Le Phare

We rented Le Phare as a party spot for lots of out of town family and friends. We really wanted to have an affordable party for 100 adults and children, and so many venues overcharge. The rental fee for Le Phare was very (very!) reasonable, especially considering its awesome location (right in the heart of the CBD) and the fact that we were booking for prime time (Saturday evening!).
We had the event catered– they didn’t charge a catering fee! Yay for no fees! There was an option to hire a DJ, or you could have a Pandora station for free. And it was Pandora One, so no commercials— the funny thing is several guests told us it was the best party play list ever. If only they knew we were too lazy to make a playlist!
There were several bar packages to choose from so you can choose based on your budget. My only complaints were: no soap in the ladies room (gross! — but no worries, we snagged soap from a nearby hotel) AND the place was a little dirty when we got there (old pizza on the floor)!

not sure why this place isnt more popular… décor is good, enough space for a dance floor, and comfortable seating. I guess because in nola we only like dive bars.
The music was good and crowd was definitely unique to say the least. Its hard to get others to come here to this place though. I’ll probably be back…

This is not a place I head to when I’m sober. The ONLY times I’ve been in here are when I’m drunk and totally immune to my own senses. That’s also the ONLY reason I could ever really suggest that someone hang out here.
I was first made aware of this place about 3 or more years ago by a friend of mine from work. He called me rather late from another bar/​club so he’d obviously gotten a little sloshed before making the decision to come here. I had actually never heard of the place at the time and since this particular friend of mine liked to hang out with younger girls, it only seemed natural that he’d know about this joint.
I’m cataloguing my first trip in here so hang with me on this. My friend and I get inside and the bar is absolutely packed full of people. I couldn’t believe it. I started noticing all these other people spilling in that were dressed very oddly. Remember that movie, «Semi-​Pro», with Will Ferrell? Yeah, I didn’t see it, either, but you remember the trailers for it. People were dressed like that. Huge afros, sweatbands and jerseys with Burt Reynolds chest hair bursting through (ugh!). I saw some other guys that showed up in leather outfits, one of them rocking a pair of ass-​less chaps. I was wondering what the hell was going on. Later, a girl told me that they were holding a «Rockband» competition in there. You know, the Playstation game, Rockband? They had the whole set up in the middle of the floor and projected on the side of the wall. The place just got louder and crazier and more packed with people that I had to get out of there!
The next time I came in was with a different friend, both of us having had too many drinks from a bar before coming into this one. When we got inside, we were run off when we tried to sit down because half the tables were reserved for bottle service. Good god, the prices were terrible! $ 300 for Ketel One??? Plus, when we got in there, no one was around so what difference did it make where we sat? We were ushered over to the other side and wound up sitting in there for almost half an hour before the place started to pick up. Eventually, the bar got terribly full and one of the girls who worked there told me the resident DJ would begin playing soon. This dorky looking kid who appeared to be straight out of high school comes in and sets up this elaborate booth in the corner. The music he starts dumping out is pure garbage! It was incredibly loud, too. I’m not talking just normally being loud. I mean like, really, really loud. What’s worse than super loud, crummy house music? Now, I used to do a lot of TD (technical directing) in Atlanta for large broadcast companies like CSPAN, FOX, ESPN, CNN, etc. so I wanted to see this guy’s setup. I looked around the wall and he’s got an Ipod rigged to some docking station that was plugged into the speaker system. Wow, ultra cool, Bro! So, we have to listen to the crap this 10^th grader mixed on Roxio?
There were other weird things going on, too. We noticed these guys sitting at the tables across from us fondling these girls. It was apparent that one of them wanted to leave and one of the guys kept on trying to get her to sit on his lap. She kept refusing until he was literally hanging around her waist, trying to pull her down. She was trying to get aid from her friends but they seemingly ignored her. It was awful to watch. I wound up going over there later and told the guy that she wanted to leave and he was totally drunk, got argumentative and then left to go to the bathroom abruptly. I told the girl again I would take her home if she wanted to go. Oddly, she chose to stay and when the guy returned, he resumed hanging around her waist while she tried to pull away. I couldn’t take it anymore and left.
Another time, we came in and the same crummy DJ was playing music at eardrum busting levels. All of the guys in there looked like they were fresh off the cast of Jersey Shore, rocking Pauly D-​esque hair (when was this hairstyle ever cool? — the guy looks like Vanilla Ice) and top four buttons of their shirt undone. There was a promotional thing going on in there on this particular night by Planet Beach. All of the guys and girls looked like a chicken that had been on a rotisserie too long! The music was terrible, half the seats in there were reserved again, some guy had gotten tossed for urinating in the bathroom doorway… I don’t know about this place. It’s an average bar/​lounge that gets busy around 11:30 on a weekend and unless you’re too drunk to know better, move on.

