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He lives in New Orleans and has been building Acme Oyster House’s neon signs for 22 years. Mark Klaybor, a salesman and neon specialist, was lining an arch above the future raw bar with parchment, preparing to affix Acme’s signature “Oysters” sign. (Yi-Chin Lee/Staff Photographer | Houston Chronicle) He said he was excited to come back to Houston to work on a buildling that he used to know. Klaybor lived in Houston in the late 70s into the early 80s when the building was the original Tower Theatre and had memories of watching shows at the theater. A mysterious female ghost has also been known to prowl the premises, sometimes appearing in a mirror on the building’s second floor.Sign technician Mark Klaybor poses for a photograph in front of the new ACME Oyster House Thursday, April 1, 2021, in Houston. Patrons and bartenders have allegedly spotted Jean Lafitte himself peering out through the fireplace grate and sitting at a table in the back of the piano bar, drink in hand. Like so many of the best places in NOLA and particularly the French Quarter, Lafitte’s is rumored to be haunted.
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The interior remains candle-lit during the nighttime hours, and a small area in the back holds a piano and, frequently, a live performer. In more recent years, the meticulously preserved two-story “brique entre poteau” (brick-between-post) structure has become a popular spot for tourists to come and sample the powerful “voodoo” grape daiquiri, served, as all drinks at Lafitte’s are, in a plastic cup. Instead of mending their ways after their pardon, the Lafitte brothers moved their operation to the Gulf of Mexico and targeted Spanish ships for profit, staying true to the outlaw lifestyle until their deaths. authorities about an impending British attack, however, Jean Lafitte earned freedom for himself and his brother, and fought bravely in the 1814 Battle of New Orleans. The operation was eventually shut down by the government and the Lafitte brothers were arrested.Īfter tipping off U.S. Legend has it that after the Embargo Act was passed, which forbade American ships from docking at foreign ports, the Lafitte brothers moved their smuggling business to the island of Brataria in Louisiana’s Brataria Bay, just a short distance from New Orleans. The building, which Jean Lafitte operated as a blacksmith shop at the time, provided a perfect front. The property is believed to have been used by brothers Pierre and Jean Lafitte as a front for their smuggling operation between 17, which involved partnering with privateers who stole goods from foreign ships and covertly bringing these goods into the city while avoiding pesky government fees and taxes. While it’s undoubtedly true that every brick in the walls of Lafitte’s tells a story, the bar is also known for the colorful characters that have darkened its doorways throughout its long history. Hailed as possibly the oldest bar in the United States and most definitely the oldest building currently in use as a bar, Lafitte’s is housed in a French-built structure that dates from roughly 1722 - the details, like so much of New Orleans lore, are sketchy. A powerful purple “voodoo” drink and a healthy dose of pirate history are just two great reasons to visit Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop Bar, located on New Orleans’ storied Bourbon Street.