a few dozen draft offerings.