Bordered by the Mississippi River at its foot and the Intercoastal Industrial Canal at its downriver (sort of eastern) flank, this water proximity explains how ‘Bywater’ got its name. Now a National Historic District about one mile from the Esplanade side of the French Quarter, the neighborhood is mostly working class and multiracial. It is growing ever more popular with gays and lesbians, artists, musicians, crafts people, professionals, transplants from other regions, and others who appreciate the diversity and sense of community in the neighborhood. We are home to the exciting and beautiful new campus of the New Orleans Center for Contemporary Arts; Studio Inferno, which makes hand blown glassware; the pottery and sculpture at AB Jackson Designs; Fountainview Industries, which creates steel and cast iron for homes and gardens; and the work and sales space of outsider artist "Dr. Bob" Schaffer, famous for his "Be Nice or Leave" signs; other galleries and studios have recently opened in Bywater, with our main street, St. Claude Avenue, hosting several new art and photography. Bywater also holds an Art Market on the third Saturday of every month.

In addition, New Orleanians from all parts of the City frequent our Bywater restaurants, including the very Southern lunche, dinners and weekend brunches at Elizabeth’s; the barbecue and patio dining at Bywater Barbecue, the far too generous plates of seafood at Jack Dempsey’s, and lunch an ddinner in the patio of Bacchanal. Extra special is Feelings Cafe in Marigny, which recently celebrated its 30th anniversary in an historic building dating from the 1790s. New Orleans brass band leader Kermit Ruffins plays at Vaughn’s in Bywater every Thursday night, and usually feeds everyone too. What is not "here" is close by because, along with the Marigny and the French Quarter, Bywater is a downtown neighborhood.