Dark and Stormy, New Orleans Style

I've been to New Orleans many times, my first was when I was in high school; I still remember trying frog legs and buying a tacky t-shirt that proclaimed "Shit Happens". Indeed it does. Dayne and I spent four years in a row, traveling to NOLA each July for Tales of the Cocktail, until 2010, which happens to be the year Forest joined us.

When Forest had a wedding to attend in Florida earlier this spring we thought it made perfect sense to meet up in The Big Easy for a girl's trip, without all the crowds, schedules, and the heat that TOTC brings (granted that event is a hell of a good time even with all those things!)

We rented a very traditional shotgun style house in the Bywater via Airbnb. Although the decor was a bit on the crazy side (let's just say there were a lot of photos, paintings, drawings, etc of penises, or should that be peni?) the house itself was absolutely perfect. The owner had bought the property next door and had the desecrated building that sat on it raised. He then turned the space into an awesome garden and outdoor patio space, complete with outdoor shower! There was a small studio that he used for his massage practice which is where he was living while we were there.

Staying here, in this traditional style of house with an owner who loved his neighborhood, really gave us a taste of local life.The neighborhood is quirky, artsy, rough, and friendly all at the same time. There are plenty of places to eat and drink in the Bywater and it was about a 20 minute walk to the French Quarter, a good way to work off some of those cocktails while checking out the local architecture.

My arrival evening plans to have ribs at The Joint and then head to Baccanal for some live music were squashed when storms hit from Dallas to the east coast, delaying my flight into town. Forest and Thibault were nice enough to pick up some ribs for me which made for good morning snacking at least!

My first day in town overlapped with Forest's boyfriend's last day in town, so we decided to do a cemetery tour to complete his NOLA sightseeing. I had been to Lafayette #1, so this time we did St Louis #1 which is just outside the French Quarter. Again I chose Save Our Cemeteries as they are doing such a great job of helping to restore and protect these amazing cities of dead. Among the famous in St. Louis #1 are Homer Plessy (1896 Plessy v Ferguson civil rights ruling), both New Orleans' first mayor and its first black mayor, and voodoo priestess Marie Laveau. Actor Nicolas Cage has a weird pyramid tomb there for when he kicks it (cue "dying to get in" joke here).

After our tour we headed to Napoleon's House for muffalettas and Pimm's cups. It's my absolute, must-visit, every time, place in the French Quarter.

That night as we made happy hour martinis back at our house, the skies, which had been a tad ominous all day, opened up and started dumping rain like I have only seen in the mid-west and the south. We had plans to meet friends of Forest's, who happened to be visiting from Paris as well, at the new cocktail bar Belloq, but instead we picked them up in our cab to save them from drowning!

Once at Belloq we sat stunned by the rain but at least we had wonderful libations. The bar is inside The Hotel Modern, which also houses another bar that we almost sat in by mistake (although that menu looked good too). Belloq is owned by the same folks who run Cure, it is a dark and sexy space, turning out very nice craft cocktails.

We had hard-to-get dinner reservations at Peche, they had just received a James Beard award, and had planned to walk the four blocks but this weather was not going to make that possible. As we exited the hotel in order to hail a cab we saw lighting striking in all directions, heard the thunder, and witnessed the streets overflow with water!

photo courtesy of Forest Collins

It took forever to get a cab as we weren't the only ones caught in this flash flood! When we finally managed to get one, we had to take our shoes off and wade in almost shin deep water to get in it! We drove, with water half way up the wheels, or maybe floated was more like it. It was crazy! And a bit scary! And when we finally reached the restaurant, over 40 minutes late and carrying our shoes in our hands, we were literally dripping wet!

After the boys went into the restroom to wring out their shirts, and we ordered a round of cocktails, we forgot about the puddles we were making and set about ordering a ton of delicious food. Peche is casual and fun and the sampler appetizer platter is not to be missed!

The next morning the streets were dry and the city was pretending like nothing had ever happened. Forest and I were on our own and set out for a quick breakfast at Satsuma's Cafe near our house. We then made our way to the French Quarter, walking and exploring the area along the way.

We planned on having a very fun day but what happened was a truly epic adventure as only New Orleans can deliver.

