{{Short description|Gay bar in New Orleans, Louisiana, US}} {{Use American English|date=January 2025}} {{Use mdy dates|date=January 2025}} [[File:Cafe Lafitte in Exile (55152091195).jpg|thumb|Cafe Lafitte in Exile on Bourbon Street in New Orleans, opened in 1933, claims to be the oldest gay bar in the United States.]] '''Cafe Lafitte in Exile''' is a bar in [[New Orleans]]' [[French Quarter]] that has operated continuously since 1933. It claims to be the oldest continuously operating [[gay bar]] in the United States (along with [[White Horse Inn (Oakland, California)|White Horse Inn]] in Oakland, California, which has also operated since 1933).<ref>{{cite news |last= Simmons |first= David Lee |date= July 15, 2008 |url= http://www.nola.com/bar-guide/index.ssf/2008/07/cafe_lafitte_in_exile.html |title= Cafe Lafitte in Exile |newspaper= [[The Times-Picayune]] |accessdate= May 5, 2016 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last= Kelly |first= John |date= March 27, 2011 |url= http://www.nola.com/living/index.ssf/2011/03/1950s_tom_caplinger_at_caf_laf.html |title= 1950's: Tom Caplinger at Cafe Lafitte in French Quarter |newspaper= [[The Times-Picayune]] |accessdate= May 5, 2016 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=99-NtgAACAAJ&q=cafe+lafitte+in+exile |first1= Frank |last1= Perez |first2= Jeffrey |last2= Palmquist |title= In Exile: The History and Lore Surrounding New Orleans Gay Culture and Its Oldest Gay Bar |publisher= LL Publications |year= 2012 |isbn= 9781905091997 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url= http://nolapage.com/city/new-orleans/gay-bars/cafe-lafitte-in-exile-new-orleans |title= Cafe Lafitte in Exile – New Orleans |accessdate= May 5, 2016 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url= http://neworleans.gaycities.com/bars/369-cafe-lafitte-in-exile |title= Cafe Lafitte in Exile |accessdate= May 5, 2016 }}</ref>
==Name== Cafe Lafitte bar was first opened in [[Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop]], a historic building at 941 Bourbon Street. When business owner [[Grace Zabriskie#Early life|Tom Caplinger]] was forced to vacate that location, he reopened at 901 Bourbon Street and named the new bar Cafe Lafitte in Exile.
==History== [[File:Café Lafitte in Exile - New Orleans LGBT-Gay Pride Parade 2016, Rainbow Flags (27297448773).jpg|thumb|During the New Orleans Pride Parade, 2016]] The bar is open seasonally 24 hours a day and has had influential guests including [[Tennessee Williams]] and [[Truman Capote]]. Operating since the end of [[Prohibition in the United States|Prohibition]] (albeit in two different locations) the bar claims to be the oldest gay bar in operation in the United States.<ref name="Cafe Lafitte in Exile">{{cite web | url=http://www.lafittes.com/#!about2/cd4j | title=The Cafe Lafitte in Exile: About Us | accessdate=November 28, 2015}}</ref> The original Cafe Lafitte opened in the building that had been the noted pirate [[Jean Lafitte]]'s blacksmith business in the 18th century. This building is now called [[Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop]]. In its early days, the bar was managed by Mary Collins, a lesbian, and drew a mixed crowd of lesbians, homosexuals and heterosexuals. In the 1950s, during rising tension between the club and the landlord, manager Tom Caplinger moved the club to the building where it is now located. At the grand reopening party in 1953, patrons arrived costumed as their favorite 'exile', including people like [[Oscar Wilde]], [[Dante]], and [[Napoleon]].<ref name="SummersHauntings p70">{{cite book |first= Ken |last= Summers |title= Queer Hauntings: True Tales of Gay & Lesbian Ghosts |publisher= Lethe Press |year= 2009 |page= 70 |isbn= 9781590212394 }}</ref>
In 1954, author [[John Steinbeck]] wrote an article about Tom Caplinger and Cafe Lafitte for the ''[[Saturday Evening Post]]'', describing Caplinger as "an uninhibited, unkempt scholar, whose laissez-faire policy of running a gin mill can only be termed unique."<ref>{{cite news |first= John |last= Steinbeck |newspaper= [[Saturday Evening Post]] |title=America and the Americans |year= 1954}}, reprinted in {{cite book |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=wrZCAQAAIAAJ&q=cafe+lafitte+in+exile |first= John |last= Steinbeck |title= Holiday |year= 1954 |volume= 15 }}<!-- need to find fuller details for both orig and reprint refs --></ref>
On September 28, 1958, [[Killing of Fernando Rios|Fernando Rios]], a Mexican tour guide, was killed after leaving the bar with John Farrell, a student from [[Tulane University]]. Farrell had earlier in the night expressed to his friends that he wanted to "roll a queer" (a slang term meaning to rob a gay man), and he assaulted Rios in an alley of the [[St. Louis Cathedral (New Orleans)|St. Louis Cathedral]] after leaving the bar with him. He was acquitted of the murderer by a jury.
==Ghost stories== In the book ''Queer Hauntings'', Ken Summers writes that bar patrons claim to have occasionally seen the ghosts of deceased individuals who were fond of the bar as well as a "frisky" ghost named Mr. Bubbly who pinches people on their rear ends.<ref name="SummersHauntings p70"/>
==References== {{Commonscat}}
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[[Category:1933 establishments in Louisiana]] [[Category:Drinking establishments in New Orleans]] [[Category:French Quarter]] [[Category:Tourist attractions in New Orleans]] [[Category:LGBTQ drinking establishments in the United States]] [[Category:LGBTQ in Louisiana]]