The French Quarter is home to a ragtag collection of artists, schemers, and eccentrics – and most of them drink regularly at Molly’s at the Market, a neighbourhood Irish pub with paving stones on the floor and old signs and donated baseball caps on the walls. The bar is a favourite with both journalists in buttoned-down shirts and heavily tattooed and pierced patrons with undetermined professions. Molly’s Halloween parade is legendary, although nearly any night of the year a few of the regulars always look like they’re wearing a costume. When Hurricane Katrina closed New Orleans for a month, Molly’s never stopped serving drinks.