Inside New Orleans’ Most Haunted Bar: The Ghosts of Cafe Lafitte (Ep 376)

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a place that has seen defiance, literary geniuses, disco fever, and has survived the hardships that the queer community has faced for decades. And today, you might see Tennessee Williams finishing a drink, or Mr. Bubbles having a few too many libations in the afterlife.

love to see Mr. Bubbles.

The oldest continuously operating gay bar in the United States, Cafe Lafitte in Exile.

Very spooky.

Hello.

Hi. This is Two Girls One Ghost.

Two Girls One Ghost.

We are your ghostesses. That is Corinne.

Hello.

I'm Sabrina, and we're here for another story. Another ghost story.

What else would we even be doing?

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We're here actually to talk about depression. I'm just kidding.

Well, sometimes we do do that.

We do. You know, we're very versatile people. We're humans with human experiences. So, I was just watching

You look really concerned. Do you want to talk about something?

No, I'm actually I was thinking about it recently. Like, I feel like I've done so much work on myself that like I for the first time ever like feel like such a regulated human being that I that it's confusing.

Oh, you're like, "Where's my Where are my daily qualms?"

Right. Like, where's my like where's my crying all the time? Like, I it feels so weird to be normal. Like, it's very strange to me.

Yeah. Was it gradual or did you just wake up one day and you were like, "Oh, wow."

I don't know.

It's been

I mean, definitely it's definitely gradual. And I I don't honestly I'm not healed, but I do feel like I'm I've done so much work on myself that I feel like oh,

Good job, girlfriend.

Good job.

And also, we're not really in true winter anymore. So, it's like

new persona when it's spring.

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It like that hits me immediately.

It's like night and day. Like the night before we'll be struggling mentally, dragging myself through life, and the next day I'm like, I will have energy for the next 7 months.

Yeah.

I I I always knew this about myself, but I think I forgot about it because I hadn't experienced true winter in so long.

Mhm.

I am not a winter gal. Like I am not I don't like clothing when I'm in winter. I

No, me neither. I live in this.

I'm I'm like the worst version of myself.

I I have sweats, and then my cute stuff is literally just for summer.

When I was in Austin for South by Southwest, I felt so good about myself, and I felt so cute and like stylish.

Yeah.

Because yeah, it's summer I I know how to do

cute clothes for when you feel cute and when you feel good.

I don't know how to do winter, except for like hibernation.

That is kind of the way that you do New England.

It's too long though. I don't like it.

Yeah. But anyway, it's spring.

Yay!

Yay!

Woohoo!

Woohoo! And it's almost summer.

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I know. I'm so excited.

Me, too. And we're going to talk about a place that is warm most of the year.

Yeah, if you're cold and depressed in the winter, go visit here.

New Orlean’s oldest gay bar

New Orleans, Louisiana. I don't know why I had to glance at my notes to say New Orleans.

What's it called? [ __ ] [ __ ] what's it How do I pronounce it?

What's this town?

Nola.

Nola, baby.

Where the vampires roam.

Yeah, some people might think about vampires walking around, visiting haunted mausoleums, ghost penises.

Not what we think about with Nola.

Absorbing the energy of all the magic and the practitioners around. Other people might think about uh

Wait, I'm sorry. I This This made me laugh so hard. Someone on TikTok, again, this is now months ago at this point because we're recording ahead, but um this woman was like, I'm doing tarot cards, but with Cards Against Humanity. And how do you even do that?

She basically just shuffled them and was like, I don't know who this reading's for but like if this

Resonates with you.

The first card she pulled was a micro

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penis and then the second card she pulled was penis envy. And then she goes, "Wow, I really yeah, I don't know who this is for but I I'm sorry." She shuffles the cards more and she's like, "Well, how do you deal with this issue that you have?" And then the next card was look at pictures of boobs.

Someone was really coming through.

It made me laugh so hard. I know. I was like that's amazing.

Okay, yeah but like to that point like Nola has multiple sides of it. It's like we think of it as like the haunted attractions, the dark energy, the vampire lore, the magic that's there. Other people could be thinking about the neon cups, getting to walk the streets with drinking alcohol, like the parties, Mardi Gras.

The beads.

Jazz music. Oh my god, the music there.

Yes, also the culture, the art, the festivals, like there are multiple sides of New Orleans.

Yeah, it's such an amazing

cultural spot.

And some deep and dark history. But sometimes something funny happens in

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history. Something good can come from the darkness. A beacon of hope in an otherwise trying time. And if you are visiting Nola or if you live there and you are on the corner of Bourbon and St. Philip Street, you just may see this beacon of light. The glow of neon greens and purples shining through the windows of a building that reads Cafe Lafitte in Exile. The oldest continuously operating gay bar in the United States.

I truly had no idea.

We walked by it. We were right there.

Isn't that where we got the picture?

No.

Oh.

We went to Jean Lafitte's

Two different places.

Blacksmith Shop Bar.

Oh.

Cafe Lafitte in Exile is right down the street and we will learn why they have basically the same name.

Okay, okay.

Okay, so this is the oldest continuously operating gay bar in the US, a place that was refuge for the queer community and a bar so rich in history that spirits refuse to leave it. Why would you ever want to leave a gay bar? Like I feel like that's the perfect place to haunt.

Oh my god, yeah. And they have so many events there, too. Like I was like, "Oh,

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I want to go to all the drag shows and the music and trivia." Like they just do everything. Like this is this is a great spot.