As we made our way from the Bywater and through the Marigny, we came across a group of men gathered around two tables on the sidewalk. Each table was piled high with boiled crawfish, crab, clams, etc. We were invited to join in, and obviously didn't turn the invitation down. After a bit of pinching, sucking, and cracking we were back on our way. We had a lunch to get to after all!

Many of the city's restaurants offer 25 cent martini lunches. Being two girls who love a martini we were intrigued and decided to check out the lunch offered by Antoine's. You order a 3-course lunch of classic dishes such as baked oysters, vichyssoise, and crawfish etoufee. What we didn't know was that the 'martini' at Antoine's changes daily and the day we were there they were lemon drops. We ended up ordering classic martinis anyway, not at 25 cents though! If you are keen to try one of these lunches there are a few places offering them.

Feeling good after our lunch we met up with Mathilde & David at the newly refurbished Carrousel Bar in the Hotel Monteleone. There are certain places you just have to go while in the French Quarter, so after a sazerac and a spin around, we were off, taking them on a little booze cruise. We had a quick stop in the Old Absinthe House where we stole glances of the beautiful stone absinthe louche in the the private back room, and compared a French and a Swiss absinthe. Then passed a jazz wedding processional on our way to the French 75 Bar for cocktails of the same name.

photo courtesy Forest Collins

From here it was on to SoBou, the newest restaurant and bar from the Brennen Family. Craft cocktails just south of Bourbon street and a great ambiance!

We split up at this point, Forest and I heading to Toup's Meatery where we had a huge and delicious board of house-cured meats and accompaniments. Then back to our Bywater home for sing-a-longs, Drunk History,  and nightcaps.

It was one of the best, boozy, delicious days I've ever had. From the moment I got out of bed until I retired that night, nothing but fun, fun, fun!

On our last day we had intended to watch the Mardi Gras Indians parade, in honor of mother's day, but after we had delicious pastrami omelets at Jim's in the Bywater and walked to the Quarter, the skies opened up once again and the parade was called off. We grabbed a cab and headed back to our area of town, making a stop at Fauberg Wines, a funny little retail and wine bar, where we relaxed with a bottle of rosé. The weather cleared so we Grabbed a bottle to-go, went to near-by Gene's PoBoy and ordered hot sausage & cheese sandwiches also to-go.

W kicked off our shoes and set up in our lovely garden, digging into the best sandwich that was ever created and sipping on chilled rosé.

A refreshing outdoor shower, a cold martini for Happy Hour and off we went to regroup with Mathilde and David, this time for cocktails at the beautiful and delicious Cure cocktail bar. Dinner that night was at Sylvain which was lovely as well, and as I started in on my special of crawfish gumbo I realized I had eaten those delicious mudbugs each day of my stay.

Our Bywater Shotgun-style house

Even storms in New Orleans are more fun!

All photos here

I tried Black Tot -- have you?

It's not often that I get to try a $1200 bottle of rum.

Only an eyedropper-full, but still...

As a special treat at the end of the At Full Sail session, two bottles of Black Tot, the bottled remnant of the daily ration of the British Navy, were served to attendees. I don't have too may words other than WOW to describe it.

I'm starting to figure out how I can justify acquiring a bottle... 

(More information on the release is available from an article here: http://www.examiner.com/x-15885-Rum-Examiner~y2010m5d20-Black-Tot-rare-reserve-rum-to-debut-on-Black-Tot-Day)

Location:Royal St,New Orleans,United States

All photos here

Like tuna fish to a cat

Review of the Tales session "At Full Sail -- Spirits at Proof, Navy Strength and Overproof in History and Application"



I've discovered that late nights, "early" mornings, spotty or non-existent Internet access, and high proof spirits don't make for rigorous note-taking or timely blogging. Any mistakes in the following review can be blamed directly on one or more of those conditions.

I (and seemingly everyone) attended a seminar on high-proof spirits that we'd previewed on this blog a few weeks ago. The panel was moderated by Eric Seed and consisted of Audrey Saunders, Britt Chavannee, and Wayne Curtis.

I had to have a stern talk with my liver, who tried to flee for the exits when he saw the menu of gimlet (using Plymouth Navy Strength), Royal Million (with Lemon Hart 151), a single barrel cask strength bourbon, and a Newark (from Death & Co. I think???) with Laird's Bonded.

