Vaughan's Lounge — Restaurant in New Orleans

I’ve been to Vaughn’s a few times as I live down the block but last time I went was disappointing and disrespectful. A lady came up to us after being in there for a few minutes saying gibberish so we just smiled at her and hope she didn’t say anything important. Then when she couldn’t get her point across she started jumping in front of us and basically using her body as a shield between us and the live band that was playing (?).

The music was so loud nobody could hear a word she was saying. There must have been no better form of communication but eventually we realized she was pointing at our beers and after telling her I didn’t even want my drink and I would buy one she became aggressive very quickly and didn’t even give us time to react before having someone throw us out. Clownish behavior, but we were willing to compromise until people started getting aggressive for no reason.

As in most New Orleans bars outside drinks are not an issue, the mouthing of rules and the ridiculous gestures were non-intuitive. The lady looked like she was just being rude for no reason. Then, we got kicked out by another man who got up in our faces outside (unnecessarily rude and threatening). Being kicked out of your own neighborhood bar for no reason is very disappointing, so I wish the best to the owners for doing things like this to regular sober people who were not looking to cause issues. Maybe to make this EASIER on the communication part, put a sign and maybe point to it? Offering advice because that did NOT need to happen. Just terrible energy from this place so won’t be returning any time soon. I wasn’t even drinking much before so it was not a comprehension issue on my end. It was just too loud to make this point clearly and they should have...

The bartenders were attentive and friendly, the music and ambiance was terrific, but two drinks into our night at Vaughan's an older woman came over to our table and extremely rudely badgered us for money for the music that was starting later in the night. She told us it was $5 per person. When I told her that we didn't know about the music and we needed to think about our plan, she told that we were sitting at one of the best tables in the house and we had 3 minutes to pay her the money. Mind you we had just gotten a round of drinks a couple of minutes before. The woman then proceeded to go around to a couple of other tables and delivered her same charm and they each immediately stood up and walked out of the bar.

A couple of minutes later I went to the restroom and when I came out the woman again aggressively asked me to pay up ("Where's the V on your hand? You haven't paid us.") At this point, we decided to leave our drinks and head over to BJs.

I have zero issue with paying for and supporting live, local music. And $5 is a very reasonable ask. But coming at customers with that kind of callous aggression and attitude is uncalled for. I see a few other reviewers have had the same experiences with the Thursday hen crew and I hope the owner takes the reviews to heart (though they're probably all Cindy's friends). After leaving Vaughan's, we went over to BJs and the other two tables from Vaughan's were there. We were all strangers to each other, but we all commiserated/fumed over the treatment we received at Vaughan's vowed to never go back -- though I probably would, just never again...

there are no accolades high enough to cover how much i adore this place. we were there during the days when kermit ruffins and corey henry held court (on separate nights)… when kermit would barbecue between sets, offering ribs for all those who wanted.

as newbies, our biggest mistake was arriving early. i don’t think anything happens before 11 PM but there we were, a healthy 45 minutes too soon, it was only us and a couple of german tourists seated at the bar, wondering if we’d chose the wrong night.

by midnight, it’s packed. as branford marsalis puts it, “vaughan's delivers a level of excitement to a room that you will not find anywhere else, and a level of energy that a DJ simply can’t replicate”. and when you’ve had your fill of music, there are always conversations to be had just outside, with regulars and other guests under cover of the roof. magical. take it in but don't be...