America

 

California

Mai Tai

“Mai Tai” is Tahitian for “out of this world,” which translates to “very good.” One-legged from childhood, Victor Jules Bergeron was inspired by Don the Beachcomber’s tiki restaurant and bar in Hollywood, so in 1934 he borrowed money from his aunt to open his own Polynesian-themed restaurant and bar in Oakland, California, called Hinky Dinks (6500 San Pablo Avenue). In 1939, he renamed it Trader Vic’s and opened franchises in Seattle, Hawaii, and San Francisco. He went on to open thirty-one more franchises in America and around the world. Today there are eighteen franchise locations with two of them in America: Atlanta, Georgia, and the flagship Emeryville, California.

 

On a summer night in 1944, Bergeron made up a drink for his visiting Tahitian friends, Ham and Carrie Guild, and after taking one sip, Carrie said, “Mai Tai—Roa Ae!” so Vic named it Mai Tai. Most bars don’t carry a couple of key ingredients for the Mai Tai (orgeat almond syrup and orange Curaçao) and will substitute amaretto and triple sec. Also, the number-one thing to know about a Mai Tai is that it is not red. It should be yellowish with a dark rum floater and garnished with a mint sprig and lime. The Mai Tai was all the rage in the late 1950s and early 1960s because it made its way into the 1961 Elvis Presley film Blue Hawaii. The best places to order one: Latitude 29 in New Orleans, Smuggler’s Cove in San Francisco, Three Dots and a Dash in Chicago, and Otto’s Shrunken Head in New York City. 

 

 

Tequila Sunrise—The Trident Restaurant & Bar

They should’ve called it “Being in the Right Place at the Right Time Sunrise.” Bartender Bobby “Robert” Lozoff invented the Tequila Sunrise at age twenty-two in 1969 while working for the Trident in Sausalito, California (ten miles from San Francisco)—his first year of bartending. At the time, the Trident was a popular hang for rock ’n’ roll celebs. Regulars included Janis Joplin and Carlos Santana, and the late comedian/actor Robin Williams was a busboy. The Trident was known for very attractive waitresses, and some say it was ahead of its time by offering a juice bar and espresso. Here is a blog dedicated to the Trident from the years 1966-1980. I've been communicating with Lozoff since 2016.

 

On a Monday night in June 1972—the Trident was normally closed on Mondays—Lozoff and two waitresses were called in to work a Rolling Stones American Tour kickoff party of around thirty-five people. Mick Jagger walked up to the bar and ordered a Margarita from Lozoff, who then asked him if he had ever tried a Tequila Sunrise. Jagger said “no.” So, Lozoff made one for Jagger, and he loved it! Lozoff says that the thing Jagger liked the best is that it only needed three ingredients—tequila, orange juice, and grenadine—so the band could make them while on tour. In 2010, Keith Richards published a book titled Life and in chapter nine, sentence one reads, “The ’72 tour was known by other names—the Cocaine and Tequila Sunrise tour.”

 

Lozoff’s Sunrise did not start off with three ingredients. He first made it with tequila, orange juice, commercial sweet and sour mix, soda water, and a crème de cassis floater served in a chimney glass (tall glass). Lozoff says that eventually grenadine was used in place of the cassis. In fact, due to the Trident being extremely high volume, sometime between 1969 and 1972 the recipe shortened altogether. Lozoff was known as the fastest bartender in San Francisco. It was his bartender “thing” pumping out multiple volumes of drinks to guests.

 

With the help of McKesson Liquor Distributing Corporation in San Francisco and the manager of the Trident, Jose Cuervo was contacted about printing the drink recipe on the back of the bottle. Cuervo learned that the Trident was selling more of their tequila than any bar in America, and Lozoff’s recipe was put on the bottle. And as if things couldn’t get any better, in April of 1973, the Eagles released their song “Tequila Sunrise,” which blew that sunrise out of the water. In 1974, it made it into Mr. Boston’s Bartender’s Guide.

 

What happens when a bartender creates a famous drink? Well, in Lozoff’s case, nothing. In November of 2016 he said, “Unfortunately I was too young to capitalize on the deal and made no money. As a matter of fact, I received no recognition until writer Jeff Berkhart wrote his National Geographic article about me in 2012.”
 

Lozoff moved to Lahaina, Maui, Hawaii, in 1976 and opened up a Trident-like bar and restaurant called Blue Max at 730 Front Street. He decorated it with a big stuffed owl and black-and-white photos of Hawaiian World War II aircraft—and of course served his Tequila Sunrise. Blue Max attracted the same musical giants: Elton John, Stevie Nicks, and too many more to mention. Today, the building is a Chicago pizzeria. Here’s a fun fact: Lozoff doesn’t drink alcohol and never did. After retiring from the restaurant/bar business in 1989, he became a Mac technician. He says he spent his money on planes, boats, and Rolexes. Today, he still lives in Hawaii and teaches computer classes.

 

 

To be fair, bartender Gene Sulit created a cocktail called Tequila Sunrise at the Arizona Biltmore Hotel in the 1930s. The ingredients included tequila, lime juice, crème de cassis, and soda water; no Rolling Stones party was ever hosted there.

