At the corner of Bourbon and Bienville, the Old Absinthe House has been serving spirits since 1806, one of the most storied drinking establishments in the city and a permanent fixture of New Orleans legend. The Absinthe House was built by two Spanish importers and operated as a grocery and importing business before becoming a bar. It is most famous for the absinthe frappe — iced absinthe mixed with water, anise, and simple syrup — perfected here in the nineteenth century, which helped establish absinthe as the signature spirit of New Orleans.
The building's most celebrated regular was Andrew Jackson, who is said to have met with Jean Lafitte here in 1815 to negotiate the pirate's role in the defense of New Orleans. Whether that meeting actually took place in this building is disputed, but the story has been told for two centuries and the bar has long since absorbed it as truth. Absinthe — the green, anise-flavored spirit made with wormwood that was believed to cause hallucinations and was banned in the United States in 1912 — was never actually absent from New Orleans, where the law has always been interpreted creatively.
The curved mahogany bar inside dates to the nineteenth century. The business card collection nailed to the ceiling and walls is a more recent tradition.