One Of New Orleans' Most Iconic Historic Landmarks Is A Unique, Timeless Bar

New Orleans is the rowdiest bar town in one of America's five most fun states, and at the heart of its drinking culture lies the French Quarter, a 78-block neighborhood replete with lively energy and historic charm. Among its many buzzing watering holes is the Old Absinthe House, a landmark establishment that has stood at 240 Bourbon Street since 1807. After more than two centuries of war, prohibition, and countless legions of rowdy revelers along Lousiana's most famed street, this place continues to live up to its name, serving a laundry list of absinthe-infused cocktails in a classic dive bar ambience. 

The Old Absinthe House garnered fame and notoriety in the 19th century for its absinthe frappe cocktail named the "green monster." Many a monster was mixed until October 1, 1912, when the U.S. Government banned the importation and sale of absinthe — a fierce herbal spirit that can contain up to 89.9% alcohol. Following this blow came prohibition on January 19, 1920, forcing business underground until the management dismantled the bar and moved it to 400 Bourbon Street, where a bootleg operation continued.

Today, the Old Absinthe House remains one of the best bars on Bourbon Street, owing to its rich history friendly bartenders, eclectic trinkets, and punchy cocktails such as the sour Lulu White, the confident World's Best Gin and Tonic, and Cayetano Ferrer's original, age-old Absinthe Frappe. At the Old Absinthe House, every day is National Cocktail Day. 

Local mythologists place the Old Absinthe House at numerous important junctures of social and military history. During the War of 1812, for instance, French pirate Jean Lafitte met with Major General Andrew Jackson at the Old Absinthe House to discuss the impending British attack on New Orleans. On January 8, 1815, Lafitte and his men helped operate Jackson's 24 artillery pieces, meeting the British action with fire and fury that secured American victory and bolstered the young nation's identity and respect. 

Over a century later, in 1950, Old Absinthe House management installed a plaque commemorating the alleged meeting. However, this started a new war with Maspero's Exchange, a restaurant at 440 Chartres Street now called the Original Pierre Maspero's. The owner sued the Old Absinthe House, arguing that Andrew Jackson and Jean Lafitte had actually met on his property; however, a judge threw the case out in February 1951.

Grand though these wartime stories may be, the greater draw for dive bar hunters may be the establishment's boozy, literary history. "Always do sober what you said you'd do drunk," so the spurious Ernest Hemingway quote goes. "That will teach you to keep your mouth shut." The Old Absinthe House doesn't lay any claim to that line, but Hemingway was a patron, apparently, and so was Oscar Wilde, Walt Whitman, Mark Twain, and many others.