Above The Grid

Baronne Street and the Downtown Drinking Shift

Downtown New Orleans has been recalibrating. For most of the city's modern bar history, the serious drinking happened uptown along Magazine Street and in the Marigny, where spots like Cure and Jewel of the South established the city's credentials in the national cocktail conversation. The Central Business District, by contrast, was largely transactional: hotel bars, convention-circuit pours, and the kind of drinking that happens between meetings rather than because of genuine interest. That equation has been shifting, and Above The Grid at 317 Baronne St is part of that shift.

The address matters for context. Baronne Street sits inside a dense commercial corridor where foot traffic is office workers and hotel guests by day, and a more intentional crowd by night. A venue that takes wine curation seriously in this location is making a statement about who it expects to find it, and what kind of occasion it is designed for.

The Wine List as the Argument

New Orleans has historically been a spirits town. Rye in the Sazerac, rum in the Colonial-era tradition that still echoes through places like Beachbum Berry's Latitude 29, and the daiquiri in roughly a hundred variations. Wine has always had a place at the city's tables, but the idea of a wine program as the primary editorial voice of a bar or lounge is less common here than in, say, Chicago, where Kumiko has built its identity around Japanese whisky and carefully sourced wine in equal measure, or San Francisco, where ABV treats the bottle list with the same rigor as the cocktail menu.

The venues that get wine programs right in an American bar context tend to share a few characteristics: selections that go beyond the obvious appellations, a pour-by-the-glass list that takes risks on producers most guests won't recognize, and enough depth in the bottle list to reward the visitor who wants to stay and explore rather than tick and leave. Whether Above The Grid achieves that depth is something confirmed leading by visiting, but the positioning within a downtown New Orleans context, where that level of curation is genuinely scarce, gives the venue a clear lane.

For comparison, Allegory in Washington, D.C. demonstrates what it looks like when a bar takes its beverage program across spirits and wine simultaneously, building a list that functions as an argument about taste rather than a menu designed for average-order-value. That is the competitive reference point for any venue framing itself through cellar depth in 2024.

Where Above The Grid Sits in the New Orleans Bar Hierarchy

New Orleans bar culture now occupies several distinct tiers. At the craft-cocktail end, the city has earned national recognition through a small cluster of venues whose programs draw comparison with the leading American bar cities. Jewel of the South operates at that level, with a commitment to historical research and technique that places it in the same conversation as Julep in Houston or Superbueno in New York City. Below that sits a broader tier of competent, atmosphere-led venues. And then there is the emerging category of places oriented around wine and low-intervention drinking, which is growing nationally but remains underdeveloped in New Orleans specifically.

Above The Grid occupies a position where it can speak to the latter category without the competition pressure it would face in a city like New York or Los Angeles. That is both an opportunity and a marker of how early the city is in developing this kind of venue. The scarcity of serious wine-led bar programming in New Orleans is, in itself, an editorial point: the drinker who wants that experience has very few places to find it here.

For those who want to understand the fuller New Orleans drinking and dining picture, our full New Orleans restaurants guide maps the key venues by category and neighbourhood.

The Venue in Physical Terms

The Baronne Street address places Above The Grid within walking distance of the French Quarter boundary, close enough to benefit from the density of visitors moving through that corridor, but far enough to avoid the high-decibel, high-volume character of Bourbon Street drinking. That geography tends to self-select for guests with some intention: people who have made a specific decision to be somewhere rather than simply wandered in from the street.

Internationally, venues built around wine curation in similar dense urban corridors, from The Parlour in Frankfurt to Bar Leather Apron in Honolulu, have shown that the format works when the space itself reinforces the program: quieter than a typical bar, lit for reading labels rather than social performance, and staffed by people who can explain what is in the glass without a script. The physical environment at Above The Grid, and whether it delivers that register, is confirmed on arrival.

Who This Is For

The guest who gets the most from a wine-led bar in a spirits city is usually one of two types: someone already familiar with the New Orleans cocktail scene who wants a different register for a particular evening, or a visitor whose drinking preferences run to wine and who has found the city's usual bar recommendations don't connect with what they actually want to drink. Neither profile is niche in absolute terms, but both are underserved in the downtown New Orleans market specifically.

For visitors exploring beyond the CBD, 2 Phat Vegans represents a different side of the city's independent drinking and eating culture, worth knowing about as a contrast to the more polish-oriented venues in this part of town.

Frequently Asked Questions

What should I try at Above The Grid?

Without confirmed menu data, the safest starting point is to ask the bar team what is currently pouring well by the glass. In wine-oriented bars, the by-the-glass selection is usually where the most interesting curation decisions are visible, and a good sommelier or bar lead will have a clear answer. Cross-reference the New Orleans context: the city's food traditions pair well with both high-acid whites and structured reds, which gives a wine program here a natural range to work with.

What is the defining thing about Above The Grid?

In a city whose bar identity is built primarily around spirits and cocktails, a venue at a Baronne Street address in the CBD that orients around wine curation occupies a genuinely underserved position. That positioning, rather than any single award or published accolade, is the clearest signal of what makes it distinct within the current New Orleans bar scene.

How far ahead should I plan for Above The Grid?

Published booking data is not available at time of writing. Given the venue's downtown location and the general pattern for CBD bars in New Orleans, same-week visits are likely feasible for most occasions, but contacting the venue directly before making plans is advisable, particularly for larger groups or specific events.

Is Above The Grid better for first-timers or repeat visitors to New Orleans?

First-time visitors to New Orleans will typically be drawn toward the city's established cocktail destinations first, which is a reasonable starting point. Above The Grid makes more sense as a deliberate choice: for the return visitor who knows the Jewel of the South and Cure tier well, or for any visitor whose primary interest is wine rather than spirits. It fills a gap rather than competing at the centre of the city's bar identity.

Should I make the effort to visit Above The Grid?

Without published awards or a confirmed track record in the major bar guides, the case for a dedicated visit rests on the scarcity argument: wine-led bar programming in downtown New Orleans is thin, and if that is what you are looking for, the options are limited. If you are already in the CBD, the Baronne Street location makes a visit low-friction. For a cross-city journey based on the program alone, confirm the current offer before committing.

Is Above The Grid suitable for a pre-dinner drink or a longer evening?

A wine-oriented bar in the CBD sits naturally in the pre-dinner slot for guests dining in the French Quarter or nearby, given the walkable geography. Whether the venue has the bottle depth and seating format to sustain a longer, multi-hour visit is something to confirm on arrival or by contacting the venue in advance. The format of a serious wine bar, in most American cities, is designed to do both.