Nice looking place but we walked in at about 1030 and it was pretty empty so we went to go sit down and immediately got told we had to move because of a special party was arriving to sit in this VIP section we were in which consisted of a little roped off section next to the door… wow! impressive!
Needless to say I wasn’t happy that we got shooed out of an empty area of an empty bar but oh well. We had 3 drinks total and the bill came out to be $ 30 which was a little steep but whatever.
We went there to dance and nobody was dancing so we danced anyways. We recieved some glaring eyes and it’s not like we weren’t dressed to be in a nice place. I was wearing an expensive suit and my beautiful wife was wearing a cocktail dress… if anything we were overdressed. Eventually people caught on to the idea of having fun and started dancing. My wife and I enjoyed ourselves regardless of the downers but I’m sure I would recommed this place to friends.
Snooty staff = snooty customers = high priced drinks = pretentious club.
By the way I am 30 and my wife is 27 in case anyone was wondering…

The atmosphere is a little conflicting, if it’s a bar then why is there a line like its a club? Either way just glad there wasn’t a cover to get in cause I would have requested a refund. The place has a really nice layout, however the DJ was WACK!!! the music selection was very outdated, he needs to spin more current tracks, but everybody wound up dancing sorta, at some point in the night. great place if they could pick a theme and go with. Either be a club or a bar! $ 6 for a blueberry tonic and $ 4 for a corona. not too pricey

To say this place is a little bit fancy pants pretentious would be an understatement. I will disclaim that I haven’t been there in over a year, but before my (permanent?) hiatus from this place, I did visit Le Phare enough times to formulate enough thoughts to craft this here Unilocal review.
So Le Phare is definitely a lounge-​y kind of place with it’s cushy couches, dim lighting, scantily clad clientele. Everyone seems fairly well groomed here, no one slumming it around.
I do agree with the other reviewers that have indicated that Le Phare is slightly reminiscent of «Jersey Shore» but without the outrageous factor. Maybe I’m being unfair, but this place just exudes this overall tone of «trying too hard.» There were a few actual «professionals» entertaining clients, co-​workers, and friends, but the college crowd was most notable here. And yes, it is loud.
The drinks are overpriced and I can’t say they are exceptional. I have absolutely no desire to ever return here.

I didn’t order a hurricane or a gibson because those drinks are for tourists who haven’t got a clue. This place is off the beaten path which most folks enjoy. As a previous reviewer stated they’ll reserve a section for you if you call ahead and yes, they’ll clear it for you once you arrive as that is the definition of a reservation.
The service is impeccable and the waitresses and bartenders are all hot girls!!! It looks like Maxim staffed the place! If you like the underground feel of an NYC meat-​packing district ultra lounge then this is the only place in New Orleans that comes close. The only negative thing about the place is that once it’s packed the seating is all reserved. Call ahead to avoid this issue and you’ll be good to go!!!

Meh. This isn’t really a place I’d end up at without a good reason. It’s not my crowd, I suppose. The people who were there the few times I’ve been have been young professional-​types, but all very, VERY well-​dressed, and none of them seemed particularly friendly. Felt very much like a college bar crowd, but with a paycheck. If I’d ever seen Jersey Shore, I’d probably agree with the other reviewers who say it was that kind of crowd.
The last time I was there it was for a software trade association informational/​networking event, which seemed like an odd combination. Le Phare is not the first place that comes to mind when I think of «business meeting/​networking venues», for sure. The music was way too loud (and pretty bad, but that’s another story), and I’m sure if I’d been buying drinks I would’ve been appalled at the price. They did bring in food from Capdeville, which was awesome, but otherwise I wasn’t overly impressed by Le Phare as a meeting venue.
That said, I believe they have salsa lessons/​dance nights at Le Phare, and I think I’ve stopped in briefly, which was fun. Beyond that, it’s not really my scene.

