Simple Cocktails - The Hotel Modern

CLUB SODA TASTE TEST BEER-SPIKED MUSTARD FINDING THE BEST JIGGER
Simple
Cocktails
A 4-ingredient
Challenge
Easy
Homemade
Sodas
A New Orleans
Cocktail Tour
America’s Best
Cream Ales
A City Built
on Yesterday
The past and the future find common
ground in New Orleans cocktails.
74 imbibemagazine.com ~ may/june 2013
Story by WAYNE CURTIS
Photos by RUSH JAGOE
!
Preparing for service at Sylvain in
the French Quarter. Opposite: The
house specialty at Sazerac Bar.
ust outside the windows of Bellocq, a cocktail
lounge between the French Quarter and the
Garden District, Robert E. Lee stands atop a
column with his arms folded. Streetcars from
the 1920s clang past. Inside adornments include a
vintage punch bowl atop an octopus, and a baby
grand piano. The bar (named after a photographer
of prostitutes) doesn’t so much have a specialty
drink as a specialty category: the cobbler, the last
mania for which was 125 years ago.
A local bumper sticker reads, “New Orleans: So Far Behind We’re
Ahead.” And Bellocq offers some evidence for that. It’s got antique drinks
and an emphasis on old-school hospitality. At the same time, guests can
feel they’re trending into cocktail territory as yet untrod, one sip at a time.
“We want to always be fresh,” says Neal Bodenheimer, a partner at Bellocq
and a driving force behind Cure, a cocktail lounge that helped reset the
standards for New Orleans cocktails when it opened in 2009. “We always
want to challenge our guests, and by doing that, we’re challenging ourselves.
It keeps everyone invested and engaged.”
While Bourbon Street remains a neon swamp of colorful drinks served
in oversized plastic cups, elsewhere the city is seeing ferment and change
in the cocktail world. Old New Orleans is being challenged. New craft
cocktail bars have been cropping up steadily, and enough new bartenders
have moved here to fill a string of Pullmans.
Which begs a question: Amid all this rumpus and unaccustomed
embrace of the new, can New Orleans retain its proud links to its cocktail
past, or is it destined to become not so much Disneyfied, as some fear, but
a hipsterly Brooklyn-on-the-Mississippi?
A Culture of Drink
New Orleans has been a cocktail mecca since the 1800s, when this vibrant
port city’s strong cultural ties to France ensured access to sophisticated
Cognacs and wines. At the same time, other boats offloaded bitters and
exotic fruits from the West Indies, whiskey came down the river from
Kentucky, and pond ice was unloaded from tall-masted sailing ships out
of New England. Add to that a penchant for mashing up diverse cultures
(gumbo, jazz), and it’s no surprise that many outstanding drinks took root
here: the Sazerac, Ramos Gin Fizz, Brandy Milk Punch and Brandy Crusta
among them.
These iconic 19th-century drinks never fell out of fashion in New
Orleans—the morning cocktail in particular has long been a matter of high
art. What’s more, iconic bars in which to sip them have persisted against
the odds. Classic New Orleans bars are immovable rocks in a fast-moving
river of shifting trends.
The Old Absinthe House traces its heritage to the 1870s and still retains
a slouchy dignity amid the frat-boy excess of Bourbon Street. Two classic
hotel bars have been spiffed up: the Carousel Bar at the Hotel Monteleone
(where the Vieux Carré cocktail was invented in 1938) was expanded in
2011 while maintaining the space’s settled elegance. And the Sazerac Bar
at the Roosevelt Hotel gleams like a newly launched 1940s-era ocean liner
thanks to a post-Katrina rehab. In the heart of the French Quarter, the
landmark Napoleon House endures, with peeling walls and faded art giving
it the “before” look of a home-makeover show. It persists as an essential
stop for Pimm’s Cups on a sweltering day.
76 imbibemagazine.com ~ may/june 2013
GIN SMASHER
Simple smashers, cobblers, juleps
and punches are the specialty at
the classics-driven Bellocq.
1½ oz. navy-strength gin
2 lemon wedges
1 orange wedge
½ oz. simple syrup (1:1)
2½ sprigs fresh mint
Tools: muddler, shaker, strainer
Glass: rocks
Garnish: mint sprig and 2 dashes
Peychaud’s bitters
Muddle the citrus in a shaker,
add the remaining ingredients,
including the mint and ice, and
shake until chilled. Strain into an
rocks glass filled with crushed ice;
garnish.
Kirk Estopinal, Bellocq
Clockwise from this photo:
Neal Bodenheimer (seated)
and Kirk Estopinal, partners
in Bellocq (pictured), Cure
and the forthcoming Cane &
Table; a fresh cocktail pour at
Loa; Cane & Table managing
partner Nick Detrich; Gin
Smasher fixings at Bellocq.
