For my most recent GoNola.com post, I tried my best to capture all the magical weirdness of Saturn Bar in the Bywater.  Words can’t do the place justice, but I gave it the old college try:

Everything that survived the post-storm cull has surely been left in its place for good reason, and I’d like to believe that whatever ended up in the piles of debris carted out during renovations was not so much discarded, as it was honorably discharged after years of faithful service.  Saturn Bar is still packed with plenty of “stuff,” and the diversity of trinkets and knick-knacks nailed to the walls and lined up on shelves (and hung from the ceiling, and stacked in the corners) is nothing short of astounding.  But the removal of a barely serviceable pool table, stacks of salvaged lumber, and a few dozen window A/C units in various states of disrepair has turned the once neglected back room into the home of my favorite entry on New Orleans’ respectable list of recurring organized dance parties.

Yeah, this place is awesome, and simply dismissing it as a “dive” would be like saying Sun Hotel plays “college rock”: it is not only technically inaccurate, but borderline insulting.