Speaking of everything, there is a bar in Boston and I can't remember the name of it, but they do drag shows, but they also have diaper nights.

What?

Where people who have the And again, you do you. People who have kinks for diaper like people like adults wearing diapers, they have like a full evening where you can go downstairs to the basement and everyone is wearing diapers.

Fair enough. People in Boston who want to wear diapers for diaper night.

so.

How did you find this? How did I live in the city for 8 years and not find this? And you're there for like 2 months and you find a diaper night.

didn't find it. I didn't go to it. I was told about it. I've never been.

So, uh Payne's cousin Mary, who like I love her. I'm still She lives in Boston. Her husband Rich is like

Goes to diaper nights?

No, her husband Rich is like this big Boston um sports personality.

Mhm.

Like a radio host and they lived in

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Boston for like years and years and years and Mary went to a like bridal shower or some type of event at the drag brunch and saw advertisement for it.

Where's the drag brunch?

I'm sure I can find diaper night Boston bar.

It's literally called Diapers After Dark. Toddle into a world of whimsy. Oh, it's upstairs at Boston's Alley Bar for ABDL, adult baby diaper lover.

Boston's Alley Bar?

Yeah.

How did we even get to this?

Diapers After Dark at the Alley Bar.

Wait one moment.

been to diaper night?

I think that this might be the place that I have been trying to remember the name of for years, which I have told you about. cuz remember I said that I was in like the downtown theater-ish district area and I went to this bar, but it was like in an alley and you had to go upstairs and I couldn't ever remember how to get there again and I'd never been to it and they had amazing shots. They would be like cinnamon toast crunch shot or like things like that. This is

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it.

That's amazing.

But I went with co-workers.

Well, you didn't go to the diaper night.

I went with co-workers after work one day when we just It was one of those nights where you like you just keep bouncing to the next bar and like you're ordering more. It was totally here.

That's so funny.

like this side area where you can have Yeah. Oh my god. They have amazing shots at the diaper bar.

But isn't that wild?

That is wild. Okay. Wow. The more you know.

Fun bars all around.

to do in Boston.

Yeah.

Okay. So So Cafe Lafi and Exile has quite a few spirits which we will talk about. We're talking about the ghost of Tennessee Williams and Truman Capote.

A playful poltergeist named Mr. Bubbles.

He would love diaper night.

And the cultural explosion of trash disco that turned a safe haven into a revolution.

Trash disco, you know that came from um baseball game in Minneapolis.

Did it?

Mhm.

What does it mean?

It was during the like disco era. I

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mean, this is actually

Wow, you were full of facts for this.

And I also know this from another ex from from Nick cuz he grew up in Minnesota and they were good friends with the owners of the St. Paul Saints.

Mhm.

The guy who like owned that team was like the person who started doing all like the activities at baseball games like the like running around the field and like bringing people from the crowd down to like do games and stuff and they did disco demolition, which is also like kind of a It was like an anti-queer thing even they didn't know it, but because disco was a very like gay community like vibe that it got like a lot of backlash for disco demolition.

Damn.

But people like hated disco when it first came out. Like that's why like it was such like a

There's just so much like I just don't understand. Like it makes no sense in my mind when people would be like, "Oh, we hate the gay community and the things that are outwardly gay." And yet they watch men in face paint with tight pants and spiky hair and makeup sing rock songs and suddenly they're lusting after

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them. It's like

100%.

How does that make any sense?

You're watching drag on stage in the form of like a rock band.

No, it's it's so dumb.

It makes no sense. People are messed up.

Very. I always think about like Paige and Hannah from Giggly Squad because they have like the best conversations about men and how like their just behaviors are so contradictory. And especially like the southern men who were like so uptight about things, but they're literally wearing like cowboy boots with like they're wearing heels.

You're you're literally wearing

You're dressing up every day.

Well, and also I don't want to bring my psych background into this, but we did learn when I was in school of some studies that were done on groups of people who were outwardly homophobic and they literally put sensors on their like brains and on their genitalia and had them watch a gay film, adult film.

I love that so much.

And everything lit up and was aroused and these were people who were like vehemently against that.

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society. I blame society. [ __ ] society.

Yeah. This is a safe place.

So, what we're about to talk about, this is a safe place to be exactly who you are.

The word exile in Cafe Lafitte in Exile. Can be kind of a catchy name, too. So, so you're like, "Why an exile?" But it insinuates that there's like some scars, some darkness with the history and perhaps they're wearing it as a badge of honor, which they totally are.

I love that.

Before Cafe Lafitte in Exile stood where it is today, it was in the same building as Lafitte Blacksmith Shop Bar, which is where we captured the ghost penis.

Oh.

And that is why it has the word Lafitte

Got you.

in Cafe Lafitte.

Got you.

I literally thought they were the same place.

I got confused, too, and I was like, wait, we did the whole episode on Cafe

Right.

Lafitte's blacksmith shop.

When I thought they were the same until literally this moment, I got so much more excited that a ghost exposed its penis to us. Like that made me less It felt less predatory and more like,

Woohoo! Girl show!

Like girls night. Yeah.

Yeah, no, totally. If you've never listened to that episode that we're

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referencing, the Lafitte blacksmith shop bar, it is episode 157 called Dead Man's Dong, and we covered Jean Lafitte, this infamous pirate in New Orleans, the bachelorette trip that we were on, and the ghost penis that we captured on film. So, there's a lot to be discussed in that episode.

