Pat O'Brien's Bar

Pat O'Brien's Bar is a bar located in New Orleans, Louisiana that began operation as a legal liquor establishment on December 3, 1933, at the intersection of Royal and St. Peter streets in the French Quarter. Before that, during Prohibition the bar was known as Mr. O'Brien's Club Tipperary; a password was required to gain entrance to the establishment. In 1942 it moved to its present location at 718 St. Peter, into a historic building dating from 1791. The location features several bars as well as a large outdoor courtyard in the rear with iron tables and white and green clad cocktail servers. The bar is home to the original Flaming fountain (located in the courtyard) and Pat O's Hurricane cocktail.

Additionally, the establishment hosts a large Piano bar featuring twin copper-covered "dueling" pianos where local entertainers take requests to the delight of what is often a raucous audience. This dueling piano bar is generally accepted as the first of its kind.

O'Brien is reported to have invented the Hurricane cocktail in the 1940s. The story of the drink’s origin holds that, due to difficulties importing Scotch during World War II, liquor salesmen forced bar owners to buy up to 50 cases of their much more abundant rum in order to secure a single case of good whiskey or scotch. The barmen at Pat O’Brien’s soon came up with an alluring recipe to clear through their bulging surplus of rum. When they decided to serve it up in a tall, jaunty glass shaped like a hurricane lamp, the hurricane cocktail was born. The drink is a mixture of sweet fruit juices and rum.

Locations:

• New Orleans, LA
• Orlando, FL
• San Antonio, TX
• Memphis, TN (closed August, 2008)
• Cancun, Mexico
• Destin, FL (closed November, 2009)