The claim
A stucco corner building at Bourbon and Bienville, finished around 1806, which became famous in the 19th century for the absinthe frappé poured by bartender Cayetano Ferrer. Legend places Andrew Jackson and Jean Lafitte in an upstairs room plotting the Battle of New Orleans. Today it is a lively French Quarter bar, one of the oldest drinking spots on Bourbon Street.
What the records show
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 1830s, and the house was advertising as the Absinthe House by 1869, which is the first record of the trade. The 1815 meeting of Andrew Jackson and Jean Lafitte upstairs is legend, as a court noted in 1951 when a rival on Chartres Street sued over the right to display the plaque.
| Year | What | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 1806 | Claimed founding | The pub |
| c.1798 | Present building | Building fabric |
| 1869 | First record of a drinking house here | Wikipedia |
What to look for inside
- Famed for the absinthe frappé from the 1870s
- Jackson-Lafitte meeting legend challenged in court in 1951
Visiting
Old Absinthe House is in New Orleans, United States, at 240 Bourbon Street, New Orleans, LA 70112. We do not list opening times, because they change; the pub’s own site is the place to check before you set out.
Sources
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Absinthe_House
- neworleanshistorical.org/items/show/619
- www.ruebourbon.com/old-absinthe-house
- data.nola.gov/resource/iqay-p646.json?streetnumber=240&streetname=BOURBON
Then and now
Photographed about 1937, and today. Photographed in 1937 by Frances Benjamin Johnston for the Carnegie Survey of the Architecture of the South.
Photo: Frances Benjamin Johnston · public domain
Photo: ajay_suresh · licenceKnow something we don’t?Suggest a correctionLast checked Sept 2026
Run this pub? There is a badge for it
Free to put on your own site, no permission needed. It shows what the pub claims and what the records support, and it changes when the data does.
How to use it, and how to change what it says — if you have a document we have not seen, we would like to read it.
.jpg){kind=link}