So good.

I wrote, we famously caught the ghost penis photo. The penis's owner, we believe, is Jean Lafitte. It's owner.

It's owner. I mean, it's unruly. You got to put those things on a leash.

Okay, so Cafe Lafitte first opened in 1933, the year that prohibition ended.

Oh.

And it opened like literally that second, cuz I was Googling when it opened and then when prohibition ended and it was like December of that year, so it was like immediately

me think, like, was there like some underground version of it that was already in existence?

For sure. So, across the US, alcohol was suddenly legal again and bars began opening everywhere, aka the buddy of the party existed and were just opening their doors publicly. But, for the LGBTQ

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Americans, nightlife was not just about drinks, it was about survival. In the early 20th century, homosexuality was criminalized in most states. Police frequently raided bars suspected of serving gay patrons. Newspapers would print the names of arrested individuals, careers and families destroyed overnight. And so, not only was the prohibition era about the secrecy of drinking alcohol, but queer nightlife had to exist extremely carefully.

Jeez.

It was sometimes hidden, it was sometimes coded, and sometimes protected by sympathetic owners. In the French Quarter of New Orleans, Cafe Lafitte was one of those places. Now, it wasn't an openly gay bar. This wasn't a time that like you could

I guess like openly

yeah.

be a gay and be accepted. Uh and also like this was the deep south. Like we were in Louisiana here.

Yeah.

Uh so there were a lot of other issues. Segregation was rampant, being gay was certainly not the only thing that people

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were uncomfortable with at this time. So, unofficially, yes, it was this sort of like gay bar, but publicly and officially it was not. Cafe Lafitte was run by Tom Caplinger, Harold Bartelli, and Mary Collins since it opened in 1933, becoming a spot for the queer community to gather safely, socialize, and have a drink.

Mhm.

Mary in particular, she's like definitely the person to thank here in the story, because they all did things to protect the place and make it feel really open and welcoming, but she was like, "I want this place to be a place where people can think of it as a sanctuary." And she was saying it was for people who lived a bohemian life. So, bohemian at the time, it definitely well, and today it doesn't mean gay either.

Yeah.

But like bohemian did not mean gay. It was a bar that would definitely serve as a safe place for gay and lesbian patrons, yes, but also artists, writers, musicians, intellectuals, anyone who felt like unconventional

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It was a whimsy bar.

Yeah.

It was a whimsy bar. So, she was like, "We're opening this place together, and it needs to be like super focused on the bohemian crowd. That's what I feel comfortable with, that's what we should go for." And the two other guys were like, "Okay, yeah. I'm down with that." So, that's basically who they targeted and served. By the 1930s and '40s, the French Quarter had been and still is a magnet for artists and writers. Like this is a super

everywhere. Yes.

Yes. Yeah. I mean there's like whole festivals now

I know.

about art and music. So, it didn't just happen overnight. Like this happened long, long ago.

So, the neighborhood had fallen into kind of this relative economic decline, which a lot of people think immediately like, oh that's that's bad for an area to start to I guess like go backwards.

Sure.

But what it really meant was there was cheap rent.

And with cheap rent is creative freedom.

More people can come in.

And also artists famously aren't making a ton of money. You need to find a place that's cheap. Like it makes me think of like what's the something area of Paris

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where all the artists used to live and there was like 10 artists living in like one bedroom apartments.

Yeah, no totally. Like this gave creative freedom to so many artists to come in and and live there and also have studios and just like practice their arts.

Yeah.

Writers like Tennessee Williams and Truman Capote were part of the larger creative scene around the quarter during this period. And this was not just a bar. It was also a library, a theater, and it had a family room for people to just like kind of collect and congregate in.

It kind of reminds me of like hotels used to be where you would like they weren't just a place to spend the night. It was like a meeting place.

Yeah. This is like a community center in a way.

Yeah, for sure.

Totally. By the late 1940s, Cafe Lafitte had become one of the central hubs of queer life in the city of New Orleans. But then everything changed. Around 1953 to 1954, there was a conflict that erupted between the bar's operators and the landlord of the building that housed the original Cafe Lafitte. So, this is where the bar that we went to still exists today. But like there's multiple

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businesses sharing this one like building and space, this block.

Yeah.

And there was a new landlord who came in and his name was Andrew Jack Entwistle. I might be butchering his last name, but it doesn't matter. He did not want the bohemian crowd.

Rude.

Right? Like you're going to just accept this other bar with this like flashing murderous pirate?

Yeah. Like, peace love everyone community, you're not going to Yeah.

Yeah, so rude. Like, sorry I'm busy writing my poetry and it's actually going to be slanderous about you, but it's over your head, Jack.

You won't get it, Jack.

get it cuz you're not artsy and welcoming and have love in your heart. Okay, so yeah, he didn't want this bohemian crowd, but more specifically he didn't want any gay clientele in the building. So, he kind of disguised it as being like, "Well, I don't

We shouldn't attract all the bohemian crowd here, but But it was about him being homophobic.

100%.

So, he wanted them gone, but Jack did not realize who he was dealing with. Jack told them to leave and they did, but they didn't technically close up

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shop. The bar's owner, so like Mary was the one who was like, "Here's who we're going to serve us. Here's the vibe that we're going for." But Tom, one of the other two owners, was like, "Oh, this is my moment for defiance. Like, [ __ ] you, dude." So, they leave, but he's like, "We're not going to just leave. I am leaving in literal Exodus." On the night of 1954, all of the regulars picked up their drinks, the bartenders grabbed their bottles, and they marched two doors down to the new location, the current location at 901 Bourbon Street.

