About the bar

Eight years on Chartres Street, then this room

Velvet Fig opened in 2021 in a former New Orleans pharmacy. The cabinets are original.

How it started

A pharmacy, and the cabinets that came with it.

I tended bar on Chartres Street for eight years. Velvet Fig opened in 2021 in a former pharmacy — the cabinets are original.

They still hold the bottles. Everything else about the room is in service of one thing: somewhere dark and unhurried to have a proper drink, without being rushed out of it.

What we’re known for is a sazerac people argue about, and bartenders who’ll build something to your taste. Both of those take time, which is why the list is short and why the room is quiet enough to say what you actually want.

For a couple wanting a proper drink somewhere dark and unhurried.

An antique apothecary cabinet behind glass, shelves of labelled ceramic and glass jars in rows. — The cabinets, as they came with the building

What we’re known for

Said plainly.

A sazerac people argue about.

Cocktails $15–18, spirit-free $12.

Bartenders who’ll build something to your taste.

Say bitter, stirred, spirit-free — whatever you’re after.

Open Wednesday to Sunday, 5pm to 2am.

New Orleans, Louisiana. Tables held for six or more.

A candlelit table with wine glasses, a bottle and burning candles

Three details

What you are looking at.

The cabinets.

Original to the pharmacy. They were built to hold small bottles in rows, which turns out to be exactly what a back bar needs.

The brass mesh.

It sits behind the bottles and catches the light through them, which is why the shelves read gold from across the room.

The candles.

Along the bar, lit every night. Between them and the shelves, there is very little other light in here on purpose.

Since 2021

The cabinets came with the building. Everything else is on purpose.

Eight years on Chartres Street, then this room