If you have been to New Orleans, you have probably been to Bourbon Street. And, if you have been to New Orleans, you probably don’t want to go back to Bourbon Street. After all, New Orleans has plenty of places to drink classic cocktails where you don't have to deal with the madness of the crowds and mediocre drinks on Bourbon Street!
Just off Bourbon Street, on Iberville Street, is 21st Amendment, named after the amendment that repealed Prohibition. As the live jazz music pours out of the doors, you will be drawn into 21st Amendment. But, this is not the place for watered down Jack and Cokes or Hurricanes. With gangster photos hanging on the walls, copper sheeting on the bar, the movie The Godfather playing on the flat screen behind the bar and bartenders in page boy hats and suspenders, you will be taken back in time to the Prohibition Era.
December 5th may not mean anything special to most people. But this day between Thanksgiving and Christmas is a day that should mean something to anyone who enjoys a glass of wine or a cocktail. After all, December 5, 1933 is the day that Prohibition was ended by the signing of the 21st Amendment to the Constitution and when beer trucks rolled into Washington DC and President Franklin D. Roosevelt poured himself a Plymouth gin martini.
This year, December 5, 2013 marked the 80th anniversary of the end of Prohibition, otherwise known as Repeal Day, and the D.C. Craft Bartenders Guild organized their annual Repeal Day Ball to celebrate the occasion on Dec. 7.