Drinking our way out of trouble!

[Mccinny]

I'm suprised she doesn't just give a little hooch away after all of this. And 2 dollars for a beer after a hurricane of doom is highway robbery!!



New Orleans bar keeps doors open through catastrophe


NEW ORLEANS, United States (AFP) - The bars of the Big Easy prided themselves on staying open come rain or shine but only one kept serving through the Hurricane Katrina crisis.




"We don't have any locks on the door," said Julie Sprinkel, a server at Johnny White's Sports Bar on the normally raucous Bourbon Street.

Pitch dark but for a few candles, the laughter could be heard along the street, famed for its alcohol-fueled debauchery, which on a normal night would have been flooded with hordes of hedonists decked out in cheap Mardi Gras beads.

The warm beer did not bother the regulars who have stayed faithful since Hurricane Katrina hit the city on Monday which was followed by flooding, looting and widespread pillaging.

Bourbon Street largely escaped the floods that hit after New Orleans levees were breached. And in the first days, a few stranded tourists also wandered in to sample the warm beer that became the drink of the day after the power went off and the refrigerators stopped working.

"Whatcha need, darling, you're all right?" the gruff bartender called out to a sweaty customer as he squeezed into her line of sight.

"Something cool, like bourbon," he answered.

Johnny White's has been an island of normalcy in a city shattered by hurricane anarchy and the stench of death.

The tiny joint sits squarely on the corner of Bourbon and Orleans where alcoholics and derelicts mix with a steady stream of yuppies and tourists who play at slumming it.

The doors are wide open.

Nearly a week after the disaster there are not many people walking by to notice. Those that do have stories to tell.

Lisa Smith, 41, is slumped on a bar stool, nursing a rum and coke -- and a huge gash on her side.

"I was floating on a couch drinking Budweiser," she told a friend who walked in as she began to tell the tale of how she escaped the floodwaters and made it back to her home away from home in the French Quarter.

Smith's story was interrupted by cheers which broke out when a man walked in with a cooler of ice.

"Don't get too excited, I'm hoarding this for myself," Sprinkel joked as she lit another cigarette and leaned on a stool behind the bar.

Sprinkel's only reason for keeping the bar open was habit. She definitely did not seem to be doing it for the money. She was only charging four dollars for mixed drinks and two dollars for beer.

"I could be making 1,000 dollars in six hours easy," she said. "It's not right. I'm not going to gouge. Everybody here is local."

It's the spirit of the French Quarter, Smith explained.

"We'll stop partying in a couple of days because everyone will run out of money."

[Jumper]

During Hurricane Andrew, the Redlands Bar near Homestead was unscathed and continued serving through the chaos. They were making bank and it was incredibly popular. Drunk and laughing in the face of adversity, sounds like a party.......

[seektravelinfo]

During Hurricane Andrew, the Redlands Bar near Homestead was unscathed and continued serving through the chaos. They were making bank and it was incredibly popular. Drunk and laughing in the face of adversity, sounds like a party.......

I'm glad to hear someone there is having fun. Sound like my kind of people. Floating down the street on your sofa drinking a Budweiser, now that's self-actualization, even though she had shitty taste in beer, but given the circumstances could be forgiven.
Myself, I woulda had a cognac.
When the French Quarter is up and running again will they continue to sell those Hurricane drinks in the tacky glasses?
And Cafe de Monde, please tell me they're open. If not, this is an opportune time to change their grease.

[Sri Lanky]

If she was floating down the street on a sofa,drinking a beer,AND diddling herself then that would be self-actualization.

She has a little ways to go yet.

[Professor Devlin]

I read a bit on CNN that Cafe De Monde made it through the storm.

In honor of the city, I am drinking the last bottle of Dixie beer that I had in the back of the fridge.

[Mccinny]

A trip to New Orleans isn't complete without washing away a hang over at 7 in the AM with coffee and Beignets at Du Monde.

Sadly enough, I still haven't tried Dixie or Jax. How does Dixie fare?