Antoine's Restaurant

The oldest family-run restaurant in America, opened in 1840 and home of the famous Oysters Rockefeller. This culinary landmark has served presidents, popes, and celebrities for nearly two centuries, but its founder never left.

Antoine's Restaurant has occupied 713 Rue St. Louis in the French Quarter since 1840, making it not only the oldest restaurant in New Orleans but the oldest family-run restaurant in the United States. For nearly two centuries, the same family has served French-Creole cuisine to guests ranging from Franklin D. Roosevelt to Pope John Paul II. And for much of that time, the founder himself has reportedly returned to ensure his descendants maintain his exacting standards.

Antoine Alciatore was barely twenty years old when he established his restaurant, bringing the refined techniques of French cuisine to the Crescent City. His son Jules would later invent Oysters Rockefeller and Pompano en Papillote, dishes still served today. The restaurant grew to encompass 15 dining rooms, each dripping with history, photographs of notable guests lining the walls like a who's who of American history.

The most legendary of these rooms is the Mystery Room, whose name derives not from ghosts but from spirits of another kind. During Prohibition, a door in the women's restroom opened into a secret chamber where patrons would disappear with coffee cups and return with something considerably stronger. When asked about the source of the illicit drinks, waiters would shrug and say, "It's a mystery to me."

But genuine mysteries occur at Antoine's as well. The International Society for Paranormal Research has investigated the restaurant, and staff members have had experiences that defy explanation. Waiter Jerry Messina, with 26 years of service, was reading the newspaper in the Hermes Room one day when a mist appeared in one corner. "I could see straight through it, but it looked like a vapor cloud," he recalled.

The ghost of Antoine Alciatore himself has been spotted in the dining rooms, checking on his descendants' work. Other spirits in 19th-century clothing peer from mirrors in the washrooms, as if examining their reflections across the boundary of death. One worker followed a spectral figure toward the Mystery Room, only to watch it vanish—the room itself was locked.

Doors open and slam throughout the building with no one nearby. Lights are found burning in offices that staff are certain were dark and locked. The sensation of being watched is common, particularly in the older sections of the restaurant.

Antoine's is more than a restaurant—it is a living museum where history is served alongside the finest French-Creole cuisine. The 1840 Room is designed as a wealthy 19th-century home, its walls covered with family portraits and memorabilia. The Large Annex displays photographs of George Patton, FDR, and generations of New Orleans society.

Those who dine at Antoine's are not merely eating a meal—they are participating in a tradition that spans nearly 185 years, watched over by the founder who started it all and who, it seems, has never truly left.