Wayne kicked things off with a Proof in History segment, where he talked about what proof is (ABV % times 2), who's historically cared (sailors and tax collectors), and then discussed the evolution of the daily tot in e British and other navies. Since water, beer, and wine would go bad in casks, rum was a stable potable liquid with which to appease sailors (Wayne didn't go into buggery or the lash, the other two staples of the British Navy. Wrong conference, perhaps.)

Other topics included the evolution of the hydrometer (Syke's supplanting Clarke's), the change from alcohol by weight to alcohol by volume, the Bottled in Bond Act in the States, and the gradual lessening of proof in even well-know spirits (e.g. Jack Daniels) in fairly recent years.

Britt talked about her family distillery business, from where such treasures as Red Hook rye have come. Sorry Britt, I don't have too many notes from your portion (Liver was revolting again and had to smack him down).

Audrey covered some of her early experiences with high-proof spirits (can you believe that only 5 or 6 years ago, Rittenhouse Bonded was basically unknown in NYC???) and the success with which Pegu Club incorporated Rittenhouse into their house Manhattan and Laird's into their Jack Rose). Audrey mentioned that the current American palette is definitely leaning towards "boozy and bitter" and, like tuna fish to a cat, there's no going back!

Eric discussed the 3-tier system of taxing and the high accumulative cost of taxes on high-proof alcohol. I'm sure he said more but the previous night was taking it's toll at that point.

Finally Wayne concluded with a little experiment that definitely did NOT violate any fire codes. Using a little black powder, he had one control (no alcohol), and 3 other tiny piles on which he dropped Pama, Plymouth Navy, and Lemon Hart 151. Disappointingly the Plymouth-soaked pile didn't ignite, but the control and the Lemon Hart were quite satisfying!

I'll post some pictures of the event in a separate post!

Location:Royal St,New Orleans,United States

All photos here 

Three Cheers for Tales of the Cocktail

I guess it's an annual trip now- this year was our 3rd time attending Tales of the Cocktail in New Orleans. Each year the event gets larger and more people that we know show up. There are so many new people to meet and see others we've met in years past. Oh, and there are cocktails! Eye openers at breakfast, Pimm's Cups at lunch, multiple tastes during seminars, happy hour, pre-dinner libations and night caps. There are many, many cocktails.


One of my favorite things is the Spirited Dinner where cocktails are paired with a multi course meal. This year we picked the Tiki drink dinner at GWFins. It was absolutely the best dinner of the 3 years! The food was amazing, the drinks were amazing and most of our friends chose to attend too so the company was amazing! Oh and I won the coolest limited edition Smuggler's Cove grog mug!!


We attended some great seminars such as Sugarcane Spirits and Drinks from the 1600's and attended many complimentary tasting rooms like Martin Miller's Gin and Absinthe. I also attended The Wormwood Society's blind absinthe judging which was held in the Absinthe Museum, very fun!

There were delicious meals at Coop's Place, Cafe Adelaide, Luke & The Napoleon House as well as some yawners at Galatoire's and The Bourbon House.

On the last day we rented a car with our friend's Lauren & Paul and headed out to the old River Road to tour a few of the plantations that still survive. The drive out was so interesting as we crossed over large swamp lands and drove through intense mining areas. It was a landscape that I hadn't seen before and was happy to experience.

Our first stop was at the Laura Plantation which dates from 1805 and is being restored bit by bit.
This was a full on working plantation with large gardens, sugar cane fields, slave quarters, etc. It wasn't for showing off but for conducting business and the family history was very interesting. Laura Plantation is also where the original "Tales of Uncle Remus" were written based on stories told by the plantation's slaves.

these are some of the slave quarters at Laura Plantation

The other stop we made was to Oak Ally which is famous for their 600+ year old oak trees which welcome visitors- it's a magnificent sight! This plantation was the opposite of Laura as that it was always a private home and although they did grow sugar the main house was not used for business.


I highly recommend to anyone heading to New Orleans to make the short trek out to River Road and visit a few of these awesome plantations!

More pictures of booze, food, crazies and various southern things can be found here!