“We try to put together a menu that
contains well-made, approachable
classics, inventive variations on
classics, and some challenging
drinks for those who are into it,”
says Sylvain bartender Darrin Ylisto.
Then there’s Arnaud’s French 75, a relative newcomer to the French
Quarter (the bar didn’t open until 1979) with an authentically old-world
sensibility—dark wood, quarter-sized white floor tiles, a French chanteuse
soundtrack and a persistent nimbus of cigar smoke. For nearly a decade, it’s
been presided over by the unflappable Chris Hannah, the skilled if taciturn
bartender who daily demonstrates freakish reverence for classic cocktails
and their antiquity. (“It’s mostly a stirred bar,” he says of the French 75. “It
doesn’t say Mojito.”)
Yet visitors often misunderstand New Orleans by believing it to be a
museum, a place where culture has been embalmed and propped for use
as a backdrop for Facebook selfies. That’s not New Orleans. The culture
remains alive and evolving here, whether it involves food or architecture
or music. Today builds on yesterday, which, as it happens, was built on the
day before.
Measured Change
DEAD MAN'S
WALLET
A little spicy and a little sweet, this
multidimensional sipper stays true
to Sylvain’s French Quarter locale.
1½ oz. high-proof rye whiskey, such
as Rittenhouse 100-proof
¾ oz. ruby Port
½ oz. fresh lemon juice
¹⁄3 oz. rich cinnamon syrup
1 dash Angostura bitters
Tools: shaker, strainer
Glass: Old Fashioned
Shake ingredients with ice until
chilled, then strain into an Old
Fashioned glass over large ice
cubes.
To make the rich cinnamon syrup:
Combine 2 cups of sugar and 1 cup
of water in a saucepan and bring to
a boil, then turn off the heat. Add
6-8 cinnamon sticks and let cool to
room temperature, then strain.
Darrin Ylisto, Sylvain
While a handful of drinks like the Sazerac and Ramos Gin Fizz tend toward
the sacrosanct—don’t expect to see a Gummi Bear Sazerac or an Apple Pie
Ramos any time soon—bartenders who’ve been schooled in the classics
here often venture off in unexpected directions. “It’s sort of a midway point
between New York and San Francisco,” says Avery Glasser, who with his
wife, Janet, owns Bittermens, a maker and importer of cocktail bitters,
extracts and spirits. “San Francisco is fresh-market driven, and New York
is about the classics. But New Orleans is in the middle—it has classics, but
with a lot of seasonality. It’s an exciting place to drink.”
Early in 2013, the Glassers moved their business to New Orleans from
Brooklyn after outgrowing leased space. Since arriving, they’ve been struck
by the egalitarian nature of cocktails here. “In some cities, cocktails were a
sign of high society,” Avery says. “But cocktails here were always something
that were to be accessible to the masses. Our product is getting used not
just in high-end cocktail bars but also neighborhood bars and fine-dining
places.”
It doesn’t take much sleuthing to find great drinks in unlikely spots.
Felipe’s is a quick-service quesadilla-and-burrito joint with two locations in
the city. Among the first things you’ll notice is that limes are fresh-squeezed
for every Margarita—a commitment to quality that spreads across its
increasingly ambitious drinks list.
Toward Lake Pontchartrain in a scruffy residential neighborhood,
Twelve Mile Limit sports a low ceiling, pool table and well-used couches,
but owner Cole Newton serves up stellar barbecue, beer and a startling
selection of top-notch cocktails, like the signature Baudin, made with
bourbon, honey, lemon and Tabasco. The result is a neighborhood bar that
got an advanced degree, then moved back home and put its feet up on the
coffee table.
More sophisticated—and a magnet for Hollywood actors in town for
shoots—is Sylvain, a bistro-bar named after a comic opera performed on
the site in 1796. Always teeming, it’s attracted wide notice for its kitchen
(think: braised beef cheeks, duck confit with black-eyed peas and bourbon),
but also the creativity of its bar, with drinks like impeccably named General
Tsour, made with Haitian rum, lemon and five-spice syrup. It’s best enjoyed
during a sultry evening in the courtyard, as fine a place to plot a revolution
as has been discovered.
A Sacred Cow
Here are some things you don’t want to see when you order New Orleans’
official cocktail, the Sazerac: Rocks in your glass. A fat wedge of lemon
on the rim. A pour of bourbon in lieu of rye or Cognac. A Martini glass. A
bitters label that doesn’t say “Peychaud’s.”
may/june 2013 ~ imbibemagazine.com 79
The good news is that none of this will happen if you stick to bars awarded
the Sazerac Seal of Approval. That seal is bestowed upon places that have a
record of adhering to tradition and quality, and still make Sazeracs that look
and taste like those your great-grandparents would have sipped.
