Day 1:    Slurping Hurricanes in the Old Absinthe House

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The  Wednesday before Thanksgiving Bone flew into the Big Easy from Birmingham Alabama, it was a hassle-free trip and cab ride downtown. Bone's Hotel was right off of Canal Street and only 2 blocks from Party Central Bourbon Street !!

 

Pubbin' @ Pat O'Briens !

It was  a beautiful afternoon, about 70 degrees, no humidity, slight breeze, something Bone has never experienced in the normally muggy Big Easy ! Wanting to take advantage of the fine weather, Bone started his evening at Pat O'Briens for the obligatory Hurricane. In fact Bone's strategy was to sample one Hurricane at every bar on Bourbon Street !!!

 

The Old Absinthe House

After a few hours Bone had hit most of the bars on Bourbon Street (some of them twice), but the one Bar that seemed to have the best drink was the Old Absinthe House, where Bone spent the rest of the night. Turns out, many others, some notable liked the Old Absinthe House.

In the heart of the French Quarter, at the corner of Bourbon Street and Bienville, sits the stuff that legends are made of -- The Old Absinthe House. Many celebrities have been welcomed through our doors in the nearly two centuries since its opening, including Oscar Wilde, P.T. Barnum, Mark Twain, Jenny Lind, Enrico Caruso, General Robert E Lee, Franklin Roosevelt, Liza Minelli and Frank Sinatra.  Indeed, the walls throughout this incredible building are covered in the framed photographs of several of our famous patrons.

The building endures the name of Jean Lafitte's because of the meeting of the Pirate Jean Lafitte and Andrew Jackson as they planned the victory of the battle of New Orleans on the second floor (now the newly-renovated Jean Lafitte's Bistro). Built in 1806, this building was erected by Pedro Front and Francisco Juncadelia of Barcelona to house their importing firm.  For the next forty years, trade continued in the bartering of food, tobacco and Spanish liquor ... a sort of early "corner grocery."  In 1815, the ground floor was converted into a saloon known as "Aleix's Coffee House" and was run by the nephews of Senora Juncadelia. This coffee house was later rechristened "The Absinthe Room" when mixologist Cayetano Ferrer created the famous Absinthe House Frappe here in 1874.  To this day, The Old Absinthe House still has the decorative marble fountains that were used to drip cool water over sugar cubes into glasses of Absinthe.

 

Bone, Seeing the Ghost of Jean Lafitte in the Old Absinthe House !!

 

Despite the many, many hurricanes, Bone was able to buy a N'Awlins favourite, a Lucky Dog !! at 4:00 AM as Bone wobbled to his Hotel.