Cafe Lafitte in Exile is a bar in

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans

French Quarter The French Quarter, also known as the , is the oldest neighborhood in the city of New Orleans. After New Orleans (french: La Nouvelle-Orléans) was founded in 1718 by Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville, the city developed around the ("Old S ...

that has operated continuously since 1933. It claims to be the oldest continuously operating

gay bar A gay bar is a drinking establishment that caters to an exclusively or predominantly lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender ( LGBT) clientele; the term '' gay'' is used as a broadly inclusive concept for LGBT communities. Gay bars once serv ...

in the United States (along with

White Horse Inn ''The White Horse Inn'' (or ''White Horse Inn'') (German title: ''Im weißen Rößl'' ) is an operetta or musical comedy by Ralph Benatzky and Robert Stolz in collaboration with a number of other composers and writers, set in the picturesque Salz ...

in Oakland, California which has also operated since 1933).

Name

Originally, Cafe Lafitte bar was opened in a famous old building at 941 Bourbon Street known as Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop. When the owner of the business, Tom Caplinger, was forced to vacate that location, he reopened at 901 Bourbon Street and named the new bar Cafe Lafitte in Exile.

History

The bar is open 24 hours a day and has had influential guests including

Tennessee Williams Thomas Lanier Williams III (March 26, 1911 – February 25, 1983), known by his pen name Tennessee Williams, was an American playwright and screenwriter. Along with contemporaries Eugene O'Neill and Arthur Miller, he is considered among the thre ...

and

Truman Capote Truman Garcia Capote ( ; born Truman Streckfus Persons; September 30, 1924 – August 25, 1984) was an American novelist, screenwriter, playwright and actor. Several of his short stories, novels, and plays have been praised as literary classics, ...

. Operating since the end of

Prohibition Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcoholic ...

(albeit in two different locations) the bar claims to be the oldest gay bar in operation in the United States. The original Cafe Lafitte in Exile opened in the building that had been the noted pirate

Jean Lafitte Jean Lafitte ( – ) was a French pirate and privateer who operated in the Gulf of Mexico in the early 19th century. He and his older brother Pierre spelled their last name Laffite, but English language documents of the time used "Lafitte". Thi ...

's blacksmith business in the 18th century. This building is now called Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop. In its early days, the bar was managed by Mary Collins, a lesbian, and drew a mixed crowd of lesbians, homosexuals and heterosexuals. In the 1950s, during rising tension between the club and the landlord, manager Tom Caplinger moved the club to the building where it is now located. At the grand reopening party in 1953, patrons arrived costumed as their favorite 'exile', including people like

Oscar Wilde Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 185430 November 1900) was an Irish poet and playwright. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular playwrights in London in the early 1890s. He is ...

Dante Dante Alighieri (; – 14 September 1321), probably baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri and often referred to as Dante (, ), was an Italian poet, writer and philosopher. His '' Divine Comedy'', originally called (modern Italian: ...

, and Napoleon. In 1954, author John Steinbeck wrote an article about Tom Caplinger and Cafe Lafitte for the ''

Saturday Evening Post ''The Saturday Evening Post'' is an American magazine, currently published six times a year. It was issued weekly under this title from 1897 until 1963, then every two weeks until 1969. From the 1920s to the 1960s, it was one of the most widely ...

'', describing Caplinger as "an uninhibited, unkempt scholar, whose laissez-faire policy of running a gin mill can only be termed unique.", reprinted in

Ghost stories

In the book ''Queer Hauntings'', Ken Summers writes that bar patrons claim to have occasionally seen the ghosts of deceased individuals who were fond of the bar as well as a "frisky" ghost named Mr. Bubbly who pinches people on their rear ends.

References

{{coords, 29.9604, -90.0642, display=title 1933 establishments in Louisiana Drinking establishments in New Orleans French Quarter Tourist attractions in New Orleans LGBT drinking establishments in the United States