Come for the band, leave with clean socks
If you’re in need of a standard, harshly lit, 24-hour laundromat with a battery of huge front-loading dryers that will require a paycheck’s worth of quarters to make it through two loads, Checkpoint Charlie’s is not your spot. Yes, they have washing machines, but that’s the least of their selling points. Standing on a corner of Esplanade Avenue, alongside the French Quarter and at the mouth of Frenchmen Street, New Orleans music alley, Checkpoint Charlie’s is a bar, a game room, a live music venue, and a laundromat, all rolled into one. (The actual name is Igor’s Checkpoint Charlie, but no one calls it that.)
Waiting for your socks and sweaters to dry, there’s much more to do here than read year-old magazines. The small stage delivers—depending on the night—a mix of rock, metal and punk, and some performers who aren’t welcome anywhere else. Regular bands include Bible Belt Sinners, Bad Moon Lander, and the Olivia de Havilland Mosquitoes. Tuesday evenings offer a popular weekly open-mic blues jam. There’s a pool table, a pinball machine, and arcade games aplenty. If you dare, you can also order their half-pound Charlie Burger, jalapeno poppers, mini-pizzas, chicken nuggets, tater tots, or cheese fries.
Info
Address 501 Esplanade Avenue, New Orleans, LA 70116, +1 504.281.4847 | Hours Open 24 hours| Tip While skirmishes at Checkpoint Charlie’s are few and inconsequential, a fight between rival biker gangs in a French-Quarter tattoo parlor fundamentally changed the neighborhood. Residents pushed through an ordinance banning tattoo parlors from the Vieux Carré. You will now find them stacked up on the immediate outskirts.
This is a dive that seems to relish its dive-iness. The drinks are cheap. The staff members have an edge but are, by and large, friendly and gracious. The bathrooms, however, come with a warning: don’t use them. As an online reviewer wrote, they “would be considered a disgrace in most third world countries.”
Anything can and often does happen inside Checkpoint Charlie’s. One night a bongo-playing stranger joined famed guitarist Jimmy Robinson onstage and played the entire night. Occasionally a fight might break out, but they remain isolated and cause very little damage or ruckus, so you can keep nursing your drink and wait out the spin cycle.
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