Capacity is limited to 25 percent, live music remains prohibited, and nobody knows how many tourists will show on Bourbon Street in the age of COVID-19.
Cherie Boos, manager of Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop, in an authentically rustic, creaky floored 18th-century Creole cottage, said she’s hoping locals will help keep the bar financially afloat as Bourbon Street revives.
Bourbon Street, which had the ambiance of an empty movie set in April, has experienced a slow re-awakening in recent weeks.
Still, traffic has been slow and plywood covered numerous tavern windows until Mayor LaToya Cantrell announced the latest easing of restrictions in a city that, in the spring, had become an international hot spot for COVID-19.
She said city code enforcement officials will watch to make sure social distancing, masking requirements and building capacity limits are enforced.
