Whether you choose to venture out from the HexFest conference or if you're staying a few days extra, be sure to explore the rich cultural offerings of New Orleans, like the Crescent City's incredible Creole and Cajun restaurants, the legendary magical boutiques of the French Quarter, and the live Jazz that was born in the Big Easy. The list below represents the very best places in New Orleans to shop, dine, and explore. Sections are sorted by distance from the Bourbon Orleans Hotel so you can plan your time accordingly. Taxis and pedicabs are always available.
Tours | Restaurants | Shopping | Attractions & Activities
The New Orleans Spirits and Spells Tour
Reservation Hot-line: (504) 667-5570
Take a spirited journey with an expert historical guide through the shadowy streets of the French Quarter as you learn of ghosts, gris-gris, Voodoo, and Witchery and discover why New Orleans is the World’s most magical city! There will be custom versions of this tour included with HexFest conference tickets.
Tours | Restaurants | Shopping | Attractions & Activities
Your first dinner is provided on Friday night's Riverboat Ritual Cruise, but we kept the remaining dining times open so you could sample some of the Crescent City's impeccable regional cooking. New Orleans is known for both its world-class restaurants and down-home holes in the wall. Either could provide you the meal of your life! [sorted by distance from hotel]
Roux on Orleans $$
717 Orleans Street
(on-site) | (504) 571-4604
The Bourbon Orleans Hotel offers its own signature Creole restaurant, which is open daily for breakfast and dinner and uses the freshest seasonal ingredients native to Louisiana. Their signature bar, Bourbon "O", faces Bourbon Street, where guests can enjoy its signature Voodoo Mojo cocktail and light fare.
Spitfire Coffee $
627 St Peter Street (456 feet) | 
Map+Directions | (225) 384-0655
An urban nook right near the hotel that offers espressos and pour-over coffees from small roasters, plus lattes and iced versions!
Stanley of New Orleans $$
547 St Ann Street (.1 miles) | Map+Directions | (504) 587-0093
Right near the hotel on historic Jackson Square, Stanley provides a beautiful backdrop of St. Louis Cathedral. Stanley offers breakfast all day, delicious sandwiches, Italian sodas, house made ice creams, milkshakes and Louisiana favorites. Our favorite item on the menu is the Bananas Foster French Toast!
Muriel's Jackson Square $$$
801 Chartres Street (.1 miles) | Map+Directions | (504) 568-1885
A truly magical New Orleans restaurant for food, the atmosphere, and the respect for spirit. Muriel's not only features spectacular contemporary creole cuisine but they honor the dead as well! Be sure to ask them if you can see the permanent dumb supper set each night for their resident ghost, Pierre Antoine Lepardi Jourdan, at the base of the stairway to the function rooms and be sure to take a peek upstairs at the Séance parlors, especially the inner Séance room, which is the most gorgeously magical room decor you'll ever see in your life. Oh, and don't forget to get the bread pudding at the end of dinner! It's the best in the city!
The Court of Two Sisters $$$
613 Royal Street (.1 miles) | Map+Directions | (504) 522-7261
This charming restaurant with its daily Jazz Brunch buffet is the perfect place to try many of the classic regional tastes of New Orleans so Christian often recommends it for that reason alone. Their lovely, tree-filled courtyard is a perfect setting to enjoy their delicious food. And, did we mention the Jazz? Great music, food, and architecture are among the greatest offerings of the Crescent City and the Court of Two Sisters offers all three!
Cafe Du Monde $
800 Decatur Street (.2 miles) | Map+Directions | (504) 525-4544
The famed Original Cafe Du Monde was established in 1862 and features a menu of dark roasted coffee and chicory, beignets, white and chocolate milk, and fresh squeezed orange juice. The coffee is served black or cafe au lait—meaning it's mixed half and half with hot milk. Beignets are square French-style doughnuts, lavishly covered with powdered sugar. The Cafe is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Since the river is a powerful place for offerings, Brian and Christian often grab a bag of beignets and some cafe au lait and cross over to the river via the park next to Cafe Du Monde where they'll make offerings to the spirit of place.
The Clover Grill $
900 Bourbon Street (.2 miles) | Map+Directions | (504) 598-1010
Since 1939 Clover Grill has been home to the great breakfasts and burgers on Bourbon Street. Burgers are cooked under hubcaps to keep them juicy and the place is always open!