But I love that.

Yeah, so they basically had a parade of being like, "F you."

Yeah. We'll take our business elsewhere.

Yes, and this was the grand exile party.

so that's in exile. I love that.

People dressed as history's famous outcasts. This is This I love this so much. Like,

Wait, we should do that for a Halloween episode. We should be historical famous outcasts.

I like that. Let's remember that by the end of this episode.

myself right now.

Which I love that they made it an event

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and that and that Tom was not just like, "Okay, well, I'll just like open doors like a couple doors down and we'll all just move over there." They were like, "No, we're going to make a show of this." I appreciate that cuz that was them being like, "You can remove us from the building, but you cannot remove us from the community. Like we will leave and you can exile us, but you cannot erase us. It was a powerful message. And to go with that powerful message, they renamed Cafe Lafitte Cafe Lafitte in exile.

I love that story.

Yeah, cuz they were like, "Well, we're going to make sure that everyone knows that we were pushed out. We are under attack."

Yeah. And also like it's it's funny cuz it's like we're in exile, but we're literally across the street from you.

Hey, you try to go against a bunch of creative people.

Life is so much better with the gays.

Cuz this is one of those things where it's like if you could go back in time and catch a glimpse of an event, like I would want to see this parade two

One against.

Agreed.

So sometimes when you look this up, you'll see the word schism associated with this event, which is a word used for religious splits, but it's the locals had used that word in reference

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to this event because even though this sounds like this magical thing where like everyone was like, "Eh, this." or whatever and like grabbed everything and walked a couple doors down, not everyone left.

So some of the patrons of the original Cafe Lafitte stayed patrons of the new place, including some of like the staff or whatever. Not 100% of the people went. So essentially it was like

Which is also really funny cuz it's like it's literally two doors down.

It's It's like just walk two doors down.

effort. Yeah.

What are you doing?

But yeah, basically it was like this bohemian group kind of split in two ways and it had a really big impact culturally on the French Quarter's queer nightlife scene because it still was incredibly small at the time, so it felt smaller cuz it was like fractured.

Yeah, interesting. You just know that means that there was so much more happening that like history hasn't documented.

To your point and actually this leads into literally what I wrote next and this is a good a good thing to kind of take into consideration when you think about how some people didn't outwardly move and associate themselves with the new place, which was this bohemian like

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now kind of like openly bohemian and queer bar because of the effort that they put in in parading themselves a couple doors down and saying a big FU to everyone who is trying to exile us. At the time, queer safe spaces they were incredibly fragile.

Yeah.

During the 1950s, homosexuality was still criminalized in many states. Police raids on gay bars were still common and being publicly identified as gay could ruin someone's career and life. In 1958, a Mexican tour guide named Fernando Rios was murdered after leaving a bar with a Tulane University student who this is so disturbing. The Tulane University student had told friends earlier that he intended to go rob a gay man. And basically did. He like went and like picked up a man and he didn't just rob him, he murdered him. So all to say like this is this is dangerous. Like this is the the stories that are being told. Like these are people that they know from their own community. And so for some people, I think that they took this as a moment of being like, well if I don't go two doors down, if I stay where I am

I'm safe.

I might be safer again.

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Yeah.

So it's not it's not to say that those people did anything wrong.

No, it's just a really difficult The blame is the white man.

What the straight white man?

That's what I meant.

We're going to get a negative review for that. For this whole episode

Honestly, someone's going to be like they hate men. It's like well, let's look at history.

We get more negative reviews than when we talk about our own nipples than when we talk about

men in a negative light. So let's just

Yeah.

We'll say whatever we want

Yeah.

[ __ ] say. So yeah, some people decided to stay with the old business, some people decided to move, but when Cafe Lafitte was forced out of its building, they were like we're not going to make this just a business dispute. This is going to be a reminder that queer spaces could disappear overnight.

Mhm.

And our decision to reopen Cafe Lafitte in exile is therefore both practical and symbolic.

Yeah.

Like again, you can't erase us.

Yeah.

Well

Today, Cafe Lafitte in exile remains one of the most famous LGBTQ bars in America and it's often cited as one of the

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oldest continuously operating gay bars in the US.

Wow.

With its roots dating back to 1933. There's another one in the Pacific Northwest who also claims to be the oldest. I don't care who's the oldest. I'm glad you guys have been around for a long time.

guys don't need to compete over that. Just be happy. Like we're just glad that you exist. Yeah.

Yeah, that you created this space for so long. And this is why this bar feels a little bit different than so many bars in New Orleans because it was founded on an act of rebellion. Many paranormal researchers believe that that highly emotional event, all of that that went into them creating the space, trying to live without fear in those moments, and then being attacked and not letting it end them, basically like having a community fight for itself, it can trigger a lot of energy that can stain and stay and contribute to hauntings.

Also, I just imagine, yes, there's so much strife that they're dealing with, but there's also so much beauty

Mhm.

in the community that they're creating that I imagine if you spent a lot of

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your life going here, visiting here, spending time, and building community here, when you pass away, like why wouldn't you want to go back to that space?

Totally. Well, yeah, and to that point, some people are like, "Okay, well, could it be residual haunting?" Sure, there might be. But there also might actively be spirits who are like, "I felt safest and best here. I'm going to keep coming here." Or spirits who are protective and are like, "We have to make sure that this never happens again."

