Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop.

America's oldest standing bar building.

Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop sits at the quiet end of Bourbon Street, four blocks from the noise. The cottage is a French Creole structure built between 1722 and 1732, predating the Spanish colonial fire of 1788 that destroyed most of the rest of the French Quarter. The wood beams are original. The brick-between-post construction is original. The hand-hewn fireplace at the back wall has been operational since the building's first decade.

The bar's name refers to the Lafitte brothers, Jean and Pierre, the famous Louisiana pirates and smugglers who allegedly used the building as a front for their Barataria Bay operation in the 1810s. The Lafitte connection is not documented in property records, but the cottage's age and its location near the river support the story. The bar regards the connection as established by tradition, if not by deed.

Why this matters. Lafitte's is the rare surviving 18th century structure operating as a working bar in the United States. It is also the rare French Quarter bar that has refused to install full electric lighting in its main room. The candles are the bar's central design choice.

Candles only in the front room.

The front room of Lafitte's, the room you enter from Bourbon Street, has no overhead electric lighting. The only light comes from approximately twenty candles placed in iron sconces along the walls and on each table. The candles are lit at sundown and replaced as they burn down. The back bar has a single small electric lamp that is original to a 1942 installation.

The candle-only choice is deliberate. The bar's owner has refused to install electric lighting in the front room since taking over the lease in 2002. The decision is partly historical, partly mood, partly economic. The candles cost the bar approximately $400 per month and require a candle attendant on shift every evening to manage replacement. The shadows the candles throw across the 18th century brick walls are the bar's signature visual experience.

The Voodoo Daiquiri and a Sazerac.

• The Voodoo Daiquiri: ten dollars. Bright purple, frozen, served in a tall plastic to-go cup with a straw. Made with Bacardi 151, blue curaçao, grenadine, lime, and grape juice. Stronger than its taste suggests.
• Sazerac: twelve dollars. The New Orleans cocktail. Sazerac rye, Peychaud's, absinthe rinse. Stirred, served up in a chilled rocks glass.
• Bourbon Street: eight dollars. The bar's house cocktail since 1989: bourbon, simple syrup, fresh lemon juice, served on the rocks.
• Abita Amber: six dollars. The local Louisiana lager.
• The thing nobody knows: the bar serves a small bowl of complimentary peanuts in the shell. The shells are dropped on the floor by tradition. The candle attendant sweeps them at 2am.

11pm Tuesday. The piano hour.

Lafitte's opens at 11am every day and closes at 3am. There is a small piano in the back room, played by a local pianist Tuesday through Sunday from 8pm to 11pm. The 11pm Tuesday hour is the off-peak piano experience: the front room is at half capacity, the candles are at peak intensity, the back-room piano transitions from a paid set to an open jam session that runs until 1:30am.

The peak hour is Friday and Saturday between 9pm and midnight, when the Bourbon Street crowd reaches Lafitte's and the bar fills to capacity. Avoid Saturday before 9pm; the early hour brings the cruise ship contingent. The Sunday afternoon at 3pm hour is the secret: the bar is half empty, the candles are still lit even in daylight, the regulars drink slowly with the Sunday paper.

The bar does not host Mardi Gras parties; the candles cannot accommodate the crowd density. Avoid Mardi Gras week.

What is original from 1732, and what was rebuilt.

The cottage's structural elements are mostly original. The cypress wood beams are 18th century French Creole. The brick-between-post (briquette-entre-poteaux) construction is the construction technique that allowed the cottage to survive the 1788 fire that destroyed surrounding buildings. The hand-hewn fireplace at the back has its original hearthstone, which has been re-pointed twice in the building's history but never replaced.

The roof was replaced in 1912. The bar's east wall has a small structural irregularity that historians believe is the original 1722 doorway, sealed during the 1810s expansion. The bar's owner allows architectural historians one visit per quarter to document changes. The most recent survey found the building to be 89% original to its 1722-1732 construction.

Forty-five dollars per person, mixed evening.

Plan for forty to fifty-five dollars per person for a three-hour visit. Two Voodoo Daiquiris at ten, one Sazerac at twelve, a Bourbon Street at eight, twenty percent tip. A pair of friends drinks for ninety dollars total.

Cards are accepted. Cash is preferred for the candle attendant tip, which is small and given on the way out. Two dollars per drink in cash on the bar is the local norm. Tipping the back-room pianist five dollars during their set is appreciated and improves the next song.

The French Quarter regulars and the literary tourists.

Lafitte's draws three populations. The first: a small group of long-tenure French Quarter residents who treat the bar as their living room and arrive between 4pm and 6pm. The second: the New Orleans piano-bar regulars, who follow the back-room pianist's schedule. The third: the literary tourist contingent, often Tennessee Williams scholars (Williams drank at Lafitte's for two decades) and Anne Rice readers (Rice set scenes from her vampire novels in the bar).

You will find a Bourbon Street tourist contingent after 9pm, but they tend to filter through quickly because the candle-only lighting does not photograph well on phones. The bar's lighting is the bar's filter for the kind of visitor it wants.

How not to be the worst person at Lafitte's.

• Do not photograph the candles with flash. The bar will ask you to put your phone away. The flash kills the room.
• Do not request rock or pop songs from the back-room pianist. The pianist plays jazz standards and old New Orleans. Tip the jar to influence the next song.
• Do not order a Voodoo Daiquiri before 8pm. The bar will pour, but the regulars judge afternoon Voodoo Daiquiri orders.
• Do not drop more than five peanut shells at any one time. The candle attendant has a sweeping rotation and your pile will be a problem.
• Do not bring a stag party in matching shirts. The bar will not refuse but the candle attendant will reseat your party in the back room.
• Do not ask if Jean Lafitte actually used the building. The bar regards the question as decided by tradition.
• Do not, ever, ask for an electric outlet to charge your phone. The bar refuses the request as a matter of policy.

Mr B's, Old Absinthe House, Lafitte's.

The classic French Quarter dive walk: dinner at Mr B's Bistro on Royal at 7pm, the legendary New Orleans brunch and dinner spot. Walk three blocks to the Old Absinthe House at 9pm for a Frappe. End at Lafitte's at 11pm for a Voodoo Daiquiri and the candle-only front room. Walk home along the quiet end of Bourbon, away from the noise.

For more bars in the area, see our New Orleans city guide, the cocktail bars guide, and the Old Absinthe House entry.

Yes. America's most preserved 18th century bar.