The Truth Behind New Orleans Vampires with Marita Woywod Crandle

A vampire boutique is one thing. Turning it into a French Quarter destination with a hidden speakeasy, a Vampire Cafe, and a vampire apothecary that hosts seances and private parties is something else entirely. We’re joined in studio by entrepreneur and author Marita Woywod Crandle, the mind behind some of the most talked-about vampire-themed experiences in New Orleans, and she walks us through how it all started and why it kept expanding. We get into New Orleans vampire lore the right way: what’s legend, what’s historically traceable, and why stories like the casket girls keep evolving. Marita shares what it was like getting a private look inside the convent attic that helped shape her research, then pivots into a moment that sounds impossible to shrug off: a well-dressed man with a cane, a Romanian accent, a dog growling like never before, and a disappearance so clean her husband insists nobody even left the shop. If you love haunted New Orleans, paranormal storytelling, and the thin line between tourism and myth, this one delivers. Then we go behind the curtain on the business reality: building a restaurant during the pandemic, creating “vampire food” that’s genuinely great dining, engineering immersive events, and surviving the brutal parts of French Quarter operations like construction chaos, permits, rent, and even rats. We also talk books, from Mosquito to the upcoming Carter Brothers-inspired historical novel, plus the rare art of four edged paintings tied to her release.