That Whooshing Sound

It seems that everyone else in the blogosphere has already published their recap of Tales of the Cocktail 2008 in New Orleans -- back in July. Not us! No, we choose to do things in our own sweet time, or as I like to say, we lead from behind.

Wendy made me promise to write up our last trip before we went on a new one. I didn't actually manage to do that, but mostly because I kind of feel the same way about deadlines as did the late, incomparable Douglas Adams: "I love the whooshing sound they make as they fly by."

Now that the LHC has come online and the planet has failed to get swallowed by a man-made black hole, I guess I should quit procrastinating and write a bit about our trip.

Wendy wasn't able to join me the first night, so I was forced [forced I say!] to go out with Keith and "Old Two-Livers" Rocky. After hitting an opening reception for Tales, we went to Cochon for dinner. Two-Livers apparently has a couple of stomachs too, but Keith and I tried gamely to keep up. We finished the night at LaFitte's Old Absinthe House, which is amazingly inconsistent in quality of drink (and bartender) but which was doing a bang-up job that evening.

Although I went to a decent Tales seminar the next day ("Artisan Spirits"), I was really mostly looking forward to Wendy's arrival. She showed up in plenty of time to join me at the slightly-dizzying Carousel Bar for part of a muffuletta that I'd brought back from an enjoyable lunch at Napoleon House with Rocky, Keith, Anita, Cameron, and a few others. Then it was off to Cocktail Hour and, more importantly, the Spirited Dinner at Restaurant August, where Charlotte Voisey was the "bar chef" for the evening. Although August is a great place -- Wendy and I had eaten there the year before -- and Charlotte tends to make tasty drinks, I have to say that this year things didn't really gel right. I know it's hard for the mixologists to pair against food they haven't tasted, so I won't be too judgemental, but there were really only one or two pairings that worked well, and several of the cocktails were not to the taste of some of the admittedly non-cocktailian members of our table. One thing that utterly failed was the tomato tart for dessert. Ugghh.

On Friday I had made the mistake of scheduling two whiskey seminars: "Whiskies You've Never Tasted" and "Rye Nation". While both were good, my palate was utterly destroyed by the end; I could not force down another drop of brown and was in serious need of citrus. I think Wendy did much better scheduling "Rum, Ron, Rhum" for herself! We headed out to the Swizzle Stick Bar, where Michael took great care of us as always, and then went to Emeril's for dinner; I actually enjoyed it much more than I expected (no Bam! though).

The highlights of Saturday were a brunch at Brennan's that ballooned from 2 to something like 15 people, an afternoon walking cocktail history tour of the French Quarter (where Wendy and I somehow managed to get separated from a group of 20+ people on foot, but still beat them to the last stop), and a meal at Herbsaint. Finished the evening with another stop at the Swizzle Stick Bar.

...and on Sunday it was time to go home!

Our pictures of Tales and New Orleans this year can be found here.

The Tale end...............

It's 10am, do you know which Absinthe you are drinking? Oh this was a scary morning for me- our last day of Tales of the Cocktail. There had been 4 straight days of imbibing and now the real test! Ted Breaux gave a fantastic class on the liquor Absinthe, it's history, it's misconceptions and of course it's taste! The seminar went long as we all had so many questions and Ted had so much information so as soon as it ended we high tailed it down to Harrah's for the closing awards ceremony. Ted Allen was hosting and our fellow Seattlites from Vessel and ZigZag were up for awards.

After watching ZigZag win awards the conference was officially over. A quick lunch of a just ok muffulatta and then back to the hotel for the roof top pool and some sun!

That evening we were very excited to have a wonderful dinner at Restaurant August which I had been looking forward to for some time. The space is gorgeous! And the menu looked great. Unfortunately our service was pretty bad. Slow, slow, slow. Our first courses arrived even before we ordered wine! The entire progression of the meal put us off quite a bit. The food itself was lovely but that is not what we remember now.

Before heading home the next day we arranged a cemetery tour with the Save Our Cemeteries organization. For $6 we had a private tour and all the money goes back to keep the cemetery and it's "residents" kept up.

The tour was good, our guide was a native and even had family in No. 1. He warned us quite a bit about being alone in these cemeteries, not because of ghouls but because of muggings unfortunately. After we walked a bit in the Garden District which is gorgeous and then headed to The Napoleon House for the best muffuletta of our trip and a very refreshing Pimms Cup (or 2) to beat the heat.

a walk down on the riverfront, a quick trolley ride and a cab to the airport was all that was left of our very fun trip. I'm sure we'll be back!

