Pat O'Brien's opened its doors as a legal drinking establishment on December 3, 1933, two days before Prohibition's official repeal — a jump-the-gun move so thoroughly New Orleans that nobody blinked. Before that, the bar operated as a speakeasy called Mr. O'Brien's Club Tipperary, where the password "storm's brewin'" gained entry. In 1942, the growing business moved into its current home at 718 St. Peter Street, a building dating to 1791.
It was here, in the 1940s, that Pat O'Brien invented the Hurricane, born out of a wartime rum surplus: liquor salesmen forced bar owners to buy cases of unpopular rum in order to secure scarce, more desirable scotch and bourbon. Bartenders mixed the rum with passion fruit syrup and fresh lemon juice, served it in a glass shaped like a hurricane lamp, and created what would become one of the most famous cocktails in the world.
Pat O'Brien's is equally known for its dueling piano bar, where two matching copper-topped baby grand pianos and audience-driven song requests have entertained guests for generations, alongside the bar's flaming fountain in its courtyard.