World’s Creepiest Bars: Muriel’s Seance Lounge

Muriel's Seance Lounge creepy bar in New Orleans

On a recent trip to London, I lamented that there simply aren’t enough cool, creepy bars out there in the world. There are a lot of gimmicky goth bars. There are a lot of bars that claim to be haunted or have some sort of ominous past. And there are a lot of stylish, elegantly designed bars. But elegant, dark and just a bit twisted? That’s hard to find in the right balance. Thus, I have a new life’s mission: find all the best cool, creepy bars in the world and document them!

When you first hear about Muriel’s Seance Lounge in New Orleans, it might sound like it could skew a bit on the gimmicky side. Tucked away in an upstairs corner of Muriel’s restaurant in Jackson Square, this is where Muriel’s resident ghost, Pierre Antoine Lepardi Jourdan, is said to spend most of his haunting hours. Whether or not Pierre does call this place home, from the moment I stepped in, I wanted to settle down in Muriel’s Seance Room and never leave.

Muriel's Seance Lounge creepy bar New Orleans
No, that’s not Pierre, that’s just my drinking companion.

There aren’t many instructions for visitors on how to access the room; we had to sit down at the bar and ask the bartender. On the south side of Muriel’s main dining room is a door that looks like it could be an emergency exit, but open it and follow the candle-lined hallway and you’ll find a delightfully spooky surprise. At the base of a stairwell sits a table set with bread and wine for Pierre, should he happen to stop by. Head upstairs, and suddenly the chaos of the French Quarter feels a world away. The floor-to-ceiling red decor is complemented by ethereal music, both suggestive of a haunted house. Again, this could come of super cheesy, but the space manages to walk just the right line to provide atmosphere that’s quirky but not phony. Plenty of plush sofas, banquettes and arm chairs make the space very comfortable, and the eclectic artwork ranges from Rococo-style paintings to Egyptian sarcophagi.

Muriel's Seance Lounge creepy bar in New Orleans

I visited on a Tuesday night in November, and was delighted to have the place to myself for most of the night.  I’m not sure if this is typical, or if on busier nights they might send wait staff upstairs to check on guests, but there’s no bar upstairs so getting refills on cocktails required going back down to the main bar. That didn’t deter me from spending a few hours there knocking back a few Saint 75 cocktails, a delicious arrangement of gin, St. Germain, lemon juice and sparkling wine..

I never did see Pierre’s ghost…perhaps I’ll have to make another visit.

Touring New Orleans Cemeteries

New Orleans Lafayette Cemetery #1

New Orleans is one of the few cities in the United States where you can tell a stranger that your travel plans include visiting several cemeteries and no one will bat an eye. In fact, the city’s many cemeteries are some of its most popular tourist attractions. It’s both in spite of and because of this popularity that it can be hard to figure out which cemeteries you can visit and which you can’t.

Websites and social media are chock full of photos for just about every cemetery in New Orleans, but don’t take this as a sign that you can easily pop into Odd Fellows Rest to stage your own photo shoot. Because of crime and vandalism, some of the city’s cemeteries are actually off limits these days. A few are only accessible to tour groups. The guides for these groups actually have to register with the city, and guards monitor who comes in and out with each group. The tours usually require reservations, too, so spontaneity won’t do you much good.

With all these restrictions, planning my tour of Nola’s cemeteries required a lot more legwork than I expected. Save yourself the headache and start your planning by visiting Save Our Cemeteries, a non-profit dedicated to the preservation of New Orleans’ historic cemeteries. Of all the sites I visited, this one has the most up-to-date information on which cemeteries are currently open to the public, what their open hours are, and whether or not a tour guide is required to access them.

Lafayette Cemetery #1

New Orleans Lafayette Cemetery #1
Lafayette Cemetery #1

Located in the heart of the Garden District, Lafayette Cemetery #1 is one of the easiest to access. Of the three cemeteries that I visited, this one felt the most European. Surrounded on nearly all sides by trees, the grounds are quite green and somewhat overgrown with weeds. Ferns spring forth from cracks in damaged tombs down every aisle.