The full set of pictures from NOLA can be seen here!

More Tales........

After all our seminars that first day at Tales of the Cocktail there was a cocktail party. I thought this would be a simple affair with some meeting & greeting and one or two cocktails before our Spirited Dinner. No. There were possibly 25+ authors and mixologists serving samples of their signature cocktails created for the event. I think Dayne tried all of them! And each cocktail had a recipe card you could take with you, not to mention getting your books signed. Very fun!

We then were off to the Spirited Dinner where cocktails, not wine, were paired with dinner. We chose Commanders Palace and were happy to find out that Wes and Chuck did too so we all had a very fun meal! As Dayne has pointed out, Chuck wrote a wonderful post on the dinner which you can read.

The next day we attended South American cocktails seminar together and learned all about Pisco and Cachaca (and of course tasted them both in drinks and alone.) A very interesting class that gave history and culture of these alcohols.

I also went to a "Secrets of Galatoire's" panel which ended up being 3 incredibly old men who had been having lunch and dinner at Galatoires for probably 200 years all added up and ended up just telling stories about the waiters and their guests. Funny for about 15 mins. Oh well.........

That night Dayne and I went to a fantastic newish restaurant called Cochon. It came highly recommended and I'll continue that....We started with fried boudin with pickled peppers as well as a smoked catfish. For the main I had rabbit & dumplings, YUM! I'm sure we had cocktails after this meal but darn if I can remember!

What I was looking forward to most in NOLA were beignets at Cafe du Monde, and they didn't disappoint! Strong coffees, beignets and a months worth of powdered sugar! LOL! The best part about this breakfast was that it was only a snack, Dayne had a morning seminar after and then we were headed to Brennan's for their famous breakfast! and eye openers, cocktails created to drink with breakfast, damn I love New Orleans! Mine was the brandy milk punch and Dayne's is a sazarac.

There was turtle soup, gumbo, eggs benedict Brennans style, and fire! I mean Bananas Foster! ha!

Then it was back to "school" where Beach Bum Berry was teaching a class on Tiki Drinks!

Dinner that night was at GWFinns which was just ok for us, it felt a bit like a McCormick & Schmitts (sp) and their bar was very disappointing. We had started at Arnauds French 75 bar where I had a nice namesake. And of course there were cocktails later at our new favorite The Swizzle Stick Bar @ Cafe Adelaide.

New Orleans (finally!)

What can be said about New Orleans and Tales of the Cocktail that so many people haven't already said? (Other than "Write something already!!! It's been over a month!!") I'm not sure, which is why this has been so long in coming. Better to get something written now, though, before the details get lost.

I've started and stopped this post several times, and have never been fully satisfied with what I was writing. So I'm going to abandon the timeline approach entirely and instead just focus on a couple of elements that I found most important.

First, given the focus of our trip, the conference bears some mention. Oh, sure, there were lots of cocktails and liquor was one of the all-around most fun things we've done, and not perhaps for the reasons that people might first suppose. Oh sure, there were plenty of excellent cocktails and liquors and liqueurs and whatnot, but those were just the framing elements for the week. The attendees, presenters, organizers and all those we met who were otherwise associated with Tales or the many bars we visited were, to a person, fascinating, friendly, just a bit kooky in their own way (I include ourselves in this statement...), and well worth knowing in any context. We got to hang out with tiki kings, talented bartenders, bloggers and rare-ingredient masters, talented and vivacious women (I was wondering how I was going to work that picture into the post), and best of all we got to see our home-town friends win a couple of well-deserved awards at the closing ceremonies. (Go ZigZag!!)

I can't stress enough how great everyone was; I hope to maybe see them again next year.

The sheer enthusiasm that everyone showed for their craft, hobby, or avocation was mind-boggling.