The Sazerac Seal was conceived by Ann Tuennerman, founder of Tales
of the Cocktail, the raucous, sprawling cocktail conference staged in the
French Quarter every summer since 2003. Discouraged by sloppiness,
Tuennerman saw the seal as a way of encouraging bars to maintain some
standards when making the city’s favorite tipple.
So in 2010 she assembled a cadre of secret sippers, hammered out a
set of criteria to define a well-wrought Sazerac, and sent the inspectors
off to visit bars anonymously. The idea was not to punish those who made
sub-par drinks, but reward those who excelled, and encourage others to
follow their example. (head to imbibemagazine.com/MJ13 for complete
list of approved bars.) “I realized there was a need for preservation and
education,” she said, adding that some places in New Orleans had sunk so
far as to make them with Pucker and a maraschino cherry. “We need to
keep them honest.”
Tuennerman and Tales of the Cocktail have been instrumental in
creating more lasting change in the city by luring a wave of bartenders to
pull up stakes and move south. “The New Orleans cliche has always been ‘I
came here for Jazzfest and I decided to move here,’ ” says Todd Price, drinks
columnist for the Times-Picayune. “For bartenders, it’s coming for Tales
and then moving down.”
One new arrival, Jeff “Beachbum” Berry, the world’s leading tiki
historian, first came to Tales in 2005, liked what he saw and moved here
with his wife last year; they plan to open a tiki bar by the end of the year.
“Tales has been great for opening a bar,” says Nick Detrich, managing
partner at the forthcoming Cane & Table, the third bar from the Cure team.
“We’ve got this huge talent pool we can hire from.”
Housed in a venerable French Quarter storefront on lower Decatur
Street, Cane & Table, which is slated to open in June (and is operating as a
pop-up, Perestroika, during the transition), will focus on rum drinks from
the colonial era to the early days of the tropical drink era. Detrich dug
into history to build his cocktail list, researching Cuba’s rum drinks and
experimenting with early orgeat recipes. He’s also been working on updates
of classic punches and will offer bottled punches that can serve a table.
“We’re planning to focus on the influence rum has had in the Americas,”
Detrich says. “That sort of stuff fascinates me.”
Come and Stay Awhile
Another newcomer, SoBou, bucked the historic aesthetic when it opened
in the French Quarter last summer. The cocktail-driven bistro—the latest
from Commander’s Palace, the fabled Garden District restaurant noted for
tradition and crisp hospitality—is surprisingly glossy for the two-centuryold neighborhood of spalling stucco, with shelves of backlit apothecary
bottles lining the dining room.
The bar quickly developed a following among locals and visitors for
its creative, precisely balanced cocktails, including updated classics like
bucks and fizzes made with housemade syrups and an array of bitters.
Manhattan transplant Abigail Gullo heads the bar program. “There’s a real
lack of pretense,” she says of New Orleans’ deeply ingrained cocktail culture.
“This is what they’ve done for a couple hundred years—making cocktails,
offering good service, enjoying life.”
And deep in the blue-collar turned artist/hipster neighborhood of
Bywater, the restaurant Maurepas opened last year. Headed by bartender
Brad Smith—a Minneapolis export—the cocktail program quickly earned
a following for its culinary orientation, with cocktails like the Gent and the
Jackass (recipe at right), which updates a bourbon sour with housemade
paprika syrup and peach bitters.
80 imbibemagazine.com ~ may/june 2013
THE GENT AND
THE JACKASS
There’s no mistaking the Creole flair
in this sassy southern sipper.
1½ oz. bourbon
¾ oz. paprika syrup
¼ oz. fresh lemon juice
2 dashes peach bitters
(such as Fee Brothers)
4 leaves fresh basil
Tools: shaker, strainer, fine strainer
Glass: coupe
Shake ingredients with ice and finestrain into a coupe.
To make the paprika syrup:
Combine 2 Tbsp. of smoked
paprika, 1 quart of sugar and 1
pint of water in a saucepan over
medium-heat and simmer for 20
minutes. Remove from heat, let
cool, then strain.
Brad Smith, Maurepas Foods
Clockwise from this photo: Bartender
Hoang Huynh at Sazerac Bar; Sylvain’s
cinnamon syrup; Loa bartender Kelle
Bohnenstiehl; cocktail prep at Loa.
“There’s a real lack of pretense,”
says SoBou’s genial head
bartender Abigail Gullo of New
Orleans’ cocktail culture.
