The courtyard fountain at Pat O'Brien's, at nightPat O'Brien's
- Best time
- Early evening in the courtyard
- Getting there
- A block from Jackson Square
Why it’s in the log
The bar is said to have started as a speakeasy called Mr. O'Brien's Club Tipperary, with the password "storm's brewin'". Its famous drink came in the 1940s: the story is that distributors made Pat O'Brien take cases of unpopular rum before they'd sell him the whisky he wanted, so he mixed it with passion fruit, poured it into glasses shaped like hurricane lamps and gave it away to sailors.
The name, at least, is older. A Hurricane cocktail — whiskey, gin and crème de menthe — was printed in 1935, a rum Hurricane turns up in a 1939 film, and there was a Hurricane Bar at the New York World's Fair the same year. Pat O'Brien's made the passion-fruit version the one everybody knows.
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