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 before opening Velvet Fig.

The pharmacy’s cabinets still hold the bottles. Everything else about the room serves one purpose: a dark, unhurried place to have a proper drink.

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 for you to say what you actually want.

Wednesday to Sunday, five in the evening until two.

An antique apothecary cabinet behind glass, shelves of labeled 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. Apart from them and the shelves, there is very little 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