Brennan Lally - In the Land of Cocktails

Y our host chills your glass with ice as he reverently prepares your special drink. You watch as he carefully swirls the green-hued Herbsaint, coating the inside of the glass with faint color. He gravely measures the other requisite ingredients into an iced cocktail shaker, briskly agitating the mixture just long enough fo r white frost to form on the metal. Into your waiting glass he strains the potion. The pith is carved from the lemon peel to eliminate that extra nip of bitterness, and the peel is twisted with a flourish into your drink. As the first sip kisses your taste buds, you begin to fully grasp the history, the knowledge, the ritual, and the heart that go into making your Sazerac, the Godfather of all New Orleans cocktails.

Maybe in other towns they drink rum and Coke or vodka and Red Bull, but here in New Orleans, we drink cocktailselegant, well-made cocktails. You know that contrary to its reputation as represented by the drunken masses of tourists and revelers wandering Bourbon Street, New Orleans is truly the home of civilized drinking. Yet when away, you find yourself so often disappointed by the cocktails you get, you stick to wine by the glass until you gratefully return homehome to the land of cocktails.

Drinking with our guides, Ti Adelaide Martin and Lally Brennan, is always an experience. Its their Brennan blood and their New Orleans heritage. These gals were raised right with both manners and commanding individuality. Take Ti for instance. Tell a savvy local that you know Ti, and youll get this response: That Ti, shes such a shrinking violet with a wide grin that says Ti Martin: just try and keep up! She follows right in the footsteps of her Aunt Adelaide, of whom you will read about in these pages. Joie de vivre describes Ti in her depressed moments.

Lally balances her cousin Ti with unfailing liveliness, wit, and warmth, the charms of the old South. One might be inclined to invoke Tennessee Williams when encountering Lally. They both pass my smart test, too: Smart means always getting the joke. And they do. Its easy when you meet them to feel immediately right at home, so gracious are they. Make no mistake, however; with a sixty-year heritage of running popular, sophisticated, and successful eating and drinking establishments, they are restaurant royalty.

Yet these Brennan cousins are every bit as likely to talk about (and to) you as they would talk to and about their celebrity friends, because they love people and they love fun. All the while, they are offering you sublime food and drink.

Cocktails have always been an intrinsic part of the culture of New Orleans. Drinks and food just go together, like laughter and happiness. I remember having brunch at Commanders Palace, feeling a tad guilty at having a Brandy Milk Punch at eleven oclock in the morning. In came a family. Junior ordered a Ramos Gin Fizz. Mom had Champagne. Dad got a Sazerac, and Grandma went straight for the double scotch on the rocks.

I ordered a second Milk Punch.

You are about to get family lore, stories, recipes, and advice from a unique perspective that can come only from Ti and Lally. Treasure it. Its a given that these two would author their own cocktail book; just a little shrinking violet of a cocktail bookif you know what I mean.

Ted Haigh

M ake yourself a promise. And while youre at it, make us one, too. The next time you are about to order or make your usual cocktail, order or make a new one. You dont order the same dish every time you go out to eat, do you?

You read about food, you experiment in your kitchen, you go to the newest restaurants, you watch Food TV for crying out loud! So why do you keep ordering Cosmopolitans or a scotch and water? There is a world of flavor-packed, subtle, intriguing, silly, serious cocktails out there. You have so much less on the line when you gamble on a new drink$6 to $11 (even less at home) versus an entre or an entire meal in a new restaurant.

As in the food world, when it comes to forward-thinking dishes, independent restaurants and bars are leading the way. When you come to Commanders Palace, if you dont try an Absinthe Suissesse at brunch or a Tequila Mockingbird 2 before or after dinner, you are missing out. When at good restaurants anywhere, look at their cocktail menu and ask for advice. We remember having our first Dark and Stormy in a New York restaurantlove at first sip.

As you try new cocktails, inquire and insist that the bartenders use fresh juices and top-shelf ingredients. Ask them to tell you how they are going to make your Old-Fashioned before they make it, and watch them make it whenever possible. Let them know you know how to make a cocktail properly. Then praise them and frequent the establishments that take the art of cocktail making seriously, but still maintain their sense of humor about cocktailsand everything else.

We have studied cocktail making and cocktail drinkers from every angle, and understand why more people dont order or make cocktails. Most of the time, theyre awful . Therewe said it!

Too often the cocktails, made by your own hand or others, are too sweet, too bitter, too strong, just too too . Cocktail making is easy to learn but hard to master, because it is all about balance and quality ingredients; balance comes first, and it takes practice. Whats more, you have to train your palate to enjoy different cocktails for different occasions or moods. Chances are you didnt like your first sip of wine or beer, did you? You experimented with different grapes and brands. Hopefully you still do.

So what we want to do in In the Land of Cocktails is to tell about the history of some great cocktails and stories of how we and other members of our family discovered them. We want to share our culture of cocktails with you. We want you to say, Oh, lets try a Brake Tag tonight and Champagne Cocktails the next time we have guests.

We share local lore, legends, people, and family stories to put into words how we feel about cocktails, food, good company, and our New Orleans way of life.

As a matter of introduction, here are a few of those characters who enliven these pages: Lu, Doc, and Dale.

Bar Chef Lu Brow hails from Shreveport. She has been with us for several years now at Caf Adelaide and the Swizzle Stick Bar. Since the day we met she has proven herself a true cocktailian. Lu believes in the integrity of each cocktail, each time. They must look as good as they tasteand they must taste perfect. Lu lost everything in Hurricane Katrina but was back presiding with authority and an air of naughtiness over the Swizzle Stick Bar before the restaurant even reopened. Lu tested and retested every drink in the book with us; we are forever grateful and we expect our research to go on together foreverall the way to the Saloon in the Sky.

Doc is Ted Haigh, a.k.a. Dr. Cocktail, author of Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails , as well as founder of the Museum of the American Cocktail. We got to know Doc through the museum, but when he ended up living in New Orleans for four or five months as head graphic designer for a major movie company, we became fast friends. Docs knowledge of the history of cocktails is unsurpassed. His larger-than-life personality is right up our alley, and we think of him as truly a part of our family.