Cane & Table

Cane & Table is a rum-led bar and restaurant on Decatur Street in the French Quarter, from the team behind Cure, and it describes what it does as proto-tiki — the drinking culture that came before mid-century tiki rather than the tiki revival itself. Co-founder Kirk Estopinal put the intent well: they wanted to offer New Orleans classics that maybe do not go back a hundred years but might go back to the fifties and sixties. Chef Alfredo Nogueira, a New Orleans native of Cuban descent, cooks food shaped by both halves of that inheritance, Cajun technique against Cuban heritage. The bar has been named a James Beard semifinalist for Outstanding Bar Program. It opens seven nights, 5pm to a 10pm last seating, with happy hour Monday to Friday from 5 to 7.

The non-alcoholic drinks are printed under their own heading and there are five, which is a genuinely deep list for a bar whose entire identity is rum. Safe Harbor is the standout: a robust and slightly smoky Negroni powered by Pathfinder non-alcoholic aperitivo, and the smoke is what makes it work, because a Negroni without alcohol usually loses the weight that gin gives it. Just Like a Spritz uses Giffard's non-alcoholic aperitif cordial with sparkling water and citrus. Funky Fresh is the most inventive — strawberry, pineapple and non-alcoholic beer with black pepper, which uses the beer for bitterness and body the way a cocktail would use a spirit. The other two are deliberately simple: house-made passionfruit syrup with fresh ginger and lemon, and a young coconut cracked at the bar for its water. That last one belongs in a rum bar in a way a manufactured mocktail never would. One caveat worth knowing before you go: Cane & Table publishes no prices at all on its website, for drinks or for food, so there is no way to plan a budget in advance — you will find out at the table.