 

 

 

 

Zombie—Don's Beachcomber 

The Zombie was invented by Ernest Raymond Beaumont Gantt, aka Donn Beach-Comber/Don the Beachcomber/Donn Beach (1907–1989). Beach is credited for opening the first tiki Polynesian-themed bar, Don’s Beachcomber, just half a block off Hollywood Boulevard in 1933 (1722 North McCadden Place). He invented the Zombie here in 1934. Four years later he moved across the street and renamed it Don the Beachcomber (1727 North McCadden Place). It closed in 1985 and condominiums have been built in both locations. Gantt also served the Zombie at the 1939 New York World’s Fair.

 

 

The challenge of being the best at something is that people want to steal from you, so bartenders from other tiki bars would watch what bottles Gantt’s bartenders were picking up, counting the pours, writing down everything they could to steal recipes. Even bartenders from Trader Vic’s (375 miles away) would make the trek down to Hollywood. So, Don decided to cover his mixer bottles, then labeled them #1, #2, #3, and so on. The only issue with this was that over time no one knew the true ingredients of the Zombie anymore.

 

 

Jeff “Beachbum” Berry to the rescue! This “Bum” is responsible for reviving the modern tiki culture starting in 1998 with his book Grog Log. He began a Zombie ingredient quest in 1994 and it lasted until 2005. You can check out the story at his website beachbumberry.com. In a nutshell, it took eleven adventurous years to crack the Zombie code. Berry code cracking was written up in many publications. Hands down, the best place to drink a Zombie is at Beachbum Berry’s Latitude 29 located in the quaint Bienville Hotel in the French Quarter, New Orleans.

 

 

 

Hawaii

Blue Hawaii—O’ahu

Harry Yee invented the Blue Hawaii in 1957. In the 1950s, Hawaii was on track to be a US state, which it became in 1959, so the islands began a phase of exotic paradise construction to attract tourists. Large tropical getaways were built on every island and the largest of these was the Hawaiian Village on the island of O’ahu.

 

Hawaii became a state in the same year the Hawaiian Eye TV show’s exterior shots were filmed at the Hawaiian Village. Hawaiian Eye gave Americans a glimpse of what Hawaii was like—too bad the show wasn’t in color. The Hawaiian Village is where thirty-seven-year-old bartender Harry Yee invented the drink Blue Hawaii in 1957. Yee was born on September 26, 1918 and started his bartending career at the age of thirty-two. He worked at the Hawaiian Village for thirty years and in 1957 was asked by Bols to help promote their new product, Bols Blue Curaçao—and the Blue Hawaii was born. To be clear, Yee invented the Blue Hawaii, not Blue Hawaiian. The Blue Hawaiian became an American knockoff once Bols Blue Curaçao made it to nationwide bars and has no real recipe or inventor. At the time there weren’t any popular “Hawaii” drinks. Tourists were just ordering Mai Tais, Zombies, Planter’s Punches, Piña Coladas, and Grasshoppers. When defining a drink from Hawaii, Yee said, “A Hawaiian drink to me is something they don't get back home.”

 

When asked about the Vanda orchid garnish in the Blue Hawaii, Yee has been known to say, “We used to garnish with a sugarcane stick and people would chew on the stick and then put it in the ashtray. When the ashes and cane stuck together it made a real mess, so I put the Vanda orchids in the drink to make the ashtrays easier to clean.” When I spoke to a 99-year-old Yee over the phone in July of 2018, he told me that it mostly bothered the cocktail servers having to clean up so many ashtrays.

 

Yee is also credited with using the first paper parasols in cocktails. He invented other tropical cocktails, including the Tropical Itch, Hawaiian Eye, Guava Lada, Hot Buttered Okolehao, Scratch Me Lani, Catamaran, Naughty Hula, Hukilau, Diamond Head, Village Sunset, and Wahine's Delight. His Tropical Itch is garnished with a bamboo Chinese back scratcher, and the Hawaiian Eye became famous in America between 1959 and 1963 because Hawaiian Eye featured the drink.

 

Today, the Hilton Hawaiian Village still sells Yee’s Blue Hawaii but sadly, they do not use his exact recipe or garnish anymore. On their menu, they sell another drink called Blue Ocean that is closer to the real recipe, except that it uses Jamaican rum in place of Puerto Rican rum. It’s been said that Yee would hold up every Blue Hawaii he made to make sure it was the color of the Pacific Ocean. If that is true, then he must’ve only worked day shifts.

 

The Hilton Hawaiian Village organized a 100th birthday celebration for Yee on September 20, 2018. Here are some 110th birthday articles:

Travel Weekly

 

KHON TV

 

KITV TV

 

 

 

 

 

 

Louisiana

Without a doubt, New Orleans wins for the most popular cocktails of any city in the world.