So on another one of my pop up trips in NOLA, my host let me know that Tuesday was one of our mutual friends bday and that we would all be hooking up @ Le Phare around 8 for the celebration.
It was refreshing to see that we were coming to Salsa lessons hosted by Gumbo Salsa. My friend is a dancer so this seemed right up her alley as a kick off for her night.
The atmosphere was very chill, and it was a decent amount of people (most of whom I recognized from undergrad) w/​o being overcrowded. The bartender was cool and offered up a decent selection of wines, some they even had sales on. They also had drink specials on mojitios and margaritas too.
Le Phare was definitely more my speed since I’m growing out of the stand in line for 40mins-​pay$ 20 for cover/​$ 12 for crappy drinks club crowd. Would definitely come back.

Two stars because the surly, Lisa Bonet looking bar tender refused to make me a hurricane (which I was only ordering as a joke anyway), which shows at least a modicum of good taste. She looked like I had smacked her across the face with a mackerel when I asked.
Anyway, my traveling companion and I were only in this bar because we received a $ 50 tab with our room in the hotel above. We spent most of that tab getting drinks and taking them back up to our room. Why? This bar just wasn’t our scene. I suppose it would be OK if we were like high school drop out dental hygienists or similar, as that’s what the crowd seemed to be composed of — secretaries, beauticians, men in overly decorated T-​shirts and spiky hair, who refer to their abs as some kind of «situation», etc. The music — dance hits of the 1990’s («blah, bah, blah, don’t hurt me, don’t hurt me, no mo’…») To compound it all, there were at least two bridal shower parties in attendance. Ick.
To be honest, it was kind of creepy. It reminded me of this time I was trapped at the Red Onion in Simi Valley circa 1992. That, or an episode of Cold Case where like one of the flashbacks is to the mid-90’s when we get to see the drunken bridesmaid victim getting down to Rozalla before the inevitable…

Good Music, Good exotic specialty drinks (You name it they can make it). Bruce and John that run the spot is very fun and entertaining. The club play all kind of music depending on the nite. It a nice club more of a ultra lounge classy place.

Le Phare is one of a few bars set up in the lobby of a boutique hotel.
The only reason why I’m giving this place only 2 stars is because of the price of the drinks and the lack of variety in liquors. Seriously, $ 9 for a bloody mary– and not even premium. The brand they used was one I’d never seen before, so I’m assuming it was their well brand. And for a $ 9 bloody mary, you’d expect it to be a fair size or a heavy pour. No way.
The glass was one of those long, skinny ones that bars give you to make you think you’re getting a big drink. The thing is though, they’re usually quite a bit longer than the glass I got last night, so the rip-​off was evident. Yes, I’m bitter about that. So after getting raped on the price of the drink (seriously, I’ve spent more for drinks before, but they weren’t «well» and they weren’t so small), I decided my next drink would be beer. But they didn’t even serve Stella Artois, which is the only kind of beer I can drink.
The atmosphere was cool though. It was Latin Night when I went and most of the lounge’s patrons were dancing the night away on the dance floor.
The décor was sparse, but I’m sure that’s to go with the minimalistic look of the hotel it’s attached to, Loft 523.
The crowd was pretty much the same as the crowd you’d see on Frenchmen St, which was a pleasant change from the usually fake-​tan, fake boob crowd you usually get in the warehouse district/​CBD.
Like I said, the only reason why my rating is so low is because the drinks were a rip-​off. So I guess if you go get your drinks at the little dive across the street and go there just for the atmosphere, you’ll be fine. Or if you don’t mind paying $ 9 for 3 sips of a cocktail.

Go early in the evening (11ish) so you can grab a table or section to hang out with all of your friends. The scene is a bit trendy and tends to be college age and younger professionals. DJ played all night. pretty good house mix music. A great place to enjoy cocktails and friends. Definitely a bonus to leave a place and not come out smelling like that stale cigarette bar smell.