BJ'sLounge

BJ's Lounge has been a fixture of the Bywater neighborhood since 1974, a low-key corner bar that has outlasted trends, hurricanes, and the gentrification that has transformed much of the surrounding area. It is the kind of place that is genuinely difficult to find if you don't know it exists, and genuinely impossible to forget once you've been.

The room is small, the decor is eclectic, and the clientele is a genuine cross-section of the city — artists, musicians, workers, long-time residents and curious newcomers. Kermit Ruffins made BJ's famous for a time with his regular Tuesday night shows, which became must-attend events for anyone who wanted to hear great jazz in a real New Orleans setting.

The venue was featured prominently in the HBO series Treme, which filmed at BJ's and helped introduce it to a national audience. But long before and long after the cameras, BJ's has been what it has always been: a neighborhood joint where the music happens because the neighborhood needs it to happen.

BJ's Lounge is not a destination venue in the conventional sense — there is no website, minimal advance booking information, and no guarantee of what you'll find on any given night. That uncertainty is part of its appeal. It is New Orleans music in its most natural state: happening because it's supposed to happen, for the people who live here.