Loa, in the boutique hotel International House in
the Central Business District, has also been attracting
cocktail pilgrims looking to sample the sometimes
outlandish creativity of Alan Walters, a man who
apparently has never met a leafy plant he didn’t want to
put in a drink. Antique bottles filled with Crayola-hued
infusions and syrups catch the eye, as does an eclectic
assortment of spirits. Walters’ extensive cocktail list,
grouped as New-Fangleds, Nieux Classics and Re-Visions,
is like a Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride of mixology, featuring what
he calls profoundly local flavors that include clover,
southern Pine and Spanish moss.
Yet, like much of New Orleans, Loa nods to the past.
Drinks are served in the remarkable vintage glassware that
Walter collects, and the bar’s understated service reflects
the city’s famous hospitality.
In fact, if there’s any one element that ensures drinking
in New Orleans won’t be like drinking elsewhere, it’s that
persistent graciousness that’s been as much a commodity
in New Orleans as cotton. It’s always been a city of people
coming and going (the port has been replaced economically
in recent decades by a tourism and convention economy),
so it’s had plenty of practice in catering to passers-through.
“I hear time and again that bartenders find there’s an
older style of service and an older way of engaging with
customers,” says the Picayune’s Price. “And there’s a desire
to adopt this style of service. I hear [new arrivals] say, ‘I can
be the kind of bartender here I can’t be in New York.’”
Where to Go
OUR KIND OF
MUSEUM
New Orleans has
an institutional
superstructure that
supports craft cocktails.
In addition to Tales of the
Cocktail, the city is also
home to the Museum of
the American Cocktail,
which opened in 2005
above a pharmacy
museum, then joined up
with the Southern Food
and Beverage Museum
in leased space at the
downtown mall. The joint
museum is moving again—
this time to its own space
in a neighborhood on the
far side of the Central
Business District. For
several years, bartenders
Chris and Laura McMillian
have arranged for experts
from the cocktail world to
speak every month about
the history, ingredients
and technique behind
quality cocktails. Now,
you can also find Chris
McMillian mixing classic
New Orleans cocktails as
the head bartender at the
new French Quarter spot,
Kingfish.
!
d.b.a.
618 Frenchmen St.
Marigny
dbabars.com
Napoleon House
500 Chartres St.
French Quarter
napoleonhouse.com
Bar Tonique
820 N. Rampart St.
French Quarter
bartonique.com
Dickie Brennan’s Steakhouse
716 Iberville St.
French Quarter
dickiebrennanssteakhouse.com
Bar Uncommon
817 Common St.
Central Business District
baruncommon.com
Dominique’s on Magazine
4213 Magazine St.
Uptown
dominiquesonmag.com
Old Absinthe House
240 Bourbon St.
French Quarter
ruebourbon.com/
oldabsinthehouse
Bellocq
936 St. Charles Ave.
Central Business District
thehotelmodern.com
Felipe’s Taqueria
301 N. Peters St./
French Quarter
6215 S. Miro St./Uptown
felipesneworleans.com
Arnaud’s French 75
813 Rue Bienville
French Quarter
arnaudsrestaurant.com
Bourbon House
144 Bourbon St.
French Quarter
bourbonhouse.com
Cane & Table
1113 Decatur St.
French Quarter
Carousel Bar
214 Royal St.
French Quarter
hotelmonteleone.com
The Columns Hotel
3811 St. Charles Ave.
Uptown
thecolumns.com
Cochon
930 Tchoupitoulas St.
Central Business District
cochonrestaurant.com
Cure
4905 Freret St.
Uptown
curenola.com
Sazerac Bar
123 Baronne St.
Central Business District
therooseveltneworleans.com
SoBou
310 Chartres St.
French Quarter
sobounola.com
Iris
321 N. Peters St.
French Quarter
irisneworleans.com
Superior Seafood
4338 St. Charles Ave.
Uptown
superiorseafoodnola.com
Irvin Mayfield’s Jazz
Playhouse
300 Bourbon St.
French Quarter
irvinmayfield.com
Sylvain
625 Chartres St.
French Quarter
sylvainnola.com
Kingfish
337 Chartres St.
French Quarter
kingfishneworleans.com
Loa
221 Camp St.
Central Business District
ihhotel.com
Maurepas Foods
3200 Burgundy St.
Bywater
maurepasfoods.com
web extra
Tivoli & Lee
2 Lee Circle
Central Business District
tivoliandlee.com
Tujague’s
823 Decatur St.
French Quarter
tujaguesrestaurant.com
Twelve Mile Limit
500 S. Telemachus St.
Mid-City
facebook.com/twelve.mile.limit
Head to imbibemagazine.com/MJ13 for a list
of the 2013 Sazerac Seal of Approval bars.
may/june 2013 ~ imbibemagazine.com 83