NOLA Po-Boys $$
908 Bourbon Street (.2 miles) | Map+Directions | (504) 522-2639 | Delivers!
In other parts of America, they're called submarine sandwich, sub, torpedo, hoagie, hero, grinder, and more, but here in the Crescent City, they're called the Po' Boy! NOLA Po-Boys serves over 45 types of this classic New Orleans sandwich, including traditional roast beef, fried seafood like shrimp, oysters, soft-shell crab and catfish, smoked sausage, ham and cheese, hamburger and more. All po-boys, come “dressed” which means a topping of shredded lettuce, tomatoes, mayonnaise and pickles.
Emeril's NOLA $$$
534 St Louis Street (.3 miles) | Map+Directions | (504) 522-6652
Emeril is a world-famous chef whose main restaurants are in New Orleans. NOLA, his French Quarter restaurant, showcases rustic Louisiana and Southern cooking featuring local and regional ingredients and a few unexpected ethnic twists. Brian and Christian both love the buttermilk fried breast of chicken!
Coop's Place $$
1109 Decatur Street (.4 miles) | Map+Directions | (504) 525-9053
A locals favorite, Coop's Place is the place to go for a true taste of New Orleans at down home prices. They've got Christian's favorite jambalaya in the French Quarter and Brian loves their red beans and rice. And they've got incredible fried chicken too!
Restaurant R'evolution $$$$
777 Bienville Street (.4 miles) | Map+Directions | (504) 525-9053
Brian and Christian's favorite restaurant in the Crescent City features the best ribeye steak ever, an amazing quail and gumbo dish known as “Death by Gumbo,” unbelievable Beer Battered Crab Beignets, and Christian's favorite—Tramonto's Caviar Staircase. This may be one of the pricier restaurants in the city but it's worth every penny. You may not get in and out of their during the Saturday conference dinner break so you might want to go onSunday night. Oh, and you'll want to make reservations!
Key's Fuel Mart $
1139 North Rampart Street (.5 miles) | Map+Directions | (504) 301-4598
You've probably seen Christian and Brian talk about
Gas Station Fried Chicken! Yeah, neither of them thought that sounded normal either till they moved to New Orleans, but we kid you not, this chicken is deep fried throughout the day and is some of the best we've ever had!
Tours | Restaurants | Shopping | Attractions & Activities
Your first stop for shopping should be our on-site vending room in Saint Ann's Cottage, where many of our presenters will be offering powerful products! However, when you're out and about, be sure to visit some of the truly magical shops that pepper our city year-round, including our own shop, Hex: Old World Witchery! Some even offer discounts to HexFest participants during the conference and are identified below! [sorted by distance from hotel]
Reverend Zombie's Voodoo Shop
713 Royal Street (223 feet)| Map+Directions | (504) 486-6366
The sister shop to Marie Laveau's House of Voodoo on Bourbon Street, Reverend Zombie's also has vast array of magical charms and talismans, statuary, and features their own adjacent cigar shop that's also worth a stop! This shop is notable for its gorgeous Voodoo Crosses on the wall. Christian and Brian have one of these hanging above one of the fireplaces in their home, filled with symbols of New Orleans Voodoo and magic.
Boutique du Vampyre
15% Discount on Merchandise to HexFest Participants During Conference Weekend!
709 ½ St Ann Street (436 feet) | Map+Directions | (504) 561-8267
This beautiful gift gallery for the nocturnal and their friends is located directly across the street from the entrance to our vending area in the Saint Ann Cottage of the hotel. Owned by our friends Steve and Marita Crandle, and features gifts, clothing and other items made by local New Orleans artists and books that are all signed by the authors! If you want to bring something with a little bite back to your friends at home, this is the place to go!
Marie Laveau's House of Voodoo
628 Bourbon Street (384 feet) | Map+Directions | (504) 581-3751
This popular Bourbon Street tourist attraction is located directly across the street from the Bourbon Orleans hotel where HexFest is held. They offer basket upon basket of magical charms and talismans and tribal masks and statues from around the world adorn the walls and ceilings. They also offer an enormous selection of statuary, including one of Christian's favorite statues of Marie Laveau
Maskarade
630 St Ann Street (.1 miles) | Map+Directions | (504) 568-1018
Just a half a block from the entrance to the HexFest vending area at the Bourbon Orleans, this charming shop offers an amazing selection of masks handmade by some of the best local and national artists. These fabulous creations are crafted in a variety of mediums, including leather, paper mâché, and even cut metal, like our fine Italian masks handmade in the old traditional Venetian style by master mask-makers. Christian and Brian have purchased many a ritual mask here, including the leather skull mask Christian often wears at Halloween-time!
