If there’s any American city that feels like absinthe’s spiritual home, it’s New Orleans—and nowhere embodied that more than the Old Absinthe House on Bourbon Street.  In the 1800s, it was famed for the absinthe frappe, a sugar-water-and-absinthe cocktail so potent it earned the nickname “the green monster.”

Perhaps its most enduring legend ties it to the Battle of New Orleans, where a secret meeting allegedly took place between General Andrew Jackson and pirate Jean Lafitte inside the bar.

Jackson had soldiers, but no ships.  Lafitte had ships, but needed a pardon.

They struck a deal, and shortly after, the British attack was crushed.