 

Brandy Crusta—Jewel of the South

Italian-born Joseph Santini (1817–1874) created the Brandy Crusta, which made it into the first known American cocktail recipe book How to Mix Drinks or The Bon Vivant’s Companion: The Bartender’s Guide by Jerry Thomas (Thomas or an editor misspells his name as Santina). It is believed that Thomas visited Santini at the City Exchange Restaurant and Bar or at Santini’s bar, Jewel of the South while visiting New Orleans in the 1850s. The Brandy Crusta is famous because it is considered the gateway cocktail— using fresh citrus juice—that led to the creation of the Sidecar and even the Lemon Drop Martini. Maybe it was a way for Santini to add a squeeze of Italian heritage in a cocktail since Italy is known for their lemons.

 

Santini was born in Trieste, Italy, and the 1840 Census shows Santini living with another young male in an area of Gentilly called Milneburgh in the New Orleans area. Milneburgh is on the shore of Lake Pontchartrain. While most of America did not experience the railroad until the late 1880s, the Pontchartrain railroad became the second working railroad in 1831. It carried passengers and goods to New Orleans and back on a five-mile track and was used mostly as a weekend getaway destination, depending on which way you were traveling. In 1840, Milneburgh had two hotels, two barrooms, a grocery store, and a bakery. It’s possible that Santini worked in one of these barrooms.

 

In 1841, Santini was given a head barkeeper position by a fellow Italian friend at the Splendid Bar in the St. Charles Hotel. The St. Charles at this time was the most lavish hotel in all of New Orleans. From the outside, it looked exactly like the nation’s White House. In the month of April 1842, several ads were run in the Times-Picayune announcing Santini opening the bar at the Washington Hotel in Lake Pontchartrain. The ad says, “Opening of the Washington Hotel, Lake Pontchartrain. Mr. Joseph Santini has the honor to inform the public, that he will open the above Hotel for the reception of visitors, on Sunday, the 3d inst. The Bar will be furnished with the choicest Liquors. The Restaurant will be under the direction of Mr. Mayer.”

 

In February 1855, at age thirty-seven, Santini opened his elegant—and often referred to as “pretentious”—bar, the Jewel of the South, on the corner of St. Charles and Gravier, one block from the French Quarter and across the street from the St. Charles Hotel where Santini used to work (the hotel had just been rebuilt due to an 1851 fire).  This bar would later be home to Charles Ramos (Ramos Gin Fizz) and the Sazerac Bar when they moved out of the French Quarter after Prohibition.

 

Santini owned four businesses on Gravier between St. Charles and Carondolet: a less pretentious bar called the Parlor with the attached Corona Cigar Shop, and another cigar shop called Intimidad (“privacy” in Spanish), which was attached to the Jewel. George B. Ittmann was Santini’s head barman. In newspaper articles, Ittmann had been described as a “scientific mixologist who is to the Jewel what Hamlet is to Shakespeare.” Other New Orleans businesses open at this time in history included Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop, Old Absinthe House, Sazerac Coffee House, Antoine’s, Tujague’s, Café du Monde, the Court of Two Sisters, and the first artificial ice factory.

 

On Dec 29, 1868, Santini announced in the paper that he was retiring from the Jewel and handed it over to head bartender George B. Ittmann. In 1874, while in France with his daughter Marietta, who was pursuing her vocal studies abroad, Santini died at fifty-seven. The day is not exact, but it is agreed that it was either August 9, 11, or 12. Santini’s body did not make it to New Orleans for his funeral until October 18. He is buried at St. Louis Cemetery No. 3 at 3421 Esplanade. Mrs. Margaretha Santini (age forty-eight) assumed ownership of the saloons. She eventually retired to Biloxi, Mississippi, and lived to be 103 years old.
 

New Orleans bartender Chris McMillian reminded me of a webpage I had bookmarked that led me to Santini's great-great-granddaughter Diana. It took many phone calls finding the right Diana, but I found her. Diana shared photos and eleven pages of Santini’s liquor inventory that was recorded after his death. Some items of interest include Boker’s bitters, Peychaud’s Bitters, Newfoundland bitters, Dr. J. Hostetter’s bitters, Guaco bitters, Sazerac Cognac, orgeat syrup, orange-flower water, Jamaican rum, Holland gin, arrack, Old Tom gin, Scotch, Irish whiskey, Bourbon, rye whiskey, green and yellow Chartreuse, Bénédictine, kirschwasser, absinthe (spelled absynthe), cassis, Noilly Prat vermouth, many fruit brandies, and almost 1,000 bottles of wine including Madeira, sherry and port.

 

In 1948, David A. Embury published a Brandy Crusta recipe in his book Fine Art of Mixing Drinks with the addition of maraschino liqueur.

 

Santini was very involved in the arts and aiding in children’s education. Articles show that he hosted events to raise money for widows and orphaned children. At the New Orleans Locquet Young Ladies Institute on Camp Street, he provided “Santini Medals” to the female students who excelled in French and elocution (the skill of clear and expressive speech). The Institute gave him a set of gold cufflinks engraved with an open book on one side and the word “education” on the other. Wouldn't it be cool to locate these? Santini was also a Mason of the Maconnique Lodge. Honestly, comparing this a 2018 climate sounds like he could have been a paedophile.  We will never know.

