Frenchmen & Marigny

The story

Frenchmen Street starts where Esplanade Avenue meets the downriver edge of the Quarter, an easy walk from the French Market, and its busiest stretch runs from Esplanade to Royal Street. From there the shopping spreads up St. Claude Avenue and along Chartres and Dauphine into the Bywater.

It suits shoppers after records, books, costume finds and antiques, with bakeries, a corner store and a food hall in between. Start on Frenchmen, then head up St. Claude and into the Bywater.

What to Expect

On Frenchmen, Louisiana Music Factory (421) has been selling records since 1992 and on this street since 2014, specializing in jazz, blues, Cajun, zydeco and R&B on CD and LP, with music books, sheet music and posters. Frenchmen Art & Books (600) bills itself as radical booksellers since 1978, and Ayu Bakehouse (801), opened in 2022, is known for king cake, croissants and an alligator-shaped loaf. Baldwin & Co., at Elysian Fields and St. Claude, is a coffee shop and bookstore named for James Baldwin, with books by Black and BIPOC authors and regular readings.

On St. Claude, She Comes in Peace (2025) sells costume pieces with an on-site salon, and Island of Salvation Botanica (2372, Suite 100), in the New Orleans Healing Center, is run by Vodou priestess Sallie Ann Glassman. St. Roch Market (2381) is a food hall in an 1875 market building. In the Bywater, Euclid Records stocks thousands of new and used LPs, The Bargain Center is a multi-room thrift and junk shop, Monsters of the Underworld, opened in 2024, makes wearable monster costumes and sells local art, and Lucullus Antiques has chandeliers, gilt mirrors, silver and a large collection of early copper cookware.

Best Time to Visit

Hours vary, and most shops here don't post them, so check before you go. Louisiana Music Factory is open daily 10am–7pm, Island of Salvation Botanica Mon–Sat 10am–5pm and Sun 11am–5pm, and St. Roch Market from 7am to 9pm Sunday to Thursday and to 10pm Friday and Saturday.

Go early on a Friday for Bywater Bakery's bagel day, which draws long lines. Frady's, known for its hot-plate specials and po'boys, is open Mon–Fri 7:30am–3pm and Sat 10am–3pm, so plan the Bywater end before mid-afternoon.

If You Only Have an Hour

Stay on Frenchmen: Louisiana Music Factory (421), Frenchmen Art & Books (600) and a pastry at Ayu Bakehouse (801). If you have time left, St. Roch Market and Island of Salvation Botanica are both in the 2300 block of St. Claude.

Where to Eat

Saint-Germain at 3054 St. Claude Ave holds one MICHELIN Star for its tasting menu, with a casual bar up front. Acamaya at 3070 Dauphine St is a MICHELIN Bib Gourmand for seafood-focused Mexican cooking, and its team also runs Casimiro at 800 Louisa St, MICHELIN Recommended for breakfast and lunch on house-made masa. Evviva at 2600 Dauphine St in the Marigny is MICHELIN Recommended for a changing, often Italian menu of shareable plates. For something quicker, St. Roch Market has stalls for coffee, oysters, poke, Burmese and Egyptian food, and Frady's at 3231 Dauphine has po'boys and hot-plate specials.