New Orleans, Louisiana — If you want to imbibe yourself in the 1920s heyday of New Orleans high society then the Sazerac Bar in the Roosevelt Hotel is the place to be. Here they serve up America’s very first cocktail, the Sazerac. Originally a mix of cognac and a local bitters recipe from a French Quarter pharmacist, Antoine Amedie Peychaud, who had his apothecary at 123 Royal Street selling « the best bitters, peppermint and alcohol » to local coffee houses for use in their cocktails. This was the drink of predilection in the freedom loving city of New Orleans. According to local legend, Monsieur Peychaud served his mixed drink in a large egg cup, called a “Coquetier,” from which the word cocktail would stem. Today the cocktail is made with bitters and Sazerac rye whiskey instead of the French brandy, Pernod, sugar and soda. It can still be sipped at the Sazerac Bar in the Roosevelt Hotel. It was regularly dispensed from the Sazerac Bar’s original French quarter location in 1859. 

The beautiful beverage itself is akin to the more modern Old Fashioned and it can trace its name back to the cognac-producing Sazerac family in France. Sazerac de Forge et Fils was the original cognac used in the Sazerac cocktail and by the mid-19th century, it became a natural choice for the name of the original Sazerac coffee house. Today the cognac has been replaced by Sazerac rye. 

And now the house of Sazerac is based in New Orleans and produces over 450 different brands of spirits and cocktails in the United States, France, Ireland and Canada and beyond. And it was only fitting that The Sazerac House, a 5-story interactive visitor center, opened in the French Quarter in New Orleans – a mere 400 yards from the site of the original Sazerac House — in 2019.  Meanwhile the period Sazerac Bar in the Roosevelt Hotel, a Waldorf Astoria Hotel, has been restored to its period splendor and welcomes both guests and non-guests to its liberal librations.

New Orleans was named after Philippe II the Duke of Orleans who served as the regent of France from 1715 until 1723 when King Louis XV came of age and was coronated. To find out more about this libertine leader and the namesake of New Orleans see also on the Gourmet Gazette: https://thegourmetgazette.com/2023/12/31/the-royal-regence-a-forgotten-french-renaissance/©Trish Valicenti for The Gourmet Gazette. Additional reporting Bill Valicenti.

https://therooseveltneworleans.com/

https://www.sazerac.com/