Tatlo has reopened at 240 Bourbon St., bringing chef Cristina Quackenbush’s Filipino-rooted cooking and personal witchcraft practice back to the French Quarter. The restaurant, which opened in 2024, closed in 2025 after its finances became untenable. It returns with new investment and an expanded footprint connected to the historic Old Absinthe House.
In its report on the reopening, NOLA.com reported that operating costs had become too high at the original location. Quackenbush and the Old Absinthe House landlord later worked out new terms, and a frequent customer invested in the restaurant, according to the outlet. Tatlo had also drawn local customers, including hospitality workers stopping in for Filipino food after their shifts.
Same Spirit, Bigger Space
The expansion adds a second dining room upstairs at the Old Absinthe House, creating space for groups. Quackenbush described the return to NOLA.com as: “It's the same team with renewed spirit, renewed energy,” according to the outlet's report on the restaurant's return.
Tatlo shares a building with the Old Absinthe House, a Bourbon Street landmark around 200 years old. The setting gives the restaurant an absinthe connection, while its cooking reflects Quackenbush’s personal and culinary influences. In its coverage of Tatlo’s opening, Eater New Orleans described the concept as drawing on her decades-long witchcraft practice and lifelong immersion in Southeast Asian cuisine. The menu’s early broad regional framing has since given way to a more specifically Filipino emphasis.
Dishes Built Like Spells
Tatlo's kitchen treats its recipes as something closer to incantations than dishes, with items chosen for the spiritual or wellness properties of their ingredients. Protection noodles arrive with crab, green curry, garlic and pancit, plus a butter candle lit at the table that melts into the dish as it burns. Triquetra pork ribs, finished with a lemongrass barbecue sauce, are recommended on the menu for mental clarity, while a dish called Teach a Girl to Fish reworks Filipino sinigang with tamarind, tomato, okra and smoked fish fumet, a plate Quackenbush has tied to her own culture, rebirth and change. Dishes run $15 to $25.
The bar serves absinthe cocktails and traditional absinthe with fountains and sugar cubes, including absinthe from local maker Atelier Vie. Other drinks include Hecate's Crossroads, an absinthe-and-prosecco cocktail with lavender; Divine Connection, made with blueberry, lemon and butterfly pea flower; and Aunt Nan's Old Fashioned, built on rice whiskey and jackfruit. Guests can also request a tarot reading. In a NOLA.com report, staff writer Ian McNulty described the room’s low lighting, Spanish moss, antique absinthe fountains and occult emblems.
What's Coming in November
Tatlo is open Wednesday through Sunday from 6 p.m. to midnight, staying open until 1 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, and admitting only guests 21 and older. Starting in November, the restaurant plans to roll out a late-night menu beginning at 11 p.m. that will lean further into Quackenbush's earlier Milkfish repertoire, bringing more traditional Filipino dishes to the bar crowd that first made Tatlo a local favorite.
Bourbon Street History and Late-Night Dining
The Old Absinthe House has its own history on Bourbon Street: NOLA.com reported that in 1929, during Prohibition, its bar and fixtures were moved from the original building. That episode predates Tatlo and is separate from the restaurant’s reopening.
Tatlo was included on Bon Appétit's 2025 list of nine top new bars across the country, even as financial pressures later led to its temporary closure. The restaurant’s return keeps Quackenbush’s witchcraft practice alongside the Filipino cooking that has shaped her work.
