Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop

With dusky ambience and candles flickering all day long, Lafitte’s has long been one of the French Quarter’s most picturesque and iconic buildings, and lore insists it’s housed a bar as far back as 1772. Local legend insists it was once the blacksmith shop for the pirates Lafitte, a pair of brothers who had a trading station in the marshes not far away. Documentation doesn’t quite support this, but gets us pretty close. Lafitte’s is among the most permeable and street-friendly of the Bourbon Street bars, its doors often open wide to invite passersby, while drinkers can observe the passing parade.