Pat O'Brien's Bar

Pat O'Brien's Bar is a bar located in New Orleans, Louisiana that opened its doors on December 3,1933, at the intersection of Royal and St. Peter streets in the French Quarter. 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.

During the Prohibition of the 1930s the bar was known as Mr. O'Brien's Club Tipperary; a password was required to gain entrance to the establishment.

Pat O'Brien's has become one of the top three tourist destinations in the French Quarter, and the restaurant claims to sell more alcohol than any other establishment in the United States.

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. 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
*Cancun, Mexico
*Destin, FL (opening in 2008)

ee also

* [http://wikitravel.org/en/article/New_Orleans Travel Guide to New Orleans from WikiTravel]
*Alcohol

External links

* [http://www.patobriens.com Pat O'Brien's Bar]

References

*cite web
last = McNulty
first = Ian
url = http://www.frenchquarter.com/nightlife/drinks.php
title = Drinking in History: Classic Cocktails and Modern Thirsts in the French Quarter
publisher = FrenchQuarter.com
accessdate = 2006-10-06