After grieving the death of her 28-year-old son for two years , New Orleans native Jessica Lauer decided it was time to begin a new journey.
Lauer opened her music venue and bar Quarter Haus on 718 Bourbon Street — formerly home to the famed Johnny White’s Corner Pub — this year on August 10, the day of the French Quarter’s annual fundraiser Red Dress Run. But within months, everything came to an abrupt halt after a three-alarm fire damaged the building early Tuesday morning.
Photo provided by Jessica Lauer.
Twenty New Orleans Fire Department units and 52 firefighters battled the blaze as heavy rain walloped the French Quarter streets. Flames spewed plumes of smoke throughout the three-story building for over an hour. By the time Lauer arrived, the fire was almost put out.
“I was in shock,” Lauer said.
Investigators told her at the time that the fire started in the third-floor attic, a space that is not used by the staff. Though the cause remains unknown, it could have been a case of rats chewing wires, the investigators said.
‘A complete catastrophe’
On Wednesday morning, Lauer went inside the building for the first time since the fire.
A corner was completely exposed in the attic, showcasing the street view of Bourbon. Bits of sheet rock from the ceiling had collapsed and piled on the second and third floors.
Photo provided by Jessica Lauer.
Debris blanketed the staircase connecting both stories. Lauer described the scene as a “complete catastrophe” and could only compare it to when Hurricane Katrina left her Lakeview home in shambles.
Fortunately, firefighter crews salvaged the funeral memorial board that Lauer created for her son, Stephan Osbourn, and hung across from the bar.
The Styrofoam piece features a floral arrangement surrounding a photograph of him wearing sunglasses and a backwards cap. “Gon’ fishin'” is written at the bottom of the memorial in white cursive letters, representing his passion for the sport.
A new concept on Bourbon
There’s an image that comes to mind when you hear the infamous street name: tourists drunkenly staggering from bar to bar with Mardi Gras beads hanging from their necks and a bright green hand grenade in their grasp.
Lauer, who has been working on Bourbon since 1994, knew that she didn’t want Quarter Haus to embody this cliché imagery, instead focusing on locals.
“I just wanted to create something with a concept that Bourbon Street doesn’t have,” Lauer said.
But like any business owner, she was aware of the risk that comes with starting a new project and feared the outcome, especially after already going through the trial of losing her son to fentanyl overdose.
“After you get in a car accident, you’re kind of rattled to drive,” Lauer said.
Plans for overdose response training at Quarter Haus
Quarter Haus wasn’t reaching its financial goals once it opened during the summer — a season that is notoriously slow for the service industry in New Orleans. And realistically, Lauer’s vision for a new concept on Bourbon wasn’t going to fully come to life until the fall and winter months.
Having New Orleans-based bands perform live music at Quarter Haus was part of Lauer’s plan to bring a localized angle to the tourist-filled street, so she added a stage to the first floor. To honor her son’s life, the bar near the stage was coined “Bubby’s Cubby” after his nickname “Bubby” and followed the theme “the show must go on.” The second floor was going to be reserved for events and banquets.
Photo provided by Jessica Lauer.
On New Year’s Eve, the bar planned to hold a grand opening for a themed concept with artwork and other aesthetics.
The business owner’s plans for Quarter Haus to be a host site for the city’s overdose response training was arguably the venue’s most unique concept.
“In the midst of chaos, I thought we could offer a safe place,” Lauer said.
Michael Ince, director of the Mayor’s Office of Nighttime Economy who oversees the program, said that the building was going to be a place where Quarter Haus and other nearby bars would take lessons on how to use Narcan. The city was also going to provide the bars safety kits for spiked drinks.
What comes next?
Lauer said that the centuries-old building “held up pretty good” after assessing the damage Wednesday.
“It could have been so much worse,” she said.
Firefighters doused the second floor with water that eventually trickled down to the first floor, leading to noticeable water damage in the bar and stage area. The entire building still reeked of smoke days later. Lauer described the unrecognizable state of her business as “disorienting.”
Lauer doesn’t have a timeline, but she said the show must go on and Quarter Haus will eventually reopen.