Right behind the drinks and companionship, though, was the food. Historian and professor Morton J. Horwitz has said that "In New Orleans, gluttony is a way of life." I have no idea of the context of his remarks, but I can attest to the fact that eating seemed to be a non-stop, done-with-gusto event. We ate low-brow, we ate high brow, we ate traditional, and we ate modern. Some of the personal highlights for me were: hot dogs on Bourbon Street (yes, yes, I know, but I have to have a hot dog in just about every city to which I travel -- I made an exception for Italy, but that's about it...); muffalettas (have to try to make those at home, but I just don't see how we can duplicate them, especially the bread); a fantastic cocktail-paired dinner at Commander's Palace which has been written about elsewhere much more thoroughly and with better style than I can manage; and a somewhat decadent brunch at Brennan's. That last was definitely guilding the lily. I'd just completed a morning AppleJack seminar where we were served four (4!!) full-size cocktails; I then met up with Wendy to walk down the block to Brennan's, where I proceeded to order a Sazerac and she got a Brandy Milk Punch. Those were both necessary to cut the richness of the Hollandaise sauce on our meals, but it was only 11:00 in the morning!! Is this Horowitz's "gluttony" in evidence? Perhaps, but at the same time I never once felt that we were doing anything other than simply enjoying life to the fullest, which after all is what living is all about. Trite, maybe, but still true.

As a side note, those eggs were really, really, really good. I think I gained 5 pounds that day.


I don't feel even remotely qualified to comment on New Orleans as a city, but I will write a few things about the French Quarter. Yes, we were tourists, and even short-timers, so we didn't get outside of the Quarter more than a couple of times, but I think that's understandable given all that's there and the fact that I'd never seen it before. (Wendy had made a brief trip to the city long ago.)

Anyway, back to the Quarter. It's got that shabby-chic thing going on, similar to what I imagine parts of Havana are like (in essence if not in actual architecture). Katrina may have done some of the wear-and-tear we saw, though it's my understanding that the French Quarter was relatively-lightly touched. No, I felt as if New Orleans has always been that way. It's been a working port city longer than most other American cities have even existed; it's a bit roughed-up around the edges, but has a charm that is both hard to define and almost impossible to ignore. I'll say right now that I don't think the quarter is as beautiful as some cities I've visited, but I don't think it's supposed to be. This isn't a Disneyfied 'New Orleans Land', it's a real city where things get worn down, patched up, and get worn down again. Closest I've come to finding something similar might be in Venice, which is equally overrun with tourists and equally unique in atmosphere and history.

Lastly, but most importantly, I want to comment on the people of New Orleans. Without a single exception, we were greeted warmly and treated exceptionally. Many people thanked us for visiting. We could not have felt more at home.

A small addendum: I urge everyone to read Chuck Taggert's excellent summary of where New Orleans is today, and what Katrina has meant for the city.

Laissez les bons temps rouler!

Dayne & I were in fabulous New Orleans last month for about 6 days attending Tales of the Cocktail a very fun festival revolving around the history of cocktails, food and wine! It's been 2 years since Hurricane Katrina when our planned vacation with our friends Della and Greg had to be canceled and it was Dayne's birthday so I figured it was as good as time as any!

The festival allows you to attend seminars led by wonderful knowledgeable experts, go to cocktail parties, cocktail paired multi course dinners and meet really great people from all over! Dayne and I picked our own seminars, some were the same and some not so here is a little overview of the one's I did.

My first seminar was at 10am Thurs. after all day flights Wed. followed by various cocktails around the French Quarter that evening. It was called "Spirited Women" and was a great discussion of the history of women and cocktails and drinking. And of course there were 2 cocktails served with the discussion as well as my introduction to the glorious amount of swag we would be getting all week!



Between courses everyone meets up at the famous Carousel Bar- and yes it really rotates! ugh, that made me quite dizzy until I got use to it. In NOLA they take their cocktails quite seriously and even have designated morning drinks called Eye Openers. I found Dayne at the Carousel Bar with Mike behind it and a Ramos Gin Fizz Eye Opener in front of him!



After our next seminar on "Food and Cocktails of New Orleans" we had lunch at Johnny's Po-Boys with our new friends Chuck and Wes. This is one of the only good po-boys in the French Quarter Chuck told us, he's a NOLA native so we trusted him and boy was it good! Dayne and I shared a hot sausage po-boy.


A quick walk back to the Hotel Monteleone in time to catch the "Lost Ingredients" seminar in which Chuck was one of the speakers.