New Orleans leather bar stayed open through lashing by Hurricane Francine

As Hurricane Francine lashed New Orleans and the city flooded, there was an oasis of comradery — and leather — through the storm.

The Phoenix Bar, just north and east of the French Quarter in the Marigny neighborhood of the Crescent City, has a long tradition of staying open 24/7/365, even through the punishing and frequent tropical storms New Orleans is prone to.

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Their bagel shop has been called “a safe haven where acceptance, love, and joy thrives.”

If there isn’t a mandatory evacuation order, said owner Tracy Deroche, the Phoenix is open.

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Francine was already the third tropical storm to descend on the city this year.

“We stayed open until we had to evacuate,” Deroche said of the monster of all hurricanes, Katrina, in 2005. Thankfully, he said, the water stopped rising just a block from the bar, which hugs a double-sided boulevard called Elysian Fields that runs south the seven blocks to the Mississippi.

New Orleans felt the worst effects of Francine overnight Wednesday, according to the National Hurricane Center, with up to six inches of rain forecast along with flash flooding and hurricane-force winds. The storm made landfall as a Category 2 storm.

Deroche told the Times-Picayune that the Phoenix would remain open with or without power, and host as usual the bar’s two traditional Happy Hours, 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. to 7 p.m.

The Phoenix was stocked with ice, and if the lights were to go out, the bar would have been lit with candles, Deroche said.

Those who wanted to ride out the storm had a bar stool waiting, he added. 

“We do it because there’s a lot of people who live by themselves, and they don’t want to stay alone in the dark,” he said. 

The bar was ready for one of their weekend club socials on the back patio, hosted by regulars like The Lords of Leather, NOLA Pups and Handlers, Renegade Bears, Knights d’Orleans, Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, the Crescent City Leathermen, or Rouxgaroux Rugby.  

The owner called the crowd good for the weekly pool tournament on Tuesday, although the power did go out for about an hour as the storm surged north over the Gulf of Mexico.

Deroche said he fully expected business to be steady through the week, come hell or high water. A lack of electricity doesn’t seem to affect business when his doors remain open.

“When we don’t have power, people usually stay,” he said.

Speaking of the last big storm and power outage, Deroche recalled, “It was 97 degrees in the bar and people were still in there drinking. They’re just very supportive of us.”

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