K&B Drugstore: The Purple Paradise New Orleans Never Got Over

If you grew up in New Orleans, you didn't go to the drugstore. You went to K&B.

For more than six decades, Katz & Besthoff wasn't just a pharmacy chain — it was part of the fabric of daily life in New Orleans and across the Gulf South. With its unmistakable purple logo, K&B was the place where you filled your prescriptions, bought your school supplies, picked up a gallon of ice cream, and maybe grabbed a toy off the shelf if your mom was in a good mood. It was as much a part of growing up here as snowballs and neutral grounds.

From One Drugstore to an Empire

The story begins in 1905, when Gustave Katz and Sydney Besthoff opened their first drugstore at the corner of Canal and Dryades Streets. The location put them right in the beating heart of Canal Street's commercial corridor, surrounded by the department stores and theaters that made downtown New Orleans the center of everything.

The business grew steadily through the decades. By the 1960s, K&B had expanded well beyond that single Canal Street location, spreading across the New Orleans metro area and eventually into other Gulf South cities. At its peak, the chain operated nearly 200 stores across Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, and Texas.

But K&B was never just about the numbers. Each store felt like a neighborhood institution. Your pharmacist knew your name. The lunch counter served po-boys and plate lunches. The aisles were stocked with everything from bandages to birthday cards, and the whole place was bathed in that distinctive purple — on the signs, the bags, the prescription bottles, everything.

The Purple

You cannot talk about K&B without talking about the purple. That specific shade — a rich, regal violet — became so identified with the chain that New Orleanians started calling it "K&B purple." It wasn't just a brand color. It was a cultural marker. People painted their houses in it. They referenced it in conversation the way other cities might reference a sports team's colors. It became shorthand for something distinctly local.

The color showed up everywhere: the storefront signs, the shopping bags, the ice cream containers, the employee uniforms. When you saw that purple, you knew exactly where you were. And decades after the last K&B closed, people in New Orleans still call that particular shade by its rightful name.

K&B Ice Cream

If K&B purple was the chain's visual signature, K&B ice cream was its edible one. The store-brand ice cream was a staple in New Orleans freezers, and people had strong opinions about their favorite flavors. Creole Cream Cheese ice cream, in particular, became legendary — a distinctly New Orleans flavor that you simply could not find anywhere else.

The ice cream was made locally and sold exclusively at K&B stores, which gave it an air of specialness that national brands couldn't touch. When K&B disappeared, the ice cream went with it, and a whole generation mourned the loss. Various local creameries have tried to fill the void over the years, but longtime fans will tell you it's never quite the same.

More Than a Drugstore

K&B stores served as informal community gathering spots. The lunch counters were places where neighbors caught up over coffee. The photo departments processed your vacation pictures and your wedding film. The toy aisles were where kids learned the art of lobbying their parents.

The chain was also known for its commitment to the arts. Sydney Besthoff III, grandson of co-founder Sydney Besthoff, became one of New Orleans' most significant art collectors. His collection of contemporary sculpture eventually became the Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden at the New Orleans Museum of Art in City Park — one of the most important outdoor sculpture collections in the country. In a very real sense, K&B's legacy lives on every time someone strolls through those oak-shaded paths among the sculptures.

The End of an Era

In 1997, Rite Aid Corporation acquired K&B, and the purple signs started coming down across the Gulf South. The transition was swift and, for many New Orleanians, painful. Stores were rebranded. The lunch counters closed. The ice cream vanished from shelves. A chain that had been part of the city's identity for 92 years was absorbed into a faceless national corporation almost overnight.

The acquisition hit differently here than a typical corporate merger might elsewhere. Losing K&B felt personal — like losing a family member who had always been around and who you assumed always would be. It was one of those moments where New Orleanians collectively realized that not everything beloved is permanent, no matter how deeply woven into the culture it seems.

The Legacy

Nearly three decades after the last K&B closed, the chain's memory remains remarkably alive in New Orleans. People still have K&B purple items — prescription bottles, shopping bags, even old store signs — displayed in their homes like artifacts from a lost civilization. The phrase "K&B purple" is still common parlance. And bring up K&B at any gathering of New Orleanians of a certain age and watch the stories pour out.

K&B represents something bigger than a drugstore chain. It's a symbol of a time when local businesses weren't just places to shop — they were institutions that reflected and reinforced the character of the communities they served. In a city that has always valued its unique culture over corporate homogeneity, K&B was the embodiment of doing things the New Orleans way.

The purple may have faded from the storefronts, but it hasn't faded from the city's memory. And in New Orleans, memory is everything.

Frequently Asked Questions

When did K&B Drugstore close?

K&B was acquired by Rite Aid in 1997. The stores were gradually rebranded, and the K&B name disappeared from storefronts by the late 1990s, ending a 92-year run that began in 1905.

What is K&B purple?

K&B purple refers to the distinctive violet color used in the chain's branding — on signs, bags, prescription bottles, and more. The color became so iconic in New Orleans that residents still use the term to describe that particular shade of purple decades after the stores closed.

Where was the first K&B store?

The first Katz & Besthoff drugstore opened in 1905 at the corner of Canal and Dryades Streets in downtown New Orleans, right in the heart of the city's busiest commercial district.

What happened to K&B ice cream?

K&B's store-brand ice cream, including the beloved Creole Cream Cheese flavor, was discontinued after the Rite Aid acquisition. The ice cream was made locally and sold exclusively at K&B stores, making it impossible to replicate through the new ownership.

What is the Besthoff Sculpture Garden?

The Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden at the New Orleans Museum of Art in City Park houses a world-class collection of contemporary sculpture. It was established by Sydney Besthoff III, grandson of K&B co-founder Sydney Besthoff, making it one of the most tangible legacies of the K&B family's impact on New Orleans.