 

In 2018, New Orleans bartenders Chris Hannah and Nick Dietrich opened a new Jewel of the South at 1026 St. Louis Street.

 

 

 

Grasshopper—Tujague’s

Tujague’s opened in 1856 and is currently the second oldest restaurant in New Orleans. They have never shown any documentation, but claim to be the inventor of the Grasshopper. The story goes that in 1919 the second owner, Philip Guichet, took second place in a New York City cocktail recipe contest and that’s it. The drink is green and creamy and tastes like melted chocolate mint ice cream. It rose in popularity in the 1950s and 1960s and then again between 2007 and 2015 due to the popular TV show Mad Men. If you visit Tujague’s for a Grasshopper today, you’ll discover that somewhere through the years, bartenders took it upon themselves to alter the recipe by adding a floater of brandy.

 

I found the same recipe from a book in 1918 and am currently looking for it in old hard drives.

 

 

 

Hurricane—As of 2017 unknown, but made popular at Pat O’Brien’s

If you ask people all over the world to name a bar in New Orleans, they will most likely answer “Pat O’Brien’s.” And if you ask them to name a New Orleans drink they will say a Hurricane at Pat O'Brien's. The truth is that we will never know who really invented the Hurricane.

 

On November 6, 1894, Benson Harrison O’Brien, aka Pat O’Brien (1894­–1983), was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee. O’Brien was a first-generation American whose father left North Tipperary County, Ireland, during the potato famine. O’Brien grew up in Birmingham, Alabama with three sisters. He served in the Army's Rainbow Division in World War I (1914-1918) and brought home a Purple Heart. O'Brien moved to Houston, married, had a daughter, sold tobacco then stocks until the stock market crashed in 1929. He divorced, moved to Los Angeles then to New Orleans where he married again and fathered two sons and a daughter.

 

O’Brien stood six-foot-four, wore white suits, preferred petite five-foot-tall women, and became one of the best bootleggers in Louisiana and Mississippi. With his outgoing, gregarious personality, it did not take him long to know the bar owners and seek investors to open his own speakeasy.

 

O’Brien opened a speakeasy and named it Mr. O’Brien’s Club Tipperary (nicknamed Tips) on the corner of Royal and St. Peter streets. It's been said that the password was “Storm’s Brewin”, however it has been learned that this was made up by a New York newspaperman. By December 3, 1933, O’Brien moved into the French Quarter at 638 St. Peter and opened Pat O’Brien’s liquor store two days before the official repeal day—probably because he already knew many cops. Today this location is a small tourist center. Friends wanted O’Brien to open another bar, so three years later he moved to a larger space one block away at 718 St. Peter—the current location. Four years later Charlie Cantrell ran the business part of the bar while O'Brien miggled with the customers.

 

It is believed that Pat O’Brien, at age forty-eight, invented the Hurricane in 1942, and it’s said that it took him two weeks of testing to get it right. He served it in a twenty-two-ounce hurricane lamp–shaped glass (now called a Hurricane glass), and locals were upset that the drink cost sixty cents when other drinks at the time cost only fifteen cents. O’Brien had to announce in the local paper that it cost that much because it contained four ounces of rum. The story goes that the sole reason the Hurricane was invented was that O’Brien wanted whiskey. At the time, whiskey was in short supply, so distributors told him that if he would purchase many cases of rum, they would sell him one case of whiskey. Other stories say if he purchased one case of rum, he could get one bottle of whiskey, but in any case, his Hurricane was born.

 

In the 1940s, Cantrell and O'Brien hired George Oechsner as bar manager. His grandson, George "Sonny" Oechsner III helped with bar maintenance and cleaning learning the business as he worked. Sonny is who transformed the lawn into a brick courtyard, adding nighttime entertainment with dueling pianos, and launched the Hurricane into the nation’s cocktail consciousness. In 2012, his daughter Shelly became the President and owner. 

 

 

My friend Scott Touchton was the GM of Pat O’Brien’s from 2000-2014 told me that the original 1942 recipe was 4 oz rum, lime juice, orange juice, and passionfruit syrup served in a 22 oz Hurricane glass. However, another cocktail friend, Philip Greene (a distant relative of Antoine Peychaud) discovered a 1941 Ronrico rum recipe book that lists a “Hurricane Punch” made with 4 oz Ronrico rum, lime juice, lemon juice, and passionfruit syrup served in a 24 oz special blue glass. The instructions say to “Waring mix” half of the drink (Waring is a brand of blender that came out in the 1930s) then pour the blended mixture over a half glass of Ronrico ice. I’m not sure what “Ronrico ice” is, but the real question is “Did Pat O’Brien know about the Hurricane Punch recipe?” No one will ever know.

 

Sadly, today the popular red drink at Pat O'Brien's is not made with fresh-squeezed juices like it was back then, but made with a

Kool Aid–type mixture and then bottled at Pat O’Brien’s local bottling plant, in which they make huge batches, transport it to the bar, and then store it in a tank that has several lines running to all the bars. Special guns were created for all the bars so that a bartender can fill up three Hurricanes at a time in three seconds.

