Published on Feb, 2025
If you appreciate a guide who’s done the research and can cite his sources (versus just regurgitating/embellishing the same stories that other guides are telling), then this tour is for you. If you enjoy a beverage, are intrigued about what people were drinking “back in the day,” and want more than an overly sweet Hurricane, this tour is for you.
I also did a cocktail tour the last time I was in New Orleans several years ago, so I was worried there might be a little overlap, but this city has an amazing and vast medicinal-to-drank culture, and this particular tour is a bit more boutique, so I think the only overlap was one of the bars, but the drinks were totally different.
Remember, the drinks are not included, and at least one of our stops was cash-only, which John warned us about a few hours before via text. I wasn’t sure if I’d drink at every stop, but you kind of get “in the spirit” in all of the best punny ways, and so when John suggests a cocktail with a secret ingredient that’s been brought out of extinction, you go with the flow. It probably would’ve been easier if we could’ve just paid and tipped at all of the locations in cash, so if you remember, maybe come prepared for that.
When comparing evening ghosty tours, I knew I’d like this one because it’s not just a company with a rotating cast of guides. This is John’s company. It’s a one-man show and it really is more of a performance (based on printed history as much as possible) than just a guide showing you the places where stuff supposedly happened. He has a unique storytelling cadence that works with the subject matter, but you have to listen carefully (i.e. don’t arrive tipsy), so you don’t miss anything and the language of the time that he weaves in there.
