Clinton Cawood heads to New Orleans to dig up the history and best spec of this American classic.
If you’re going to name a cocktail after the French Quarter in New Orleans, it had better reflect its mix of cultural influences, and the Vieux Carré certainly does that.
Its components – not too far removed from those of a Manhattan – begin close enough to its birthplace in the Crescent City, with rye whiskey and Peychaud’s Bitters, before heading to France for cognac and Benedictine, Italy for sweet vermouth, and Trinidad for Angostura Bitters.
Like the French Quarter itself, the combination is greater than the sum of its parts – complex and compelling. Crucially, despite the varied origins of its elements, none are particularly obscure.
As Chris Hannah, co-owner of Jewel of the South, easily one of the fi nest eating and drinking establishments in the Quarter, puts it: “The ingredients were always available, so bartenders and home bartenders alike could build the cocktail without all the fuss of special ordering or having to go to an epicurean, bespoke wine shop.”
It doesn’t hurt that it shares a name with “one of the most beloved neighbourhoods in the world”, he adds. The Vieux Carré was almost certainly created at the city’s Hotel Monteleone in the 1930s – around the year 1937 or 1938 by some accounts – in the hotel’s Swan Room.
It’s credited to Walter Bergeron, head bartender at the time, who named his creation after the French word for the Quarter, “old square”. You can still get a Vieux Carré at the Hotel Monteleone, where the Swan Room is now the Carousel Bar & Lounge.
They make a fine example there, served on the rocks with a twist of lemon, although you’ll fi nd others elsewhere electing to serve this up, and cherry garnishes are not unheard of either. Equal parts of the three main ingredients result in a Manhattan-like, two-to-one spirit to vermouth ratio, while quantities of Benedictine vary.
Hannah’s take, the Rendezvous-Carré, stays close to the original, with equal parts rye and cognac, a little less sweet vermouth, a quantity of Benedictine and three dashes of Angostura.
Where he deviates is in the addition of half a barspoon of roasted sesame oil. “It adds a welcoming, pungent edge to the cocktail,” he says. “The mouthfeel of each sip has you coming back, living up to its name.” If you don’t have any sesame oil to hand, or indeed any cognac, there’s always La Louisiane, combining rye whiskey, sweet vermouth and Benedictine, and dashes of absinthe and Peychaud’s – no less fitting a tribute to the Old Square.
Rendezvous Carré by Chris Hannah
• 30ml rye
• 30ml cognac
• 22.5ml sweet vermouth
• 15ml Benedictine
• 3 dashes Angostura
• 0.5 barspoon sesame oil
• Orange peel
Mix all ingredients together in a mixing glass with ice. Strain over ice-filled Old Fashioned glass