 

Indoors, they serve the drink in a twenty-two-ounce Hurricane glass and charge you for the glass. If you don’t want the glass, you have to take it to a bartender to get three dollars back. If you choose to keep the souvenir glass, they box up a clean glass and put it into a logo bag with some extra souvenirs. If you want a Hurricane to go, then it is served in a sixteen-ounce white logo plastic cup.

 

There have been variations on the recipe, but one thing that is for sure is it was always a red-colored drink, which should come from red passion fruit syrup. Local newspaper articles on public drunkenness talked about the sidewalks being red from Hurricane vomit and spills in the 1940s and 1950s. At that time, Pat O’Brien’s was so busy that the city had to employ police officers to monitor the outside of the building.

 

If you want to enjoy a fresh Hurricane the way it tasted in 1942, walk one block to the Bourbon Orleans Hotel Bar.

 

Ramos Gin Fizz-The Imperial Cabinet

Henry Charles “Carl” Ramos (1856–1928) invented the Ramos Gin Fizz in 1888 and served it until 1919 when he was forced to close for Prohibition. As a farewell gift to New Orleans, he published his recipe in the local paper.

 

Ramos was a first-born, first-generation American from German parents. He was born in Indiana and made his way to New Orleans around the age of fourteen. He married at age twenty-three and then by age thirty-one, Ramos and his brother took ownership of Pat Moran’s Imperial Cabinet in 1888. It was located on the corner of Carondelet and Gravier, which is two blocks outside of the French Quarter from Bourbon Street. Sadly, the building is no longer there today. No one knows what inspired Ramos to create a cocktail, but he did and he named it “Ramos’s One and Only One Gin Fizz.” A Gin Fizz at the time contained four ingredients: gin, lemon juice, sugar, and soda water (the same ingredients in a Tom Collins). Ramos doubled the ingredients by adding lime juice, cream, egg white, and orange-flower water. Drink historian David Wondrich writes in his book Imbibe! that the Kansas City Star anointed the Imperial Cabinet “the most famous gin fizz in the world” in 1900. Wondrich also discovered that Ramos went through 5,000 eggs a week, owned America’s largest hennery, and during 1900s Mardi Gras, employed six bartenders and one black man as a “shaker boy.”

 

In 1907, Ramos sold the Imperial Cabinet and moved one block, taking over the Stag Saloon at 712 Gravier. This location was directly across the street of the entrance to the grandest hotel in the city at the time, the St. Charles Hotel and where Joseph Santini’s the Jewel of the South was located previously. St. Charles is the main street for Mardi Gras parades, and during Mardi Gras 1915, it’s believed that Ramos hired a chain of thirty-two “shaker boys” who would shake and pass down the shaker tins of fizzes in a long line.

 

Other New Orleans businesses open at this time in history include Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop, Old Absinthe House, Sazerac Coffee House, Antoine’s, Tujague’s, Café du Monde, the Court of Two Sisters, Commander’s Palace, La Louisiane, Jackson Brewing, Café Sbisa, Galatoire’s, Arnaud’s, Acme Oyster House, Central Grocery, Broussard’s, and America’s first nightclub at the Gruenwald (now the Roosevelt Hotel), the Cave. Other New Orleans creations around were: muffaletta sandwich, beignets, Oysters Rockefeller, Barq’s soda, Dixie beer, and Tabasco.

 

Ramos died in 1928, but Governor Huey “Kingfish” P. Long resurrected Ramos’s Gin Fizz after Prohibition and made it known that it was his favorite cocktail. Once he took a political trip to New York and stayed at the New Yorker Hotel. After taking one sip of the New Yorker’s Fizz, he called the Roosevelt in New Orleans with orders “to send his best gin fizzer to New York by plane so he could teach these New York sophisticates how to make it correctly. The story goes that the next day Sam Guarino, head bartender at the Sazerac Bar, arrived in New York and spent three hours schooling his Northern counterparts on the proper way to make a Ramos Gin Fizz. Drink historian and today’s most famous New Orleans bartender, Chris McMillian, share a YouTube video titled “Huey teaches us,” which shows film footage of Long standing behind the Sazerac bar testing out a Ramos Gin Fizz.

 

To date, there are five bars that have been famous for executing the Ramos Gin Fizz and two can be visited today.

 

The Imperial Cabinet

Ramos’s first New Orleans bar, located on the corner of Carondelet and Gravier.

 

The Stag Saloon

Ramos’s second New Orleans bar, located on the corner of St. Charles and Gravier.

 

The Cadillac Bar

After French native New Orleans waiter Achilles Mehault “Mayo” Bessan lost his job due to Prohibition, he decided to take himself and his nineteen-year-old bride across the border where alcohol still flowed. They settled in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, across the Rio Grande from Laredo and Texas. In 1926, Bessen bought the Caballo Blanco Bar and renamed it the Cadillac Bar. In 1929 he moved the bar and reopened with muy grande signs advertising his favorite New Orleans cocktail, “The Famous Ramos Gin Fizz.” Bessan served both New Orleans cuisine and Mexican cuisine. Sadly, the Cadillac Bar is no longer around today, but the good thing is that you can order a Ramos Gin Fizz in America.

