The Bar Where a Future President Sat Down With a Pirate

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On Bourbon Street in New Orleans, Jean Lafitte’s Old Absinthe House looks and feels like it belongs to another century. Andrew Jackson is said to have met the pirate Jean Lafitte in an upstairs room to ask for help manning ships against the British in the War of 1812. Today, the brick interior is lined with mementos left behind by visitors, its convivial history made visible.

The smallest bar in Amsterdam has stayed in one family since 1798, cramming centuries of coziness into a famously tiny room. An old-world Spanish eatery in Madrid is billed as the oldest restaurant in the world, and is still celebrated for its suckling pig. Some say this 19th-century Mexican cantina is the birthplace of the margarita. A storied Baltimore bar claims to have served Edgar Allan Poe his final drink.

Try Historical Food at These 52 Culinary Timewarps

Some stories of the past are told on restaurant plates and in Grandma’s cookie recipe. For anyone seeking to understand another generation and another era, food and drink can be powerful tools. From a Civil Rights-era restaurant that sustained activists to a candy shop reviving nostalgic treats to an English pub from the 12th century, these places offer delicious lessons in history. SEE THE LIST

My New Favorites in the Atlas

This statue, known as “Los Lagartos,” commemorates a live alligator pond that was once in this El Paso plaza.

The Cave Creek Tubercular Cabin in Arizona is a rare remnant of a bygone era of medical treatment, when tuberculosis patients were isolated at sanatariums.

The Hull Lifesaving Museum was once the home base for shipwreck rescues in Boston Harbor.

Did You Know?

Deep in Switzerland’s Val-de-Travers—absinthe’s birthplace—devotees keep the “green fairy” tradition alive by stashing bottles in the forest for fellow hikers to find and share. It’s part folklore, part scavenger hunt.

The Absinthe Enthusiasts Hiding Bottles in the Swiss Woods