New Orleans Lafayette Cemetery #1
A tomb in disrepair

Save our Cemeteries works to preserve these aging tombs, and families are expected to care for their loved ones’ and ancestors’ tombs, but the crumbling facades in various stages of repair and disrepair do offer a glimpse into how the tombs were constructed, how the dead were preserved, and what goes into keeping these monuments intact.

St. Louis Cemetery #1

St. Louis #1 is probably the most famous of the city’s many cemeteries, likely due to its notable residents like Homer Plessy (and one very out-of-place and not-yet-used tomb belonging to the actor Nicolas Cage). Because of vandalism, this one of the cemeteries that you can only visit as part of a supervised tour with a registered tour guide. There are plenty of companies that offer tours, ranging from historic to campy. While the vampire and voodoo stories of New Orleans fascinate me, I prefer to hear the history behind the lore rather than indulge in sensationalism. The New Orleans Convention & Visitors Bureau recommended Historic New Orleans Tours, and as the name promised, our guide was knowledgeable on history and quick to dispel myths and misconceptions, particularly when it came to Voodoo.

New Orleans St Louis Cemetery #1
Our tour guide from Historic New Orleans Tours

New Orleans St Louis Cemetery #1

Marie Laveau‘s tomb is a big draw for tourists. I didn’t really know much about the legend of Marie Laveau, known as the “Voodoo Queen of New Orleans,” assuming that 99 percent of what I’d read on the internet would be more fiction than truth.

New Orleans St Louis Cemetery #1
Offerings left at Marie Laveau’s tomb

As you can see, lots of visitors like to leave offerings at her tomb (many think that it brings luck), but our guide insisted that this was actually a little disrespectful. He pointed out that a true Voodoo offering should reflect the person to whom it is offered. The hairbands could be seen as true offerings, since Marie Laveau worked for many years as a hair dresser, but the rest (like the Mardi Gras beads) were essentially like leaving trash in front of her tomb. Our guide went on to talk a lot about Voodoo and its connection to both Catholicism and the city’s history. If you’re at all interested in the truths behind this practice in New Orleans, rather than the superstitions and myths, this is a great tour to take.

St. Roch Cemetery

While Lafayette #1 teemed with green and Old World vibes, St. Louis #1 was something of a densely packed city within a city. St. Roch Cemetery was altogether different from both. Most of the tombs are much lower to the ground, and a good number of tombstones line the surrounding walls. Many guide books are quick to point out that visiting cemeteries in New Orleans isn’t always super safe. Some advise caution around cemeteries near “high crime” neighborhoods. More than a few sources point out the St. Louis #1 is near a housing project, so tourists should be cautious walking to and from it. Personally, I felt quite safe on the way to and from St. Louis #1, but we were walking with a tour guide who knew the streets well. My visit to St. Roch did give me the slightest unease though. While it’s not far from the Bywater, a gentrifying neighborhood, St. Roch cemetery is certainly on the outskirts of any areas that tourists frequent. Along the way, I passed several houses that still bore the “X-code” marks of Katrina. Once there, you do feel quite isolated. I’d advise not going alone and visiting during daylight hours.

St Roch Cemetery New Orleans

St Roch Cemetery New Orleans

One of the biggest draws at St. Roch is the chapel. In the 14th century, St. Roch ministered to victims of the plague. Because of the legend surrounding his healing powers, visitors to the chapel over the centuries have left a variety of oddities as offerings (everything from glass eyes to prosthetic limbs), hoping their offerings would lead St. Roch to heal their ailments.

St Roch Cemetery New Orleans
Offerings in the chapel to St. Roch

Having only 3 full days in New Orleans, I only visited 3 cemeteries, but each one was remarkable different. And there are many, many more left to see…something to bring me back for a future visit.

Do you have a favorite New Orleans cemetery, or tips for visiting? Share it in the comments below!

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