 

The Sazerac Bar | The Roosevelt Hotel

They trademarked the name Ramos Gin Fizz after Prohibition and have been known for making Ramos Gin Fizzes since.

 

Bourbon O Bar | The Bourbon Orleans Hotel

In 2013, as bar director, I learned three things when researching Henry Charles “Carl” Ramos.

 

• Ramos went into the paint business during Prohibition.

• The local hardware store, three blocks from the bar—Mary’s Ace Hardware on Rampart Street—was where Ramos lived.

• The front room into his house is where the paint section is today.

 

I entertained the idea of shaking Ramos Gin Fizzes with a paint can shaker, but this proved to be too expensive (and messy), so in 2014 I asked William Grant & Sons to buy the bar a $1,000 Asian bubble tea shaker that would shake the Hendrick’s Gin Ramos Gin Fizz for six minutes.

 

 

Sazerac-as of 2018 unknown, but in New Orleans

On June 23, 2008, in a 62–33 vote, the Louisiana House of Representatives proclaimed the Sazerac New Orleans’s official cocktail. Actually, it is the first city in the world to have an official cocktail.

UPDATE: Esteemed drink historian David Wondrich has recently learned that Antoine Peychaud probably did not create the Sazerac. Read it here.

Most believe that the Sazerac would not be what it is today if it was not for Antoine Amedee Peychaud (1803–1883). Peychaud (pay-SHOWED) was French, but it’s not known when he came to New Orleans because he was one of the many who fled a chaotic evacuation during the Haitian Revolution (1791–1804).

 

For more than 100 years it has been believed that Peychaud was the inventor of the Sazerac, however new research says differently. But the believed Peychaud story that has been told for a long time is below.

 

What we do know about Peychaud is that in 1832 at age nineteen he partnered with druggist A. Duconge at 123 Royal Street—the street numbers changed in 1896, so the address translates to 437 Royal between St. Louis and Conti today. By 1834, Peychaud bought the apothecary and it is believed that he began producing his father’s family bitters recipe. According to the New Orleans Bee, Peychaud’s apothecary became a place to hang after Concorde Blue Mason’s Lodge meetings and, using his bitters, Peychaud served brandy toddies. Peychaud was said to measure the toddies using a double-ended eggcup/jigger, then called a coquetier (ko-k-tay), which the word “cocktail” was once thought to originate from. It’s also believed that the Sazerac got its name from a brandy of the same name, however some cocktail historians disagree.

 

In 1857, Peychaud marketed his bitters in the New Orleans bee newspaper and by 1858, he had two major bitters competitors, Baker’s and Hostetter’s, so he aggressively marketed Peychaud’s Bitters. The 1860 Census shows that Peychaud had ten people living in his household, so it is assumed that he was hard at work selling bitters to support everyone. By 1867, Peychaud opened his third apothecary in the French Quarter.

 

By 1869 when he was sixty-six, Peychaud’s children were grown, and it is assumed he probably wanted to slow down, so he sold his apothecaries and made bitters for Thomas Handy, who owned the popular Sazerac Coffee House (bar). The Sazerac Coffee House (the best coffeehouse in its time) was the number-one place where the Sazerac was served for fifty solid years until 1920 (Prohibition). Today, the spot where the Sazerac Coffee House was located is at 124 Royal. It was a Holiday Inn from 1984 to 2015 and is now a Wyndham Hotel. In addition, in 1869, Peychaud’s Bitters received the Diploma of Honor at the Grand Exhibition of Altona, Germany.

 

In 1872, Thomas Handy became the importer of Sazerac brandy, extended the bar to be 125 feet long, and employed eighteen bartenders. One year later, Peychaud sold the Peychaud’s Bitters recipe to Handy. It is said that the recipe for brandy was replaced by rye whiskey and a dash of absinthe was added. This was probably because of the issues with Europe’s grapevines being destroyed and absinthe becoming trendy. It is also believed that the Sazerac was always made with rye whiskey from the beginning.

 

It should also be noted that there is another man—who many believe—created the rye whiskey Sazerac Cocktail by the name of William “Billy” Wilkinson. Wilkinson was a bartender at the Sazerac Coffeehouse.

           

In 2016, I was given Joseph Santini’s 1874 inventory list by his great-great-granddaughter and it shows that Santini owned fifteen bottles of Sazerac Cognac. Was the Sazerac made with this or with rye whiskey? Cocktail historians are still researching.

 

In 1908, the Sazerac recipe made it into the first known cocktail book in William T. "Cocktail Bill" Boothby's The World's Drinks and How to Mix Them. In the 1930s, The Roosevelt Hotel bought the Sazerac recipe and named their hotel bar the Sazerac Bar.

 

In 2012, I located Antoine Peychaud’s grave. He is buried with his sister Lasthenie Peychaud in St Louis Cemetery No. 2 between Conti and St. Louis streets in New Orleans.

