I love exploring the broken, forlorn back-streets of New Orleans. When news broke that Royal Brewery, located in the wilds of New Orleans East, was opening today I pulled up their address and stared at the map for a few minutes then quietly began plotting a course towards the upper reaches of the Industrial Canal.

Strip clubs, sno-ball stands, decrepit reception halls, furniture liquidators, and low-grade bakeries populate the neck of the woods that Royal Brewery has put down stumps in.

My kind of place.

I love a good rough and tumble neighborhood and Royal’s putting in work in one that would do the bleakest vernacular photographer proud.

How’s the beer? Royal Brewery is coming out of the chute with one, Culicidae Ale, a malt bomb that finishes with a gleam of bitterness. It’ll be interesting to see how their beer menu takes shape over the next few months. It’s not a tough scramble to the top of the New Orleans brewery heap and perhaps Royal can make that climb.

The tap room space is what we’ve all come to expect over the past few years: a vast, industrial warehouse with a small bar off to one side. A separate room has a TV mounted on the wall and a few kiddie games for the inevitable onslaught of hard-partying parents who like to bring their young’uns to the bar.

The couple running the concern could not be nicer. A group of beer-lovers has surrounded them to offer encouraging words on their venture. Royal’s a production brewery so the focus will be on scrapping for space on the shelves at Rouse’s as well as tap handles on area bar walls.

That’s a tough gig.

If you’re out poking around in New Orleans East and looking for a cold beer in a converted entrepôt then Royal Brewery will be a good place for you to hang.

Royal Brewery

7366 Townsend Place

New Orleans, LA

70126

telephone (504) 723-4151

Hours of operation

always call ahead