Starling Magickal
10% Discount on Merchandise to HexFest Participants During Conference Weekend!
1022 Royal Street (.2 miles) | Map+Directions | (504) 595-6777
Starling is an occult book and supply shop located in the heart of the French Quarter of New Orleans. They maintain a varied stock of second-hand and collectible books, as well as a carefully chosen selection of new titles, in the areas of Witchcraft, Voodoo, Magick, Paganism, Hermetics, Divination, Mythology and related fields. They blend their own magickal oils and incenses from an extensive stock of essential oils, herbs and resins, and hand-craft a wide range of charms, talismans and ritual tools, including gris-gris bags and spell candles. They also offer a range of metaphysical jewelry, altar furnishings and divination tools.
Voodoo Authentica
10% Discount on Merchandise to HexFest Participants During Conference Weekend!
612 Dumaine Street (.2 miles) | Map+Directions | (504) 522-2111
Voodoo Authentica™ of New Orleans Cultural Center & Collection has been a New Orleans practitioner owned and operated establishment since 1996, is located in the Historic New Orleans French Quarter, on the quiet and picturesque rue Dumaine. They provide a complete line of locally handmade Voodoo dolls, Gris Gris bags, potion oils and other unique New Orleans, Haitian and African spiritual arts and crafts. They also offer rituals, psychic readings, spiritual work and consultations by their experienced team of in-house practitioners. Christian and Brian are both huge fans of the Yummy Boy oil, which can only be found in this shop!
French Quarter Gem & Lapidary
527 Saint Philip Street (.3 miles) | Map+Directions | (504) 524-9596
This shop is a must-see for practitioners who with with crystals and gemstones Locally owned and operated, French Quarter Gem & Lapidary has every kind of stone you can imagine and they even make custom pieces!
Road Kill
903 Decatur Street (.3 miles) | Map+Directions | (504) 529-3633
Roadkill is a locally-owned and operated store, offering clothing, accessories, motorcycle culture, bags, wallets, jewelry, hats, shoes and boots, belts and buckles, home decor, patches, stickers, watches, original art, and more! Christian and Brian have done their share of clothes shopping at this edgy, sexy shop!
Pharaoh’s Cave
20% Discount on Merchandise to HexFest Participants During Conference Weekend!
1241 Royal Street (.4 miles) | Map+Directions | (504) 412-8868
The proprietor of this shop hails from Alexandria, Egypt, once home to the greatest library in history, and imports treasures directly from Egypt to New Orleans, including sacred statues, papyrus, incense, oils, belly dance gear, jewelry, musical instruments, and gorgeous clothing. If you are a devotee of Egyptian magic and religion, you must stop at Pharaoh's cave for this is as Egyptian as it gets!
Earth Odyssey
20% Discount on Merchandise to HexFest Participants During Conference Weekend!
306 Chartres Street (.4 miles) | Map+Directions | (504) 581-1348
Earth Odyssey is a sanctuary of gems, minerals, and magic magic offering sterling silver designer jewelry, collectible minerals and fossils, beading supplies, essential oils, energy healing, psychic readings and more. This is a very pretty store with a calm, serene vibe!
Omen: Pyschic Parlor and Witchcraft Emplorium
20% Discount on Merchandise to HexFest Participants During Conference Weekend!
1205 Decatur Street (.5 miles) | Map+Directions | (504) 613-0558
Warlock Christian Day and Brian Cain's shop is more than a destination. It is a journey. Receive the guidance of a gifted psychic medium, one-on-one. Cast a spell at our witches healing altar, acquire uncommon treasures, exquisite jewelry, luxurious garments, majestic statuary from Greece and Egypt, pure essential oils, sacred incense from distant lands, crystal bath bombs, handmade amulets and talismans, and a trove of genuine stones and crystals. Discover your destiny at Omen in New Orleans! Be sure to also check out Christian and Brian's shop, Omen in Salem, Massachusetts!
Hex: Old World Witchery
20% Discount on Merchandise to HexFest Participants During Conference Weekend!
1219 Decatur Street (.5 miles) | Map+Directions | (504) 613-0558
Warlock Christian Day and Brian Cain's New Orleans shop offers magical merchandise for both the curious and Witch alike. Whether you want a candle to bless your home, herbs and roots to make your own magic, a potion to attract love, books to teach you the arts of Witchery, a Voodoo doll made by a real practitioner, or to cast a spell at our authentic Witches' Altar, Hex is for those who believe in magic and those whose hearts beat with its fire. Hex also offers psychic readings featuring Elie Barnes, Levi Rowland, and Mimi Curry. Be sure to also check out Christian and Brian's shop, Hex in Salem, Massachusetts!
