Jean's older brother Pierre Lafitte was a blacksmith, and their associate Renato Beluche may have once owned this building.

[3] The current business traces its roots to Roger 'Tom' Caplinger, who in the mid-1940s turned the old abandoned shop into Café Lafitte.

The cafe became a popular night spot that attracted a bohemian clientele, including the gay community and celebrities like Noël Coward and Tennessee Williams.

[4] He soon opened a second cafe at the other end of the same block named Café Lafitte in Exile, which maintains that it is the oldest gay bar in the U.S.[4] The building was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1970.

As depicted in the novel, the "blacksmith shop" was mainly a cover for maintaining a gang of exceptionally tall and strong black slaves – who were ostensibly engaged in shoeing horses while being used by the Lafitte brothers for intimidation, extortion and other criminal activities in and around New Orleans.