Oct 18, 2023 - Food and Drink
7 spooky French Quarter bars and restaurants
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The Seance Lounge stands in Muriel's restaurant in the French Quarter, originally constructed as a home in the mid-1700s. The restaurant reserves a table for its supposed resident ghosts. Photo: Mario Tama/Getty Images
It doesn't take a ghost tour to know New Orleans is home to some hauntingly fun dining.
Here, we dig into the French Quarter's spookiest bars and restaurants.
👻 Muriel's
801 Chartres St.
- Driving the heebie-jeebies: The restaurant is said to be haunted by the ghost of Pierre Antoine Lepardi Jourdan, who once lived in the building and died by suicide there after losing in a card game.
👻 Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop Bar
941 Bourbon St.
- Driving the heebie-jeebies: The bar is said to be one of the oldest in the U.S. and used as a base for pirate Jean Lafitte. Ghost hunters have reported sightings of floating red eyes and the aura of a woman who died by suicide.
👻 Pat O'Brien's
718 St. Peter St.
- Driving the heebie-jeebies: Bar patrons often have to navigate long lines at women's restrooms, but at Pat O's, the bathroom line is also rumored to feel especially spooky.
👻 May Baily's Place
415 Dauphine St.
- Driving the heebie-jeebies: This cocktail bar inside the Dauphine Orleans Hotel was home to May Baily's brothel. A former call girl is believed to haunt the bar, rearranging bottles and being spotted in mirrors.
👻 MRB
515 St. Philip St.
- Driving the heebie-jeebies: Another former brothel, the MRB bar is home to a rather feisty lady ghost, who is said to have been a prostitute who hanged herself in the courtyard. She has been spotted in the mirror in the women's restroom and is believed to have shoved people and even smashed the mirror.
613 Royal St.
- Driving the heebie-jeebies: It's hard to pick one legend as the source of this restaurant's ghost stories. Some say you may spot the pair of sisters who used to live in the building, or the ghost of a woman murdered there by her husband. In still another story, pirate Jean Lafitte is said to have killed three men in a trio of duels in the courtyard.
👻 Napoleon House
500 Chartres St.
- Driving the heebie-jeebies: The ghosts of an old woman sweeping the floor, a young woman who died under suspicious circumstances and a drinking sailor are all said to haunt this historic building, which once was intended as a getaway for Napoleon Bonaparte.