Le Bon Temps Roulé

Le Bon Temps Roule at 4801 Magazine Street has been an Uptown institution since 1979, when DJ and rock musician Ned Hobgood christened the name in a building that had operated as a no-frills neighborhood bar since the 1940s. The venue's national profile took off around 1994 when the back patio was enclosed and a young Kermit Ruffins began drawing crowds with his brass-fueled sets. Since 2002, the Soul Rebels Brass Band's Thursday-night residency has been one of the most legendary recurring gigs in the city. The front room remains a pool-hall dive open around the clock, while the back room packs in sweaty audiences for brass, funk, and rock. Le Bon Temps reopened just six weeks after Hurricane Katrina's flooding, a testament to the bar's deep roots in the Uptown community.