Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop Bar

Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop Bar occupies one of the oldest surviving buildings in New Orleans, on the corner of Bourbon Street and St Philip Street in the French Quarter. The building was most likely put up as a house in the 1770s, during the Spanish colonial period, although the bar itself claims an even earlier date in the 1720s or 1730s. It is a rare survivor of briquette-entre-poteaux construction, in which brick is set between upright posts, and it was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1970.

The name comes from a local legend that the privateer Jean Lafitte and his brother Pierre ran a business here in the early 1800s, and the blacksmith's shop name may reflect a smithy run by their associates. No documents prove it, but Pierre is known to have been a blacksmith, and an associate of the brothers may have owned the building. Whatever the truth, the story has made the bar one of the French Quarter's best-known drinking spots, and it is often described as one of the most haunted.

The bar's modern history is interesting too. In the mid-1940s Tom Caplinger turned the abandoned building into Café Lafitte, a bohemian nightspot visited by figures including Noël Coward and Tennessee Williams. After losing the property in 1953, he opened Café Lafitte in Exile at the other end of the same block, which claims to be the oldest gay bar in the United States.

Today Lafitte's is a simple, atmospheric bar inside the old walls, and the appeal lies in having a drink in a building that has stood for around 250 years. It suits history lovers, couples and small groups who want a drink with a story attached. As a bar, it is for adults of legal drinking age. Opening hours were not available from the bar's own website, so check before you go, and be prepared for it to be busy in the evening and at weekends.

The bar is easy to find at the junction of Bourbon and St Philip streets. It combines well with a walk through the lower French Quarter, a visit to the French Market or an evening that continues on Frenchmen Street in the Marigny, a short walk downriver.