NOLA Rock Co.
1214 Decatur Street (.5 miles) | Map+Directions | (504) 321-1063
One of the newest shops on Lower Decatur, NOLA Rock Co. offers tumbled and raw stones, wire-wrapped jewelry, geodes, salt lamps, and burnables to cleanse your space and provide metaphysical peace of mind. This beautiful little shop is directly across the street from Hex: Old World Witchery!
Voodoo Spiritual Temple
1428 North Rampart Street (.7 miles) | Map+Directions | (504) 943-9795
The Voodoo Spiritual Temple is the spiritual home of Priestess Miriam—one of New Orleans' leading lights and one of the few people to whom Christian goes for psychic work. You enter through their charming gift shop, featuring filled with handcrafted items and gifts from local artists and around the world as well as Voodoo Dolls, mojo bags, magical oils and other concoctions handcrafted by Priestess Miriam herself. From there, Miriam and her staff will guide you through the courtyard to the temple itself, a spiritual place of power featuring the many altars that Priestess Miriam has put together led by the Loas, Saints, and Spirit!
Island of Salvation Botanica
2372 St Claude Ave #100 (1.2 miles) | Map+Directions | (504) 948-9961
Located in the New Orleans Healing Center, Island of Salvation Botanica is a Vodou religious supply store offering herbs, oils, statuary, talismans,and Haitian art. Many of the items are handmade by Manbo Sallie Ann Glassman, an internationally recognized Haitian-initiated Vodou Priestess and author who has been featured on numerous news programs, documentaries, and television shows. Sallie's work and the products she offers are tools for those seeking the spirit. This must-see spot is a few blocks outside the French Quarter but Christian and Brian definitely recommend you include this among your stops. It's worth the walk or cab ride!
Tours | Restaurants | Shopping | Attractions & Activities
The Crescent City has no shortage of things to do and places to see day or night! They include sacred and magical sites, historic landmarks, museums, music venues, and more! [sorted by distance from hotel]
New Orleans Historic Voodoo Museum
724 Dumaine Street (.2 miles) | Map+Directions | (504) 680-0128
One of Christian's favorite spots in the city, The New Orleans Historic Voodoo Museum preserve the legacy of New Orleans’ Voodoo history and culture, including the mysteries, secrets, the history and folklore of rituals, zombies, of gris-gris, of Voodoo Queens, and more. The ancient religion of Voodoo came to New Orleans directly from Africa in the earliest years of the city. New Orleans Voodoo has become both a unique style of American magic and an important part of the fabric of Crescent City culture.
Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop
941 Bourbon Street (.2 miles) | Map+Directions | (504) 593-9761
Built between 1722 and 1732, this National Historic Landmark is reputed to be the oldest structure used as a bar in the United States. Rumored to have once been used by infamous pirate Jean Lafitte as a base of operations, this bar stands as one of the most haunted locations in the Crescent City. The atmosphere alone makes it worth the trip but we suggest you take a few pictures to see if you can capture some of the spectral activity that's always going on there!
Preservation Hall
726 St Peter Street (.2 miles) | Map+Directions
Located just one street away from the Bourbon Orleans Hotel, this famous music hall first opened its doors in 1961 and was created as a sanctuary, to protect and honor authentic New Orleans Jazz . The walls are covered with portraits of the musicians who first filled it with the beautiful sounds of New Orleans Jazz and today, over 50 years later, the hall is still going strong. On any given night, Preservation Hall is filled to capacity with people eager to hear New Orleans jazz played by veteran musicians in their 70’s and 80’s and younger musicians learning and embracing one of the World's most unique musical legacies.
The Mississippi River
(.3 miles) | Map+Directions
If there is one place above all others you should pay homage to here in New Orleans, it is the Mighty Mississippi for it is this river that has brought New Orleans its food, its people, its spirituality, its music, and its magic. It is this wellspring of power that fuels all that we do here in the Crescent City and it is why we hold our first ritual of HexFest on the river itself. Be sure to bring an offering, perhaps a beignet from the nearby Cafe Du Monde, so that you may connect directly to this most ancient source of New Orleans magic!