Yes.

literary ghosts

So, the bohemian crowd of Cafe Lafitte in Exile, they had hosted artists, intellectuals, and writers. And two of the most famous patrons who I referenced a couple of times already were Tennessee Williams,

who Streetcar Named Desire.

Yep. The Glass Menagerie, like some of those things if you're into the theater.

Theater.

And Truman Capote. Breakfast at Tiffany's is probably the best known

Yeah.

thing. So, huge names in both the theater and

Arts.

Yeah, writing world. Back in the day, if you frequented the bar, you may have found yourself striking up conversation with one of these two guys.

They were there.

And today, you also might get a chance

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to strike up conversation with these two guys.

They're still haunted. Oh my gosh. Of course they are.

If you sit at the end of the wooden bar today, you might feel a sudden chill or the sense that someone is watching you from the corner. And if you look up, you might see a man who looks a lot like Tennessee Williams.

What does Tennessee Williams look like?

Yeah, I have a I have pictures if you're watching on YouTube. They're before our time.

Yeah. Yeah. To be fair, I also like wouldn't recognize half of them.

Yeah, most people.

Even people that I like would recognize if out of context, you don't.

Right. It you're like, how do I place you?

Yeah. Yeah.

Like Like I one of my encounters in LA, I was in a dressing room area with Hayden Panettiere talking to her and didn't know it was her until my other friend came out and was like, "Oh my god, are you Hayden Panettiere?" And I started laughing and

funny.

not.

And it was.

And it was. Cuz it's like out of context, you don't quite place people.

Her, I think I would place. And Kesha and Billie Eilish.

Billie Eilish is very distinct.

Yeah. Yeah.

Some people, it's like in the eyes. If

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they really distinct eyes, I could place them anywhere. Miley Cyrus.

Yeah.

Oh. Good luck trying to Hannah Montana me. I'll find you anywhere, Miley. Okay, so Tennessee Williams, he lived just blocks away on Dumaine Street. Cafe Lafitte in exile would become his office, basically.

Love.

He wrote there, he drank there, he felt safe there. Again, this is a a place for people of the arts. Like it's not just about sexual orientation, it's just about like being expressive, finding inspiration, feeling at home, and getting to venture into whatever topics that you want and like not being ridiculed for it.

I also find I mean, depends on my mood and also right now I feel like I like just being at home when I'm not here recording with you, but I love working in a busy environment. Like there's something about it that actually makes me feel so much more focused.

Me, too.

Like in college, I couldn't really work at the library.

No, it was too serious and too quiet.

it, either.

But a coffee shop

I went to our our the coffee shop on

27:00

Den?

Yes, I'd go to the Lion's Den.

Yeah.

Or like literally sometimes go to the cafeteria.

Yeah.

Cuz yeah, it's like the more noise, the better you can just block it out. Right. But otherwise, it's distracting. If someone like walks into the library, suddenly I'm focused on the person walking by or like

I was so paranoid about like making too much noise. Like what if I move and I distract someone and it's like

Yeah. What if my stomach makes a noise?

Yeah, right. It's just too It's too much. Yeah. You need sometimes a lot going on to be able to like focus and zero in.

According to staff reports documented in Ken Summers' Queer Hauntings, book, a man in a tan linen suit is frequently seen at the far end of the bar. He doesn't say a word, he just watches. And this is supposed to be Tennessee Williams.

Okay.

And then there's Truman Capote, Breakfast at Tiffany's. He's often seen on the second floor balcony. And this is a spot in the building that is said and like basically remains to be one of the most haunted spots in the building. It's like a hot spot here. So he's often seen up on that second floor balcony, and he's also seen on the first floor by the

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stairwell. So, I don't know what they're doing. But they're still there. And the theory is that they're the the spirits there are not trapped. It's not one of these places where people are like, "Oh, this horrible thing happened to someone and like they can't their spirits can't move on."

Right.

It's just everybody in this bar, in this space, in this building have simply chosen to spend time there in their actual state, which is even more magical.

That's the best.

Yeah, a place where they never felt judged.

For how much we don't understand about the paranormal, when we hear stories like this, it makes me so happy cuz I'm like, "Oh, it gives me hope that I can I have a little bit of choice in the afterlife that I can choose to go somewhere that made me really happy."

Yeah. It's also interesting cuz it's like I do wonder if because there were so many people who felt that about the space, if it became this like powerful thing where even if that's not necessarily true in the afterlife, if like there's certain pockets that have produced and like been fed so much good energy that like anyone can go there. Like the door's always open.

there's a long line. The queue to get

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in. Oh, yeah. Dead or alive. It's longer actually if you're dead.

Mhm. In the 1970s and 80s, Cafe Lafitte

Trash Disco and the haunting of Mr. Bubbles

in Exile entered a new era. This is the era of trash disco.

Mhm.

Which I'm glad that you told us the backstory of that cuz

Well, I don't know if it's necessarily the same cuz that was disco demolition. But I imagine it's the same time period.

probably it's probably similar cuz like I did try to find a bit more about like what tra- the trash disco was in this scenario and I I had trouble finding it. There's it's hard cuz it's like there's not a ton online about certain things that happen like events that happen in the bar.

Right.

kind of have to creep on some reviews and what not to try to find bits and pieces of information.

resourceful.

So, what I'm about to say, um, correct me if I'm wrong cuz I was I was going based on people's reviews.

