Inside Markey’s Bar, Where Philadelphia Eagles Fans in New Orleans Gather on Sunday

The Philadelphia Eagles had the football for all of one play in the NFC Championship game on Sunday, January 26, when Saquon Barkley dashed away for a 60-yard touchdown. He’d done this all season, but his historic runs never lost any thrill for Eagles fans, no matter where they found themselves on game days.

In New Orleans, the place for Eagles fans is Markey’s Bar in the Bywater.

“Let’s watch it again!” cheered Elena Malik, 32, as Barkley’s monster run re-played. “Let’s watch it like five more times!”

She was shoulder-to-shoulder with more than 100 Eagles fans inside the tiny bar. Friends and neighbors clinked draft beers, sipped mixed drinks, slapped five, and hollered, over and over again, “Go Birds!” The city is in the middle of Carnival, so groups brought in their favorite king cakes. Others munched hoagies or po’ boys. Some carried in pizza from Pizza Delicious around the block. Customers wore shirts, jerseys, jackets, and headpieces in shades of Kelly and midnight greens. There were even feathers.

New Orleans is gearing up to host the Super Bowl — a matchup between the Eagles and the Kansas City Chiefs, on Sunday, February 9. And unless you have deep pockets, deeper connections, or you’re Taylor Swift, you might consider spending a couple dozen bucks at Markey’s, a divey neighborhood bar. You’ll be in fine company.

Ahead of the championship game, Michael Moyer, 54, sat outside the bar drinking a beer and cutting up with the bar’s owner, Roy Markey, a New Orleans Saints fan who gets along with Eagles fans better than most people outside the fanbase.

“I might even sing the song with you motherf—ers today,” he told Moyer and another regular, teasing about the team’s song, “Fly, Eagles, Fly!”

Moyer, wearing his bedazzled Eagles hardhat and grey cut-off shirt with his last name on the back, has come to Markey’s for Eagles games for close to a decade. Back then, it was a handful of Philly-connected friends gathered to take advantage of Markey’s NFL Sunday Ticket subscription. Over the years, word has slowly gotten out that Eagles fans overtake Markey’s during Birds games. Malik, for example, ran into a guy at a grocery store earlier in the week wearing Eagles attire. She invited him to the bar, and he showed up. Another Birds fan was present as the Eagles beat the brakes off the Washington Commanders 55-23.

Merrill Stewart/Eater NOLA

But Markey’s is still a Saints-first bar, a neighborhood sports bar catering to the gold-and-black. You’ll find no Eagles memorabilia on the walls. When the Eagles and Saints play at the same time, the locals get to watch their team on the majority of the bar’s TVs. Eagles fans have 2 or 3 muted TVs to watch the Birds. Still, they pile in, spend money, and make their presence felt.

Not every Eagles football moment is precious. Moyer sometimes has to look away. Late in the first quarter, the Commanders earned a first down with a fake punt. Fans were crowded around the bar’s open doors and windows, and one shared with Moyer.

“Fake punt,” the guy says. “They got it.”

“I’m glad I didn’t see it,” Moyer says. “It’s a desperation move anyway.”

There were maybe two people dressed for the Commanders to watch their team get slayed, but the only consequential attention they were paid was by the bartenders at Markey’s who make their jobs look easy even as people yell at the dozen-plus TVs behind them.

Merrill Stewart/Eater NOLA

One of the bartenders was Ivana Louvar, 44, who’s worked at the bar for close to a decade. She is one of two bartenders who work the football shifts and make the place special. On the day of the NFC Championship, a regular handed Louvar a tinfoil-wrapped sandwich that sat behind the bar for the entire game.

“There’s really no stopping, you just keep going,” she says. “I like seeing people have fun. I don’t mind it at all. I’m sure there are bartenders who find it annoying, but we’re making money. I’m glad a bunch of people are coming here, and singing their songs!”

Toward the end of the game, Malik cheered on the bartenders as well. “You guys are killing it today!”

For owner Markey, that’s the way the bar is supposed to work. In the late 1970s, he overhauled the bar, which has been in his family since 1947, to a neighborhood sports bar instead of a third-shifter bar that used to cater to dock workers on the Mississippi River, just blocks away. The people he hires stay for a long time, he says, so the relationships that form between staff and customers are strong.

“The bartenders are great,” says Alison Ely, 33, who’s watched Birds games here since about 2017. “They know us, they know our drinks, they’re good people who have welcomed us.”

Dalton LaFerney/Eater NOLA

No outfit at the bar that day embodies the crossover between Birds fan and New Orleans local better than Ely’s. A Mardi Gras look that celebrates the Birds, it began as a captain hat in Eagles colors. As the Eagles kept winning in the playoffs, she added a sequined scarf, then, for the NFC Championship, white feathers. “It’s getting more Mardi Gras and more crazy every week.”

Take a little advice from her before you show up.

“Wear your Eagles gear, and be cool,” Ely says. “Everyone is friendly here, so don’t be an asshole, because that’s not the vibe.”

After the game, the broadcast showed the Caesars Superdome in the Central Business District, where the game will occur.

Malik again narrated the moment: “The Philadelphia Eagles are coming to New Orleans!”

Merrill Stewart/Eater NOLA

Late-game scenes from Markey’s on January 26, with the Philadelphia Eagles winning handily.