Pint Passport

3 bars checked · updated 25 October 2026

The oldest bar in Louisiana

The short answer

Oldest claim

Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop Bar

Says 1722. No document from that date has been found.

Grade C · Tradition

Oldest proof

Old Absinthe House

On record from 1869; the building is dated to about 1798.

Grade B · Building dated

The oldest bar claim in Louisiana is Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop Bar in New Orleans, which says 1722. By evidence the answer is different: the oldest record we have found belongs to Old Absinthe House in New Orleans, recorded in 1869.

Map of 3 old bars in Louisiana

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Louisiana

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The contenders, oldest claim first

Order the contenders

  1. Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop Bar

    Grade C

    New Orleans, Louisiana

    The 1722-32 is the bar's own: its about page, archived in December 2023, says the building was put up between 1722 and 1732 by Nicolas Touze and is reputed to be the oldest structure used as a bar in the United States. The present site loads nothing a reader can check. National Historic Landmark documentation dates the briquette-entre-poteaux building to the 1770s, and the Jean Lafitte smuggling story is

    Claims 1722; no early record found; building c.1770.

  2. Old Absinthe House

    Grade B

    New Orleans, Louisiana

    Nothing states 1807, the year this row used to claim. The bar's own page, on its operator's site, says the building was built in 1806 and calls the house one of the city's prominent historical landmarks; New Orleans Historical puts the stuccoed corner building at about 1806 and among the oldest structures in New Orleans. Neither dates drink. The ground floor began as a grocery, Wikipedia has a bar there by about the

    Claims 1806; first recorded 1869; building c.1798.

  3. Napoleon House

    Grade C

    New Orleans, Louisiana

    The building is far older than the bar, and the bar's own two best sources disagree about when it opened. The front of napoleonhouse.com says the house has been owned and operated by the Impastato family since 1914 and by Ralph Brennan since May 2015, and its history page says that in 1914 the family bought the property and Joseph "Uncle Joe" Impastato turned it into the restaurant and bar. The National Trust for

    Claims 1914; first recorded 1975; building c.1794.

Photo credits

Common questions

Which is the oldest bar in Louisiana still open?
Every bar on this page was trading when it was last checked, and each pub page shows the month. By claim that is Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop Bar; by documentary evidence, the oldest record we have found belongs to Old Absinthe House.
How many old bars are there in Louisiana?
We have checked 3 in Louisiana: 0 with a record from at or near the date claimed, 1 with a building of the right age but a later first mention, and 2 resting on tradition. More join the list as evidence turns up.