Compère Lapin

New Orleans, Louisiana

Winner of Best American Hotel Bar at the 2019 Spirited Awards, Top 4 finalist for Best American Hotel Bar at the 2018 Spirited Awards, and Top 4 finalist for Best American Hotel Bar at the 2017 Spirited Awards.

Chef Nina Compton's Caribbean-Creole restaurant appointed Erika Flowers as bar lead in spring 2024, and the Bronx-born, Belizean-rooted bartender earned a nomination for U.S. Bartender of the Year at Tales of the Cocktail 2025 within months. Flowers, a graduate of the Turning Tables mentorship program trained under Touré Folkes, builds island-inspired cocktails that mirror Compton's cuisine: bold, Caribbean-inflected, and technically precise. Compère Lapin represents the next generation of New Orleans bartending: diverse, culinary-driven, and trained by the industry's own pipeline.