Sazerac Sightings in New Orleans

Posted on July 27, 2008
Filed Under Robert Simonson |

As I wrote earlier on this blog of having spent an inordinate amount of time during my past trips to “Tales of the Cocktail” sampling and rating Sazeracs—my favorite drink—at various Crescent City restaurants and bars, I figure I should weigh in here on my 2008 findings.

I tested four restaurants are bars on their Sazerac performance this year, and the results, at first, were pretty damn sorry. Abysmal, in fact.

My first failure was served to me at Jacques-Imo’s Cafe, a very loose-limbed, funky and excellent restaurant in the Uptown neighborhood, right next to the famous Maple Tree Bar. They must have sloshed the simple syrup in out of a bucket, it was so tooth-achingly sweet. And I can’t be sure, but I think they shook my Sazerac. It foamed like a rabid dog.

The second disaster was at Coop’s Place, a dive-like place on Decatur that serves excellent downhome New Orleans cuisine. To avoid my Jacques-Imo experience, I cautioned the bartender not to make the drink too sweet. “Why would it be sweet?” he replied. “There’s no sugar in it.”

Say what? I reminded him of the little matter of the sugar cube that’s part of the recipe. He said they didn’t make them that way; just put in a drop of syrup. OK. Worth a shot. But his Sazerac (below) was too dry and arid. It was missing a major component, and was quite difficult to drink.

Saturday, July 19, my last full day at “Tales of the Cocktail,” I managed to sample two more New Orleans Sazeracs.

The first was at Jean Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop, a classic bar on Bourbon Street. I admit I was a bit foolhardy to order the drink. The tavern is largely a laid-back beer place. But I couldn’t help myself. The bartender used a bit too much Pernod (no one seems to have gotten into the Absinthe groove yet in NOLA), but he showed respect for the drink by putting it into a rocks glass, as opposed to a plastic cup, the vessel of most other drinks he was serving.

The second was at Mr. B.’s Bistro, a Brennan family joint right across from the Hotel Monteleone. It had been recommended for its food and the traditional New Orleans chow didn’t disappoint. I liked my bartender. He was respectful, attentive and serious, without being pompous. I asked that my Sazerac not be too sweet and he obliged by taking great care with the drink. He used Old Overholt, Herbsaint and Peychaud’s bitters, eschewing the Angostura that some favor.

This was the winner of the week! It was a princely drink. Maybe not the best Sazerac I’ve ever had, but I had no complaints.

That’s all, until next year.

One other note: While in NOLA, I picked up an old copy the Holiday Magazine Book of The World’s Fine Foods, which contained an essay by bygone New York bon vivant Lucius Beebe called “A Spendthrift Guide to New York.” In it, he hits NYC’s fine restaurants and bars, circa 1960, with a vengeance. Check out this post. It’s an interesting window into the drinking mores of the time.