Bar: The Dungeon
Address: 738 Toulouse St, New Orleans, LA 70130
Score: 8.1/10
Oh where to begin with this one. The Dungeon is a New Orleans institution that has been around since 1969. Hands down this is the most unique bar that I have visited to date. I am going to preface that this was not the bar for me. But nonetheless, I respected the aesthetic and the history of the bar. Getting to the bar is a journey in itself, you see the sign from the street and snake your way through an alley only to find yourself in front of a black, dungeon like door.
The Dungeon has a bouncer outside the bar at all times and he is very clear when he says no phones or videotaping. I have only been to two bars that have requested this. The Dungeon being one, and Richard’s in Chicago being the other. The Dungeon was far more strict on this though as even pulling your phone out to scroll was frowned upon and the bartender made sure to call you out for it.
When I went into the Dungeon, I was with 11 hammered men on a Bachelor trip and it was a combination of wrong time and being vastly different in age than the crowd.
Inside the Dungeon, there is a long bar top and space to stand off on the side, overall it is in close quarters. While the Dungeon advertises on their site of being a rock bar, the vibe was more of a grunge, gothic, horror vibe. Tons of black, tons of red, and a very dark ambiance that filled the air.
When we ordered a round of beers, I made eye contact with the bartender and we were both thinking the same thing, “shit, this isn’t what we wanted, this is gonna be a one beer bar”. The music itself was playing from a jukebox, and was very loud metal music. Much different than the rock I was hoping for.
Back to the phone thing, being with U25 men, their attention spans are like squirrels, needing to scroll every 20 seconds, the bartender was not a fan of this and kindly asked phones to be put away.
As far as the scenery goes, we saw a coffin and a cage/cell inside of the bar. It had great props and theme overall if you are into a darker vibe.
Finally, when we were leaving, we saw an older couple, probably 50-60 and the lady had them absolutely dumped out at the bar. To my group, this is something we obviously are not used to, but everyone else did not seem to mind and looked at it as normal. I guess that is normal for the Dungeon and maybe why they don’t want photos in the bar.
This bar was not for me, but it did have a rich history and a sizable amount of patrons inside. Would I go back? No, but hey, this may be the spot for you.
Decor: Gothic, dark, maybe devil-like vibes.
Price: Cheap beer, hell everything in NOLA is cheap
Service: Friendly, attentive, bartenders.
Atmosphere: Crowd was mixed in ages, but skewed towards the older side.
High Life Bottle?: I did not see any.
Bonus Points: None.