Brothers III Lounge

You might not be able to tell by looking at me, but I'm a country girl at heart. My daddy played guitar in a honky tonk country band during my formative years and I grew up in East Texas beer joints. So you can imagine my sense of deja vu upon stepping through the door of Brothers III at 2am on a Thursday night....

Long and narrow, smoky and dark, and what's this? Charley Rich and George Jones (2 albums!) and Willie Nelson and David Allan Coe on the juke box! The friendly gray-headed bartender/doorman heard my excitement about the selections and called up "Behind Closed Doors" before I even had a beer in hand.

Speaking of beer, how about $1.50-2.00 anything? Okay, maybe not anything. When I asked (during our second visit, this time Sunday evening) whether he had any of that delicious seasonal Abita Strawberry, the answer was, "No, ma'am!" Alrighty then, an iced cold Miller Lite it is.

My date kept ordering Dewar's & water on the rocks, and each drink got successively darker. Needless to say, it was my turn to drive home that night.

Duck Dynasty and sports on the TVs behind the bar. Interesting characters loitering outside and razzing customers as they pass through the doorway. Three generous video poker machines, on one of which I turned $10 into $40.50 in an hour with Deuces Wild - woo-hoo, drinks on me! Pool tables and another even more ancient juke box spinning classic 45's in the way back.

Forget communicating with the outside world once you enter.  The mobile phone & data service is severely impaired, so rabid texters, Tweeters, and checker-inners, you will just have to go outside to do it.

A must on my rotation for all future NOLA visits. 5 stars.

*The* dive bar most preferred by Elite yelpers, Brothers III lives up to all expectations.

+low ceilings
+loads of real characters gracing the long bar
+no BS
+no leering
+no hipsters (a true dive has no hipsters, sorry. That's just the rule).
+at least one dude present at all times (I used to live right by here so I know!) with a full head of grey hair (another rule for a true dive)
+cheap
+never closes

I was here until around 5 am. What a place to rise and shine!

Oh, Brothers Three. You're among my favorite bars in the city--hell, the world. If only we were right for one another. You see, when I'm with you, lost in the moment, it seems like we really could be happy growing old together, whiling away our days, sharing our lives. It sounds magical, but you know as well as I do that things just aren't meant to be that way. Don't get me wrong, you're wonderful, and we;ve shared some truly special moments. But the world stands between us. There's my job, for example. And my human girlfriend. You've seen how angry she gets when we spend too much time together. And then there's my mother, always insisting that she raised me better. No, it isn't fair. Please understand.

Many a morning you've filled my mind with bittersweet memories of the night before. How I cherish those moments. But sobriety inevitably comes (unlike you, I am sober more hours than not). Calm down, I'm not criticizing you, we're just different in that respect. Anyway, while my heart yearns for you in the morning, the unrelenting pounding in my head come mid-morning makes it all too clear that we're just not right for one another. Yes, hangovers pass, and yes, I love spending time with you. We just need space. Lots of it. Everyone needs time away from one another.

Rest assured, distance does in fact make my heart grow fonder for your destructive embrace.

No, you're not perfect. That's why I love you. You smoke too much, you have broken down, drunk friends, gravity is rapidly taking its toll on your decrepit body, and you have all manner of bodily infestations (ohhhh kay, this personification bit is getting out of hand).

You also have an all-country jukebox, some of the best bartenders around, are generous with your booze, and are always up for whatever the night brings.

More importantly, you never judge me.