Yeah.

So, trash disco was this cultural movement at the bar where every Sunday in particular they would have a napkin toss.

Mhm.

When the beat dropped on a certain

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classic disco track or a love ballad or like whatever it was,

Yeah.

all of the patrons would throw white cocktail napkins up simultaneously.

That would be so fun.

This still happens today. So, that's where I was like able to get into the reviews. I think it's like today it's like Sundays at 4:00 o'clock or something like that. But you can find out.

Wait, I want I want to go back to New Orleans just for this.

Right. It actually reminds me of um C & O's.

Yeah, wait. That's amore.

Yeah, our like go-to Italian food spot in

Venice Beach.

Venice Beach.

LA.

C & O's Trattoria, the one that is specifically like on the beach basically across from like the Whaler. Yes. Like twice a night everybody sings "When the moon hit your eye." And like the waiters come around and are cheering you.

There's like bottomless candy. Oh my god.

It's so

knots forget about it.

Wait, I that's Are you craving it now?

31:00

I want it so badly.

Oh my god.

Should we order pasta for lunch?

Dude, and sometimes I think about how I used to order the gargantuan side of the pastas.

Like that size

and I would eat it all?

Yeah, it's so good.

Yeah, it's huge. God, that was such a vibe. It was so good. Okay, so they they still Wow, we got lost. So Trash Disco, I was trying to find and this is where I I found it in reviews and so I'm like not entirely sure how accurate this is. But I was like, okay, well, where did this napkin toss of like the trash trash disco era come from? And I saw people talking about how during the like HIV and AIDS crisis in the '80s the Exile was also because it serviced so many people who were a part of the gay community and they knew so many people suffering

Mhm.

uh through this crisis this was not only a place to celebrate life, but also to mourn life and honor life. And so the napkin toss became a way to celebrate those who were gone. So they like threw up their white napkins in memoriam of

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their friends.

Yeah. So it was supposed to be like a little bit silly, a little bit joyful emotional, loud, high energy, just like throw ev- like all your feelings

Yeah.

up into the air, scream, cry, sing with your friends.

I love learning like histories of traditions and things like that. Yeah.

Mhm. One presence started to make itself known around this time. Enter Mr. Bubbles.

Oh, I almost forgot about Mr. Bubbles.

I know. And it's such an appropriate name for this era.

Of course. Of course we have someone named Mr. Bubbles. Just like a cheerful spirit.

Mr. Bubbles is the bar's most famous non-celebrity ghost. He's believed to be a former regular from the disco era who would simply decide to never stop partying in the afterlife. With a name like that, you can't. Um he's kind of a cheeky guy. Bartenders have seen barstools slide across the floor as if they're being like pulled out for a friend. Patrons have been uh reporting for years that an unseen force has come up to them and

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like ruffled their hair. Done a little fingers through their waffling their hair or sometimes pinching their butts.

Mr. Bubbles.

Mr. Bubbles. He'll either fix your hair or he'll give you a little pinch on the cheek.

Aside from the resident ghosts appearing to patrons and employees, there are also some hauntings that are a bit more typical. So maybe not necessarily associated to anyone person. So it's like the classic things that you would think of. Hearing footsteps, seeing shadows dart by out of the corner of your eye.

Mhm.

They also have the outdoor balcony and people have said that they've spotted ghosts up on the balcony. So I am so curious cuz we when we went on our ghost tour, we did not stop there or like get told to take pictures.

Cuz we were on more of like a vampire {slash} ghost tour.

It was like a dark vampire-ish

theme. But I am curious for anyone else who might be a tour guide down there or knows if that's like a spot that people stop and take pictures because

34:00

apparently a lot of people do see

people up on the balcony. And I think Truman Capote is one of the spirits that has been seen up on that balcony.

Wow.

So yeah, New Orleans uh feels like a place that's just as much for the dead as it is for the living.

Yeah, 100%.

And with that, we conclude. I know this is kind of short, but it was amazing.

It's so good. It's so good.

We conclude our episode on Cafe Lafitte in Exile, a place that has seen defiance, literary geniuses, disco fever, and has survived the hardships of the queer community has faced for decades. Wow. This place is not just a bar. It is a living archive and today you might see Tennessee Williams finishing a drink or Mr. Bubbles having a few too many libations in the afterlife.

would love to see Mr. Bubbles. Mr. Bubbles, if you are listening to this, you are welcome to pinch my butt literally anytime.

to go again. I'm like, "Babe, I want to go to this specific bar." It seems awesome. So, yeah, Cafe Lafitte in Exile is a place with spirits and guardians of

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queer history that were almost erased. Wow. So, head over to Cafe Lafitte for a drink, a drag show. They have an underwear pool party

and many other events.

Oh.

and support your local queer community.

I love this story.

Yeah. Isn't this so nice?

It's yeah. Well, now I also want to read that book um queer ghost stories.

yeah. Oh my gosh, what was it called?

Queer hauntings?

Yeah, you're right. Queer hauntings. Queer hauntings by Ken Summers.

Adding to my read list. I feel like we could do a whole episode based on this.

Yeah.

How fun.

I know. It's amazing. It's great history.

free with well, if you have audio if you have Audible.

You can get it.

Great. Okay.

Or $3 on Kindle. I really thought this

listener stories

was Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop.

So, did you pull one from there?

No, I actually I went more general New Orleans and I I did pull two stories because I they're both pretty short, but I'll start with the one that takes place by Lafitte kind of. So, it's not in

36:00

Lafitte's bar, but it's like in the area. So, probably close to this.

