Rivershack Tavern

This review is strictly for the bar, as we didn't try the food (although it looked good).

We sat at the funky barstools with the legs. Pretty awesome. One bartender working a full bar on a Saturday afternoon, but we were quickly greeted and drinks were poured.

Well, in my case, a bottle was opened... I wanted cider. But still.

Friendly staff, cool, laid-back atmosphere, good drinks, good prices.

If I lived a little bit closer, this would definitely be my neighborhood bar.

I really do like this place but there are a few issues. I love the space, and that fact that the joint is big and open. There are usually plenty of places to sit without feeling cramped. The leg bar stools are weird. The ass trays are ugly. One time recently there were random chickens running around outside. Let's just say the place has a certain appeal.

My complaints are two:

1) my friend and I got cut off by the bartender during one visit. I suspect because we were dancing, albeit we were the ONLY people dancing, however that does not warrant being cut off. I am a 15-year veteran professional party animal and this is one of like, 4 times I've   ever been cut off. And come on this is New Orleans, the standards here for acceptable drunkenness are a lot more lax than say image-conscious, "I never get too wasted", frat-boy Denver where I crashed around like a wasted bull in a china shop and never got cut off. I was at about a 5 on a scale of 1-10 drunkeness on this particular night at Rivershack. I've been a 23 many, many times at many, many bars. We absolutely in no way needed to be cut off. REALLY.

2) We always leave when the band shows up and no it's not because we are music-haters, it's just that the band is so fucking loud you go from being able to have a conversation to like, causing permanent damage to your hearing. There are bars where you can hear yourself think, and there are bars where you can't, but very abruptly toggling between the two shocks the system a little too much.

I used to stop by here quite often. It's got good onion rings and alligator sausage and the spicy bloody mary's are really good too. The bartenders are all friendly and although the drink prices are higher than a lot of other places, it was a place that I recommended to people looking for a good laid back bar to hang out with friends or coworkers and grab a drink. I don't know what has been going on in the past few months but every time I've gone in lately the bands have been so loud that  you can forget about having a conversation with anyone.  There may only be 10 people in the bar at that time but the bands seem to think that they're playing in an arena. Multiple customers complain but it doesn't seem to do any good.  I'm tired of leaving w a headache  and there's too many good bars out there.