Congo Square
700 North Rampart Street (.3 miles) | Map+Directions
Congo Square is located in along the edge of Armstrong Park in the Tremé, America's oldest black neighborhood. This unassuming circle of brick paving, surrounded as it is by ancient oak trees dating back hundreds of years, is home to a powerful history both as a sacred site of New Orleans Voodoo and as crucial to the development of Jazz music. It was a gathering place for slaves as early as 1724, where they sold their handcrafted wares and held great celebrations and dances, steeped in the hidden symbolism of African Voodoo. Dances like the Bamboula and the Calinda were first popularized here. Congo Square was one of the earliest tourist spots in the South and, the rhythms, chants, and dances of this power place helped to form the foundations of Jazz music.
The French Market
At the corner Ursuline and French Market Place (.4 miles) | Map+Directions
The archway of the famed French Market opens onto a farmer's market and collection of delicious local food vendors and then leads to an incredible flea market that combines local art with a variety of inexpensive imported goods. This is a great place to get cheap tee-shirts and made-in-China voodoo dolls for the folks back home. You can also find some pretty good deals on luggage, purses, and more! And it's only steps away from Hex!
Our Lady of Guadalupe Church and the International Shrine of St. Jude
411 North Rampart Street (.5 miles) | Map+Directions
Some might wonder why a Catholic Church is linked on a Witchcraft festival's website, but wonder not. In New Orleans, the lines between Catholicism, Voodoo, and even Witchcraft are often blurred. Brian and Christian's favorite Catholic Church in the world, Our Lady of Guadalupe is the oldest church building in New Orleans and was built in 1826 as a funeral church called The Mortuary Chapel. It was originally named so due to its role as the last stop for the many yellow fever victims of early New Orleans history, where the dead would be given the rites, then ushered through the back to the nearby St. Louis Cemetery No. 1. For decades now, it has featured a powerful shrine to St. Jude, the patron saint of hopeless causes, just to the left of the Altar, which contains an actual relic of this revered saint. You will often find countless candles burning and we encourage you to purchase one of your own in the on-site gift shop and light it for someone you know who is in need of miracles. Be sure to make a donation in the box before the shrine and don't forget to ask St. Jude for a blessing by putting your hand upon his feet in prayer. Outside, to the left of the Church, is the tallest statue of St. Jude in the world, which acts as a beacon of the continued importance of the poor and needy to this charitable parish. Our Lady of Guadalupe Church features a Marian grotto, where the Virgin Mother is honored and there is a box for donations to the poor. Within the church itself is a notable statue of Saint Expedite, a saint important to Catholics, Voodoo practitioners and Witches of New Orleans for he has helps us all at one time or another. While some might scoff at Witches working with saints, remember that saints are the souls of the mighty dead and Witches have always worked with the dead.
St. Louis Cemetery No. 1
425 Basin Street (.5 miles) | Map+Directions
On the National Register of Historic Places, St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 is New Orleans' oldest graveyard and among the most sacred sites of Voodoo in America due to its most notable resident … the famed Voodoo Queen Marie Laveau. A spirit Christian has worked with for many years and beloved by he and Brian and countless people the world over, Marie Laveau was a powerful woman of color in 19th century New Orleans and became known throughout the world as a healer and priestess. She has merged with the River herself to become spirit of place to the Crescent City. If you visit Marie's grave in St. Louis Cemetery No. 1, you will notice the X's marked by tourists on her tomb. While this is a very old New Orleans custom, it is damaging her tomb so we recommend using a little brick to mark three X's on the ground before the tomb where it won't cause damage. And be sure to bring flowers, rum, cigars, and other offerings!
Frenchman Street
At the corner of Ursuline and French Market Place (.6 miles) | Map+Directions
The Frenchman Street music district begins in the Faubourg Marigny neighborhood, just a few steps downriver from the French Quarter at the intersection of Frenchman and Decatur Streets. While some prefer the outrageously lurid fun of Bourbon Street, Frenchman Street offers an incredible variety of music venues featuring traditional New Orleans Jazz, blues, funk, soul, rock and Roll, Swing, and independent music. You'll often find a brass band right out on the street and this crew is fantastic so don't forget to throw a buck or two in their tip jar! Street artists, performers, and even a late-night outdoor artist's market! Famed music venues like The Spotted Cat, The Blue Nile, Snug Harbor, and Three Muses are nestled between great traditional Creole, Middle-Eastern, fusion, and Asian restaurants like The Praline Connection [see above], Mona's Cafe, Marigny Brasserie, and Yuki Izakaya!