Two doors down?

It could have been

It could be. All right, so this is from our listener Dan and it's called Halloween. Actually it's called Hallow ween. New Orleans and a hurricane. Hello, I've been listening from the beginning. My story has to do with Halloween, New Orleans and a hurricane and I don't know if they meant to say Halloween, but I love that they're calling it Halloween. The week of Halloween 2020, my family and I went on a trip to New Orleans. When we got there, we dropped our bags off at an apartment that we were staying at and went to go on a ghost walk. And we stopped by the bar that Jean Lafitte owned at one time. By the way, we didn't see a ghost penis while we were there, unfortunately. After about one or six shots, we went back to the apartment to go to bed. It was about 1:00 in the morning and I was laying in my bed when I started to hear someone walking down the hallway. I thought, you know, maybe it's my daughter or my boyfriend or someone

37:00

in the house. So, I jump out of bed and I open the door thinking I'm going to see someone walking down the hall, but no one is there. I'm like, that's weird. So, I lay back down. And I hear the footsteps again. So, I jump up trying to catch someone in the act. I open the door, I look down the hall, no one is there. So, again, I went to bed thinking I'm just a dumbass white boy who dies in every horror movie. And once again, I lay there and the footsteps start again. This time I just lay there and I listen. I listen to these footsteps walk all the way towards my door, stopping at my door.

Oh, so spooky.

And it just stops once it gets to my door for a whole minute. It is quiet. So, I'm freaked out thinking someone's standing outside my door and I jump up, I open the door quickly, but no one was there. But this time I do see walking up the hall to the living room is a shadow figure. So, it's like 3:00 a.m. at the time. I am so sleepy and I was like, you

38:00

know what? I don't want to deal with this. I got back in bed. I said out loud, "I'm on vacation. Please leave me alone." And I laid in the in my bed the rest of the night, but that wasn't the end of it. Cuz the rest of the night, the entire night from 3:00 a.m. until the morning, I heard two men having a conversation. I couldn't make out the words, but it was without a doubt two men talking. This happened every single night of our stay except for the one night when there was a hurricane and the winds opened the door and kept knocking on the front door and windows. It was scary for a different reason. But yeah, my whole family had a blast there. We have a weird family. I love it. So, stay spooky, love your podcast and your YouTube. I think you two are the Elvira of the 21st century. From Danielle.

High praise.

Yeah, huge. Um that's kind of an amazing vacation.

Yes.

Because you went to a spooky ass city and you got a spooky ass stay.

And I'm also so curious what spirit followed them back or if this place cuz

39:00

it was the first night they ever stayed there and then it continued the whole time. So, it could just be a haunted apartment cuz it's New Orleans.

True. I'd like show me somewhere that isn't haunted in New Orleans. I feel like that would be a hard challenge.

That is a good challenge. Try it. Let us know.

Let us know like what square foot can you find that has

Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Well, then also like what are these two men talking about?

Mhm.

They're just staying up late night.

Gossiping, having some cigars, a little whiskey.

Yeah. Huh. Okay, the next one I have is from our listener Mia who used to live in downtown New Orleans.

Mhm.

And it is called six-year-old me might have seen a demon or a ghost in my old house. Hey Creepy and Sabrina, how are my lovely ghost hostesses? I hope well when you read this email. I'm good.

We'd qualify, categorize

Didn't we just start this episode saying like I am level-headed? Yeah, balanced. I'm

We are well, doing well. Thank you. We bid you well as well.

40:00

You know like when you start speaking and you're like what I don't know where I was going with this?

You just have to keep it going.

just yeah. My name is Mia. I'm 18 and I've been a fan of your podcast for almost an entire year now. And you guys have helped me through so much stuff, especially some of the hardest times. So, thank you. For context, when I was super young, I used to live in the downtown side of New Orleans with my mom and a few other people. Honestly, it was a really strange house. It had no walls, meaning it was just a big kitchen on the right side and a big space on the left that was meant to be a living room. And at the time, from what I can recall, we did live with a few other people. I don't remember their names, but that's not important. So, the reason I bring up living in the downtown side of New Orleans is because it is known to be very, very haunted. Especially in the French Quarter. So, living in the haunted house isn't really a shocker considering the history of New Orleans and the supernatural here. But, when I was about 5 to 6 years old, I was awoken by a strange noise outside of my bedroom. And like I mentioned before, this house is structured a way where there's no wall separating the kitchen and living room, so meaning if I peeked

41:00

out from my bedroom door, I could see the whole place.

Mhm.

Being the curious kid I was, I wanted to see what the noise was that woke me up. So, I slightly opened the door to see. And at first, I don't see anything. It's super normal. But then, I see her. An old lady peering towards the window in our kitchen. And I don't think much of it while I'm peeking through my door until I notice that her feet were not touching the ground. And I did not recognize her. She was not my mom. She was not the people we lived with. And it also didn't help that her entire body was this transparent blue hue.

Well, okay. Well, now you definitely know it's not a living person.

And then, I noticed her eyes.

Uh-oh.

They were red. Nothing about this seemed normal. And red eyes on a supernatural being, I don't know about you, but it feels like a bad omen. So, when I realized this, I

of the Denver Airport horse.

The horse with the glowing red eyes?

Yeah, because like all the pictures of it like at night, it's like blue with

42:00

red eyes. Scary.

