Sazerac

Normally, I wouldn’t start off the week with a post about cocktails but this is a hectic one with back to back on site work and printings for casart coverings.

Life has been so crazy busy that I never really fully posted about the fun stuff during my recent trip to New Orleans. We were in meetings most of the time but we did take a break to have a drink at the Sazerac Bar in the now named Roosevelt Hotel, originally name for Teddy Roosevelt. It was once called the Fairmont, where I remember the Hermes Ball used to take place. It closed after Hurricane Katrina with some water and storm damage. Fortunately the original murals in the Sazerac bar were protected with plywood. The hotel has been fully restored back to its original grand style and it is up an running well, despite the economy. New Orleans remember experienced its own economic downturn way before our current recession. It can only go up from there. Katrina really did a number on my city and many naysayers said it would never come back. I really disliked getting those kinda phone calls afterwards asking if I my family and I were alright and then in the same breadth asking, “do you think it will ever come back?” I got caller ID after that. Clearly some folks that I hadn’t ironically heard from in forever didn’t know New Orleans or those from there very well. We don’t give up. We persevere.

I’m happy to report it has come back; although it is still a slow road to full recovery. Living there daily you know the difference. A tourist never would and that’s good because they are there to experience things that were never really damaged, like the French Quarter. I was very glad to see this article in the philly.com blog about New Orleans’ resurgence and the Sazerac Bar is featured. It’s a great place with old-world charm to grab a drink or better yet a sazerac cocktail — the official drink of New Orleans.