New Orleans bar toasts Hurricane Gustav with plenty of ice

At Molly’s at the Market, a favorite French Quarter watering hole at 1104 Decatur St., a crowd of 40 to 50 was riding out Hurricane Gustav without electricity or cellphone service but with plenty of ice. In this lily pad of a city, it was a rare and welcome outpost for those who remained behind –- even a smattering of National Guardsmen.

“First and foremost, we were better prepared this time,” said owner Jim Monaghan, whose family has owned the bar since 1974. “This stretch of Decatur has seen it all before and people are proud to be part of it.”

Monaghan said the French Quarter was abandoned, with only a few bars like his and Johnny White’s still open. New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin had declared a mandatory evacuation Saturday, and thousands left the city before the storm hit.

Branches were down but there was no sign of flooding. Power outages were spotty around the city. While the French Quarter went dark, for example, the adjoining neighborhood of Faubourg Marigny had electricity.

Monaghan said power crews were waiting for winds to drop below 30 miles per hour before trying to restring downed lines. He said he’d stocked the bar’s coolers last night with three fishing coolers of ice.

“Things are good right now,” said Molly’s bartender Mathew Cheki, 22, who was experiencing his first hurricane. “Some of the people are locals, some are National Guardsmen –- drinking nonalcoholic beer, of course.” The guardsmen had waited out the worst of the storm in the bar, then left to go on patrol, Monaghan said.

Why did residents stay behind when the rest of the city fled?

“I believe they didn’t want to go through the hassle,” said Cheki, who explained that local authorities didn’t put any real pressure on the business to close down.

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– Chris Erskine, Los Angeles Times deputy Travel editor

[Photo: New Orleans' French Quarter on Monday morning as Hurricane Gustav hit; by Mario Tama / Getty Images]

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This entry was posted on Monday, September 1, 2008 at 3:54 pm by Chris Erskine and is filed under New Orleans & Louisiana, Southern States. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.