Bourbon Street was named in 1721 by royal engineer Adrien de Pauger for the French House of Bourbon — the dynasty that gave us Louis XIV, XV, and XVI (whose head the French removed during the Revolution). Not the whiskey.
The Hurricane cocktail was invented at Pat O'Brien's on Saint Peter Street during WWII. Liquor distributors required bar owners to buy cases of unwanted rum with popular whiskey. Pat O'Brien had so much rum his bartender created a fruit punch with four ounces per glass, served in a hurricane lamp-shaped glass.
For most of its history, Bourbon Street was residential. In the 1850s it was a quiet neighborhood of Creole cottages. The transformation began in the 1880s with entertainment venues. Strip clubs and jazz clubs took over by the 1930s. After WWII, returning soldiers remembered the bars and came back.
New Orleans' open container laws allow walking with alcohol in plastic cups. The city didn't invent public drinking — it just decided it liked it. Most American ci
ties banned it. New Orleans said no.
The noise on a Saturday night can hit 105 decibels — about as loud as a chainsaw. And every visitor walks past buildings that are 250 years old without looking up.
— From the tour: The French Quarter Cheat Code