 

 

Vieux Carré–Hotel Monteleone

The Vieux Carré has been listed on the hotel's lobby menu since 1934. Chris Mcmillian, the most famous bartender in New Orleans showed me a copy of the menu. Vieux Carré translates to “Old Square” / “French Quarter.” This cocktail was invented by head bartender Walter Bergeron (1889–1947). It’s is a riff on the Sazerac, which had been popular in New Orleans since the 1800s. The Vieux Carré ingredients are rye whiskey, Cognac, sweet vermouth, Bénédictine, Peychaud’s Bitters, Angostura bitters, and a lemon twist. It has become a staple cocktail in New Orleans and the world.

 

As far as I know, I'm the first to deep dive into Walter Bergeron's history. I learned he was born in Thibodaux, Louisiana in February 1889 to Louis Klebert (1866-1928) and Florence Prioux Bergeron (her father was French). At the birth, both of his parents were only thirteen years old. They married at month five of the pregnancy. As you might have guessed, this young marriage did not survive, and they eventually went their separate ways. Walter went with his father who married Amanda Benoit (1863–1941). This union gave Walter two brothers, George David Bergeron (1894–1969) and Phillip C. (1904–1973). Walter's birth mother remarried a man named John Lankford, and they had a daughter named Daisy (1913-1996). 

 

In 2015, while researching on Ancestry.com, I was able to communicate with a lady named Fairlee. Her husband's Aunt Punkin was Walter's niece. She still lives in Thibodaux and this is where I would be able to obtain a photo. She said that Aunt Punkin said, " Walter was a very funny comical man." Aunt Punkin remembered visiting them in Thibodaux, and they sometimes went to New Orleans to visit him. She said Walter liked his beer and he and his brother George would sit at the kitchen table drinking and laughing. She added, "Walter's daughter, Shirley was exceptionally pretty and looked just like the movie actress Ginger Rogers. 

 

With a 5th grade education, Walter moved to New Orleans in 1907 and in 1910, married Jeanne Cougot (born in France). Eight months later they had a baby girl named Hazel. The 1910 US Census shows that Walter lived with his wife, her parents, six siblings, and a family niece. The household age ranged from 8-51. It said that Walter worked as a machinist and all the other males in the household worked as butchers. The females worked at home or as chambermaids. Eleven people were living in a shotgun house at 411 Maurice Avenue in Arabi, LA (one on the way) with no indoor plumbing or air-conditioning. At the time, this part of the 9th Ward was swampy, without city sewage or proper drainage. I don’t even know if they had electricity at that time; I'm still researching. Baby Hazel was born on August 27. Two years, nine months and ten days later, baby Hazel died in the same house.

 

The couple welcomed another baby girl in 1915 named Jeanne, and by 1920, the US Census shows they rented a house one block away at 6109 Bienvenue. As of 2018, it is an empty lot for sale at $22K, but you can view the houses around it. The Census says that Walter worked as a bartender in a hotel. The 1920s brought two more baby girls, Elenore (1922) and Shirley (1925). In 1928, Walter's father died at age 62, which was also the same year Henry Charles "Carl" Ramos died.

 

 

The 1930 US Census says Walter was employed as a store manager of a cigar store (remember this was prohibition, which could have been a good cover for a speakeasy, or not). They moved a few blocks away to 5511 Royal Street. The rent was $20 a month. In June of 1930, the couple had their last child and only son, Klebert (cluh-BARE). Four years later, in 1934, his wife died of consumption (now called tuberculosis) in April leaving him a widower with four children aged eighteen, twelve, nine, and three. In 2013, I located his only living child, Klebert, who was living in Slidell, LA since Hurricane Katrina destroyed his home. He said he remembers never seeing his mother because she was bedridden for three years until her death. He said that he and his sisters were taken down the block to live with their Aunt Nana and they never saw their mother again. I guess that Walter thought the disease was contagious. I can only imagine how hard it was for Walter taking care of his wife, supporting his children, and watching his bedridden wife die for three years. He lived in Arabi, so the streetcar was probably his mode of transportation into the French Quarter.

 

1934 was a year of change for Walter; his wife died, he became a widower of four children, it was the first year after Prohibition, and the first year the Vieux Carré cocktail was seen on the Hotel Monteleone's cocktail menu. In 1937, author Stanley Clisby Arthur credited Walter in the creation of the Vieux Carré in his book Famous New Orleans Drinks and How to Mix 'Em. He writes that Walter created it in honor to the famed Vieux Carré, that part of New Orleans where the antique shops and the iron lace balconies give sightseers a glimpse into the romance of another day. UPDATE: Drink historians have learned that a lot of the information in this book is incorrect, so right now we are not 100% sure that Walter created this cocktail. But we do know for sure that it was on a 1934 Hotel Monteleone cocktail menu. Click on the book to read the 1st edition for free. Esteemed cocktail historian David Wondrich researched author Stanley Clisby Arthur in this article here. You'll see why historians today question his writings.

