Pirate’s Alley Cafe

Where it is

Pirate’s Alley Cafe is at 622 Pirate’s Alley (FrenchQuarter.com). Its own site calls it Pirates Alley Cafe and Absinthe House, “located next to the ‘Faulkner House’ where the great writer once lived,” and promises “the most exotic of all drinks, ‘Absinthe.’” The alley runs about 600 feet from the Chartres Street pedestrian mall to Royal Street, between St. Louis Cathedral and the Cabildo (NOLA Tour Guy). Wikipedia calls the cathedral “the oldest cathedral in continuous use in the United States.”

The name is uncertain. NOLA Tour Guy says the alley was called Orleans Alley South until 1964, that the common tie to Jean Lafitte and his pirates is unlikely, and that the name first appears in print in 1926.

The house next door

Next door at 624 is Faulkner House Books. The shop’s news page carries press quotes, among them MSN’s description of a place “where William Faulkner lived when he completed his first novel in 1925” and a line that Soldiers’ Pay was “written right here in 624 Pirate’s Alley.” The shop’s own words on that page date the townhouse to 1837. The American Library Association’s Literary Landmarks listing agrees that Faulkner lived on the ground floor in 1925, and says the house was designated a Literary Landmark on June 25, 1993. The shop’s site says it is “Open every day from 10 to 5:00.”

The bar

Scoundrel’s Field Guide says the building stands on the site of the Spanish Colonial Prison established in 1769, a claim it credits to the bar’s own website. The same review describes nautical and pirate decor, a ceiling mural of a pirate-style compass, “some kind of reference to a map about every five feet,” and arched entryways with large shuttered doors that open onto the alley.

Accounts of what the place is differ. The listing on FrenchQuarter.com quotes the business calling itself “a full service café, that features food and fun.” NOLA Tour Guy says “It is not a café. No food is served there,” and that the city’s permits department nearly closed it in 2016 before it was granted a bar license. That page also says the bar is cash only and repeats the claim that it is the closest bar to an active church in America. The cafe’s own Who We Are page puts it more grandly: standing beneath the lamp post where the alley meets Cabildo Alley, “you are in the closest proximity of Church, State and Bar in the world.” Both are boasts, not measurements.

Absinthe

NOLA Tour Guy calls it “known as the best place in New Orleans to drink absinthe and absinthe cocktails,” and names the death in the afternoon, obituary, and Russian funeral. A Food Network listing says the signature drink is “a French version of absinthe called Absente” and notes a large display of absinthes and Caribbean rums. The cafe’s absinthe page explains Absente as a recipe that swaps wormwood for a less bitter southern wormwood, bottled at 110 proof, and claims it “was the first allowed in the States after the ban.” A visitor tip on Airbnb says the bar lights the sugar cube on fire.

No source here describes absinthe fountains or a water drip at this bar, and none gives a current list of what it pours. The usual way to prepare absinthe, per Wikipedia, is to set a sugar cube on a slotted spoon over the glass and drip iced water over it, which makes a drink of 1 part absinthe to 3 to 5 parts water. A fountain is a jar of iced water with spigots, so several drinks can be prepared at once. That describes the classic method in general, not this bar’s.

The absinthe frappé has its own story in The Absinthe Frappé, the Old Absinthe House, and the ban that changed New Orleans drinking.

The ban and its end

Wikipedia lists the United States among the countries that banned absinthe in 1912. VinePair says the ban stayed in effect until 2007. Difford’s Guide says Lucid Absinthe Supérieure received a Certificate of Label Approval from the U.S. Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) on March 5, 2007, the first absinthe approved for U.S. distribution since 1912, though it also says the thujone ban was lifted at the end of 2006.

The federal rule is in TTB Industry Circular 2007-5, dated October 16, 2007. It approves “absinthe” on labels only for products that are “thujone-free,” which TTB defines as containing less than 10 parts per million of thujone. So the sources point to different steps: the end of 2006, March 2007, and October 2007.

Before you go

The cafe’s own site answers at its plain http address, but its pages carry a 2007 copyright and no hours, so the newest details come from listings. A Restaurant Guru listing updated in early November 2026 shows it open from 10 a.m., and FrenchQuarter.com lists two undated ranges. Listings give (504) 524-9332 as the phone number. Call before going, and carry cash.