What cultural etiquette should I know for New Orleans?
Bourbon Street is not a guide to how New Orleans behaves. In Tremé and the Marigny, say hello to strangers; tip 18 to 22% at restaurants and put cash in the band's bucket on Frenchmen Street. At a Sunday second line, follow behind the club members and the band, never inside their section. Enter the old cemeteries only with a licensed guide.
Most first-timers make one mistake: they take Bourbon Street as a guide to how the city behaves. Bourbon, between Canal Street and St. Ann Street, runs on frozen daiquiris and sticky pavement; city crews tend to hose it down with a citrus-scented cleaner before 8am, and you can still smell it at breakfast. One block over on Royal Street, the noise drops. In Tremé or the Bywater, people sitting on their stoops say good morning to everyone who passes, and Tremé residents notice when a visitor walks by in silence. On Esplanade Avenue, a nod and a 'how you doin'' is the price of sharing the sidewalk. Bourbon's habits don't carry over. Flashing for beads is a French Quarter tourist act, and NOPD can still arrest you for it as obscenity under Louisiana law, during Mardi Gras or any other week.
Sunday second lines are where visitors most often trip up. Social aid and pleasure clubs such as the Prince of Wales and the Lady Buckjumpers parade most Sundays from late August into June, usually for about four hours, with members in matching suits walking at the front ahead of a brass band. You're welcome to follow behind the band, and that crowd is what 'second line' means. You're not welcome inside the club's section or in the band's path. Vendors drag coolers of $3 beer along the route, and buying from them is part of the day. WWOZ posts each Sunday's route under its Takin' It To The Streets listing on wwoz.org. At Carnival parades on St. Charles Avenue, families have often held their spots on the neutral ground since dawn. Reach over a child for a strand of beads and somebody from Uptown will tell you about it, loudly.
Music etiquette here comes down to two things: money and noise. At The Spotted Cat on Frenchmen Street, there's no cover charge, just a one-drink minimum, and the bucket comes around once per set. The brass and trumpet carry right through the open doors, so you can hear a band from half a block away before you commit to walking in. Tonight, Monday 19 October, the Charmaine Neville Band plays Snug Harbor Jazz Bistro. Snug Harbor sells tickets and runs as a listening room, which means you keep your table quiet during solos. Around midnight on 19 October it was 14°C and clear, cool enough that the walk back to the French Quarter calls for a light jacket.
New Orleans runs on a Catholic calendar, and it shapes behaviour more than visitors expect. All Saints' Day falls on Sunday 1 November this year, and in the week before, families in Metairie Cemetery and Lafayette Cemetery No. 1 scrub and whitewash their tombs, the lime smell hanging in the warm air. If you see a family working on a tomb, give them the room you'd give a funeral. During Lent, Friday menus across Mid-City lean toward fried catfish and boiled crawfish. On 19 March, St. Joseph's Day, Sicilian-descended families set up altars in homes and churches. Take the fava bean they hand you, and leave a few dollars in the basket by the cookies.
Cultural norms
New Orleans runs on warmth and direct address. Strangers greet each other on the sidewalk, and ignoring a "how ya doin'" from a shopkeeper reads as rude rather than private. "Sir" and "ma'am" still carry real currency with older residents, especially in Tremé and the Seventh Ward.
Dress is casual across most of the city, but St. Louis Cathedral and other active churches expect covered shoulders and shorts below the knee: staff will turn people away. At Commander's Palace and similar uptown restaurants with a jacket-preferred policy, athletic wear and flip-flops will get you seated last or not at all. On streetcars, let riders exit before boarding and move to the back; locals on the St. Charles line notice when visitors block the aisle for photos. Brass bands playing on Royal Street or in Jackson Square are working: drop a few dollars in the open instrument case rather than filming and walking past.
Tipping at 20 percent is the floor in restaurants, not generous. Bartenders expect a dollar per drink minimum. Second-line parades are participatory, but cutting in front of the main line or the grand marshal is a serious breach. Never call the food "Cajun" when you mean Creole: the distinction matters deeply here, and conflating them marks you as someone who has not learned the place at all.
Greetings
Say hello to everyone, cashiers and RTA bus drivers included. 'Where y'at?' gets the answer 'Awright', and older locals call strangers 'baby' or 'darlin'' without flirting. Never say 'N'awlins'. Learn the street names: Chartres is 'Charters', Burgundy is 'bur-GUN-dee', Tchoupitoulas is 'chop-uh-TOO-luss'.
Don't do this
- Don't enter St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 without a licensed guide. Since 2015, after vandals painted Marie Laveau's tomb, the Archdiocese has admitted visitors through registered tours alone.
- Never draw X marks on any tomb. It's vandalism, not a Vodou ritual.
- Never carry glass on the street. In the French Quarter, walking with a drink is fine, but it has to be in a plastic or paper go-cup.
- Don't walk into the club members' section or the band's path at a Sunday second line.
- Don't set a parade ladder closer to the curb than the ladder is tall, a setback that city ordinance requires along the St. Charles Avenue routes.
- Don't photograph Black Masking Indians on Super Sunday or Mardi Gras Day without asking, and never step in front of a Big Chief.
- Don't take the 'I bet I can tell you where you got your shoes' bet in the French Quarter. The answer is 'on your feet', and you're out $20.
Tipping
Tip 18 to 22% at sit-down restaurants, $1 to $2 per drink at bars, and at no-cover clubs on Frenchmen Street, $5 or more in the band's bucket each set. Street performers in Jackson Square expect a few dollars if you stop to watch or film.
Dress code
Shorts are fine almost everywhere from June to September, but the old Creole dining rooms hold a different standard: Galatoire's on Bourbon Street requires jackets for men after 5pm and all day Sunday, and Commander's Palace in the Garden District bans shorts and prefers jackets at dinner. Inside St. Louis Cathedral, cover your shoulders and take your hat off.
Religious norms
St. Louis Cathedral on Jackson Square is a working parish with daily Mass, and walking the aisles or taking photos during a service is rude, so wait until it ends. Vodou is a living religion here, not a costume. At Marie Laveau's tomb and at the Voodoo Spiritual Temple on North Rampart Street, ask before you photograph an altar, and never take an offering.
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