Freret Street: The Neighborhood Corridor That Came Back to Life

Freret Street: The Neighborhood Corridor That Came Back to Life

Freret Street is one of the great revival stories in post-Katrina New Orleans. For decades this Uptown corridor sat largely dormant—boarded-up storefronts, empty lots, and the lingering memory of what had once been a thriving neighborhood commercial strip. Then, starting around 2010, a wave of new restaurants, bars, and small businesses began opening on the 4800 and 4900 blocks, and Freret Street was reborn. Today it is one of the hottest dining and drinking corridors in the city, a testament to what happens when a neighborhood invests in itself.

History

Freret Street is named for William Freret, a nineteenth-century New Orleans mayor and architect. The street runs through Uptown from the river toward Broadmoor, but its commercial heart has always been the stretch near the Freret neighborhood, roughly between Napoleon and Jefferson Avenues. In the mid-twentieth century, Freret was a busy shopping street serving the surrounding residential blocks. Like many neighborhood commercial corridors across America, it declined in the latter half of the century as suburban shopping centers and big box stores drew customers away.

The Neighborhoods

Freret Street runs through several Uptown neighborhoods. The commercial strip sits in the Freret neighborhood, a historically mixed-income area between Tulane University and Broadmoor. The surrounding blocks are a mix of shotgun houses, Creole cottages, and modest bungalows—a cross-section of the kind of housing stock that defines Uptown New Orleans. The Tulane University campus is just a few blocks away, which means the street benefits from a steady flow of students, faculty, and staff.

Key Businesses

Cure, the craft cocktail bar that opened at 4905 Freret in 2009, is often credited with sparking the corridor's comeback. Its serious approach to mixology attracted attention and proved that Freret could be a destination. Company Burger brought the smash burger to New Orleans at 4600 Freret. High Hat Café serves Southern comfort food with a Mid-South twist. Dat Dog expanded from its original Frenchmen Street location to a popular Freret outpost. The Mojo Coffee House has been a neighborhood hangout for years. And the annual Freret Street Festival, held each spring, draws thousands to the corridor for live music, food vendors, and the kind of neighborhood celebration that New Orleans does better than anywhere else.

A Model for Recovery

Freret Street's revival did not happen by accident. It was driven by neighborhood organizations, small business owners, and residents who saw potential in a corridor that others had written off. The comeback has not been without growing pains—rising rents and concerns about displacement are real—but the strip remains largely locally owned and community-oriented. Freret is proof that the best things in New Orleans often come from the ground up, one restaurant, one bar, one small business at a time.