Barbès

The experience

A narrow bar at 376 9th Street opened in 2002 by two French expats and named after the North Paris quartier. Music happens nearly every night in a back room barely larger than the bar itself, and the bookings run to Balkan brass, Congolese guitar, gypsy jazz and Mexican son rather than anything you would find on a festival poster. Red fairy lights, scuffed tables, cheap beer and whisky.

Twenty years of weekly residencies by musicians who could fill far bigger rooms.

What a membership adds.

Everything above is free: the name, the photo, the rating, the exact spot. What members get is the part you can't Google: the sourced insider tip for this place (what to order, when to go, what to skip), every day of your trips unlocked in full with the insider tip on every researched stop, and the concierge at full strength, answering with your own insider tips, no daily meter.