 

The 1940 US Census says Bergeron worked as a bartender at a hotel forty-eight hours a week with a yearly income of $1,580 (almost $27,000 in 2017). He lived at 5403 Dauphine Street with three of his children (his oldest daughter married). In 1941, his biological mother died. On a cool, rainy morning on Thursday, February 13, 1947—five days before Mardi Gras and one day before the Mardi Gras weekend celebrations, Walter died of a heart attack at age fifty-seven in a grocery store at 8 am. Walter was born in February and died in February. At his death, he lived at 6006 Dauphine Street. He is buried at St. Vincent De Paul Cemetery.

 

In my 2013 phone conversation with Walter's only son, eighty-three-year-old Klebert Joseph "Bro" Bergeron (1930-2014), he spoke fondly of visiting his father at the Hotel Monteleone's lobby Bar in 1940 at the age of ten. He said he remembered it well because there was a boy his age playing with a shiny red toy fire truck. He said the truck was left unattended at one point, so he walked over to touch it and then told his dad that he wanted one. Walter told him to get away from the truck because it belonged to the hotel owner’s son. Klebert talked for thirty minutes about how his dad always worked in the daytime so he could be home at night. Bro said his father woke up at 6 AM and returned home at 7 PM. While visiting his father at the bar, he remembered watching men order drinks, his father mixing drinks and the smell of smoke. He also said he remembered when his father left the hotel bar and went to work at the Sazerac Bar on the corner of St. Charles and Gravier. I asked about a photo, and to his knowledge, he did not have one but could look through some things. He described his father as being short and stocky. Klebert died in 2014.

 

Klebert was a very proud artist and designer. He talked about several bars around New Orleans that he designed including a nightclub on the top floor of the Hotel Monteleone, of which I lost the name or I can't read my handwriting. He said it was where the rooftop pool is today. Bro said every time he walked through the lobby to the elevator he thought of his father. His business was Designs Unlimited Inc., a commercial interior design business specializing in restaurants and nightclubs. He mentioned some places that I believe are no longer around such as Dream Room, Safari Room, The Brass Rail, Pete Fountain's, Georgie Porgie's, Opus 111, The Godfather, Spinnaker, and Chateau Lounge. One year later I saw a lot of these places mentioned in his obituary.

 

I have located Klebert Bergeron II and Klebert Bergeron III on Facebook in hopes of gaining a photo of Walter, but sadly the grandson and great-grandson of Walter Bergeron have declined to speak with me. I will keep trying, but I will also do my best to make a trip to Thibodaux to talk with Aunt Punkin and hopefully obtain a photo of Walter before she passes.

 

Other New Orleans Cocktails

 

Absinthe Suissesse

Invented at the Old Absinthe House.

 

Café Brûlot Diabolique (Devilishly Burned Coffee)

Invented in the 1890s by the founder’s son, Jules Alciatore, at Antoine’s, the oldest restaurant in New Orleans (1840). It’s a show-stopping, flaming concoction of coffee, Cognac, and spices served in special cups.

 

Cajun Martini

Invented and registered in 1986 by Chef Paul Prudhomme at K-Paul’s (416 Chartres) by infusing jalapeños with vodka. He called it “Chef Paul Prudhomme’s original K-Paul’s Cajun Martini ‘Totally Hot.’” One year later, Prudhomme produced a premixed bottled Cajun Martini, and on the bottle, it said “made with Taaka Vodka, vermouth, and cayenne peppers.”

Cocktail à la Louisiane

Invented in the 1880s in the restaurant of the same name. You can visit the bar that took over the space; 21st Amendment, at 725 Iberville Street.

 

Frozen Irish Coffee

Invented in 1991 by Jim Monaghan Sr. at Molly’s on the Market.I'm told that the Irish whiskey used is Jameson.

 

Hand Grenade®

Invented and trademarked by Earl Bernhardt and Pam Fortner in 1984

at their original Tropical Isle (600 Bourbon). It was created for the 1984 Louisiana World Exposition and today is the number-one to-go drink seen on Bourbon Street. The recipe is trademarked.

 

Obituary Cocktail

Invented at Jean Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop, which is the oldest bar in New Orleans. The cocktail’s subtitle is “The High Brow of All Low Brow Drinks.

2 oz gin, 1/4 oz dry vermouth, and 1/4 ounce absinthe. Stir with ice. Strain into a cocktail glass.

 

 

Roffignac

Count Louis Philippe Joseph de Roffignac was the ninth mayor of New Orleans and its last French mayor from 1820-1828. He was responsible for the beautification of the French Quarter by adding cobblestone streets and gas lamps. The residents loved him so much that they made a drink in his honor. It was sold up until 1986 and then died off. Recently, it has made an appearance at many fresh craft bars in New Orleans.

2 oz brandy or Cognac, 2 oz himbeer essig syrup (made with raspberries and apple cider), and 5 oz soda water over ice in a highball glass.

 

 

Adopted New Orleans Cocktails

Many people think these cocktails were invented in New Orleans—but the city only took

them under its wings: Absinthe Drip, Bloody Mary, Fleur de Lis, French 75, Milk Punch,

Mint Julep, Pimm’s Cup, Scarlett O’Hara, and Tom and Jerry.