Inside the Witchy World of the French Quarter’s Newest Absinthe Bar

Many people visit New Orleans, and the French Quarter specifically, with the wish of encountering a little bit of magic. But with her new Bourbon Street restaurant, Tatlo — part speakeasy, part Filipino witch bar, and part absinthe den — Cristina Quackenbush hopes to create a place for New Orleans residents to get in touch with their inner divinity, too.

“It’s time for locals to take back the French Quarter,” says Quackenbush, the longtime proprietor of the much-acclaimed Filipino pop-up (and one-time restaurant) Milkfish. Quackenbush officially opened Tatlo at 240 Bourbon Street in September, melding her decades-long witchcraft practice with her lifelong immersion in Southeast Asian cuisine. The food menu is a nurturing, modern celebration of the Filipino flavors Quackenbush is known for, paired with a drink menu that channels astrology and uses medicinal ingredients. All of it pushes customers to consider what they are feeling — or want to feel.

First, pick a candle: red for romance, green for prosperity, and so on. Does the diner seek spiritual enlightenment? Try the Triquetra, a dish consisting of three pork ribs with a sticky lemongrass barbecue sauce arranged in the shape of a trinity knot and served with red cabbage, candied mango, and herbs. For heart health, rebirth, and fertility, the diner should order the Teach a Girl to Fish, a take on Filipino sinigang soup that combines Gulf fish, smoked fumet, bok choy, okra, and tomato confit. There are chicken adobo arancini served with purple sticky rice for abundance and growth, and a familiar dish from Quakenbush’s Milkfish days: sous vide beef belly with peanut butter, fried long beans, and eggplant to encourage affluence, strength, and virility.

The drinks, too, are meant to match the diner’s state of being. The Zodiaquiri is inspired by the zodiac season. For Leo season, the daiquiri might incorporate Chinese five-spice and beets; for Virgo season, figs; and for Cancer season, spicy mango. Aunt Nan’s Old Fashioned made with local rice whiskey and jackfruit promises prosperity, while the Florida Water with gin, rose water, lavender, and citrus offers energy healing.

But the restaurant’s absinthe cocktails are the stars of the drinks menu, made with 300-year-old water drips, according to Quackenbush and her husband and business partner, Dean Lambert. The Golden Healer includes local Atelier Vie absinthe, ginger, turmeric, and lime for a digestive spiritual bath, while the Spell Breaker intends endings and rebirth via elderflower, pineapple, and calamansi. “A recipe is a spell, a drink is a potion,” says Quackenbush. “We’re trying to bring back instinctive eating and drinking,” with Tatlo’s menu, she says. “It’s how I live.”

That approach to consumption — as a ritual of connection and nourishment — is central to Tatlo as a space. The restaurant is in the same building as Bourbon Street’s 200-year-old Old Absinthe House, in a small, intimate back room with a separate unmarked entrance through a courtyard on Bienville Street. It’s dripping with Spanish moss (real, collected from the ground at City Park, says Lambert) dim but awash with candlelight, with shelves full of spellbooks and walls covered in otherworldly decor collected over many years. Some of it wouldn’t be out of place on a movie set depicting a New Orleans fortune teller parlor, but that’s part of the fun. For all of Quackenbush’s heartfelt devotion to the spiritual world, Tatlo is not self-serious. Quackenbush wants to create a special experience, yes (she’s even had customers cry, she says), but ultimately, it’s meant to be enjoyable, educational, and delicious.

At the end of each diner’s visit, a server will ask if they would like to participate in a bay leaf manifestation ritual, a way to continue the candle ritual introduced at the start of each visit. They can write a thought, wish, desire, or aim on the leaf and burn it with their candle. By doing this, “you can make it be,” Quackenbush says. “It makes you change your mindset. And sometimes that’s what a person needs the most.”

Tatlo is open Wednesday through Sunday from 6 p.m. to midnight and until 2 a.m. on Friday and Saturday. Look inside Tatlo below.