And it killed its creator. We talked about that in I forget what episode, but So, when I realized her eyes and I saw her eyes, I was like, I don't want to deal with this, so I quietly closed the door and I tried to wake up my mom. However, she simply told me, "Go back to bed. It's just a bad dream." And I knew that my mom would probably get mad if I continued to bug her, so I took matters into my own hands. I grabbed her Android phone. I opened up the camera app because I knew if she didn't believe me now, then if I got a photo, she would. But I hesitated. I grew up watching a ton of cartoons, especially The Amazing World of Gumball. I don't know.

Oh. I never watched it, but I know what you're

Yeah. But I guess in this cartoon it showed that if you took a picture of a ghost, then it wouldn't appear on the actual photo. Being the young girl I was, I thought maybe it wasn't for the best that I took a picture, so I just decided to go back to bed. When I woke up early in the morning, as expected, the old lady was gone. But this really stuck with me, especially because it was the first time I had ever experienced something like that, and I don't know if it was a ghost

43:00

or a demon. The red eyes really did freak me out, and the scariest part is as I replay this memory in my head, she didn't turn to face me for me to see her red eyes. She was looking through the window, and I could see her red eyes through the back of her head.

What the [ __ ] That is so scary. That's very disturbing.

Yeah, cuz she's like translucent.

Yeah.

Oh, I hate that. This honestly kind of feels like a character from the Haunted Mansion. Like I feel like this would be or like Scooby-Doo. Like this is what you would

Mhm.

somehow they're appearing at you from the back of their head.

Or maybe she's a mother. I got eyes in the back of my head. I've tried researching about this several times, but nothing comes up. I don't know. I think whatever or whoever was maybe protecting me to not take a picture because I don't know who knows what could have happened had I gotten a picture. Maybe I would have unknowingly caused harm to myself by attaching the spirit to me. Anyway, if you have any idea of what I could have seen, let me know. I do have more stories about my family experiencing paranormal events

44:00

and stories about sleep paralysis and even waking up in a different reality while meditating.

What?

See you on the other side, Mia.

Mia, I need to hear that story.

Yeah, absolutely.

Woah.

Dang, wow. Okay. Am I surprised? No, no. And also, if that was like the only time that Mia saw the spirit, like it's New Orleans, just a ghost passing through. I don't know. Also, I I can't think about New Orleans without thinking about vampires. And there's something vampiric about the the vision and image of a old lady looking out the window at night with red eyes.

Well, it reminds me of that photo that went viral a few months ago of that woman who believes that they captured a vampire on film, like on on camera.

we've talked about this on the podcast, we've only talked about it on campfire stories. It's a weird Yeah, we Let's

45:00

Let's pull it up. Let's discuss.

Let's pull it up for all of you. It was first discovered by us on TikTok, a viral TikTok, so probably many of you guys have seen it. But basically, there was like this group of women who were on a girls' trip, I think, and they captured what they believed to be the spirit of a vampire. And it's like kind of the idea is that it's an energetic vampire that's lurking like right next to this woman and feeding off of her. Yeah, but it like almost looks like a spirit, but because it's in New Orleans and all of the vampire lore surrounding that, the thought is that it's actually a vampire. And it's like most, I don't know, graduated form.

Okay, so it's from Lottie Lux on TikTok, but we'll post the image on the video here.

Mhm.

It's like skeletal.

Yeah, if anyone has seen What We Do in the Shadows, the like really old, wise vampire that they've all had like affairs with,

Mhm.

who lost his genitalia, it kind of looks

46:00

like that.

Well, and it's it almost looks like Voldemort mixed with Dobby the house elf. Like you can see the bald head. Like it it almost looks like the lights at the bar or whatever they're at is reflecting off of the bald head.

Yes. Yeah, and the shoulder.

Yeah.

But it does have like dementor vibes because it's it's facing her. It's you like can almost feel that it's going like and like sucking her like feeding.

It's so unsettling. And if anyone wants to go listen to the campfire stories which is on Patreon, that was where we talked about this for the first time. It was from January 27th, 2026. So you can search that date on our Patreon and it will come up. Wild.

Nola baby, the never-ending supply of ghost stories.

Never-ending supply of energy for vampires to to feed on.

Yeah. It's a paranormal city basically. Like I kind of forget that real human beings live there. It doesn't feel like it's for the living.

47:00

No.

by the dead.

It is run by the dead.

Yeah.

Yeah.

But then we get places like Cafe Lafitte in Exile, which is beautiful.

Mhm.

And it exists as this like beautiful community not only for the living gay community, but also the dead gay community. Like I that's great and fantastic.

great place, love it.

What a great story. Thank you for gifting us with such a unique cool story.

Yeah. Yeah, well I didn't even know when I was I just saw that the US's oldest gay bar was haunted. So I was like

Hell yeah.

I'll research that and I had no idea what I was getting into. It was great.

It was great.

We're chock-full of fun facts here and we learned so many fun things while prepping for the podcast. So come back next week for more fun things.

Thank you to Jamie Ryan who edits and produces our podcast.

And thanks to all of you. We love you. Um if you have ghost stories, please email them to us at 2 Girls 1 Ghost Podcast at gmail.com.

You can join us on Patreon. Please tell your friends, your family, your ghosts about our podcast. You know, you know the spiel. Just do it.

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And we will see you on the other side.

Can we actually order pasta for lunch?

Yeah.

Bye.

Absolutely.

Very spooky.