The Sazerac Bar
The Sazerac Bar makes me feel a little bit like Lauren Bacall.
No, I don’t slip into a blond wig and sleek dress to trade dialogue with character actors or great American composers; well, maybe on Mardi Gras Day. Ms. Bacall was 19 when she starred in To Have and Have Not opposite a 44-year old Humphrey Bogart. She had grown up watching him on the silver screen and now here she was playing opposite an icon. The rest is, well, the stuff of history and song.
I, too, knew the Sazerac Bar from movies before I met her personally. And our relationship has now passed the two decade mark. Of course, given the number of bars I’ve visited in those twenty years, I’ve maybe been even a less faithful companion than Bogie. Maybe. I’ve certainly never managed to be as appealing a visitor as Bacall.
The Sazerac, in New Orleans’ Roosevelt Hotel, though, is the stuff of legend and a place I’m happy to which I’m happy to return again and again. And not just because it’s within blocks of both my home and my office – after all this time it can still take my breath away. The room is a masterpiece of Art Deco design with stunning and important murals. It also holds a special place in the drinking history of a city that hold a special place in the history of drinking.
By acclaim of the state legislature, the Sazerac cocktail (about which more in a later post) is the official drink of the city of New Orleans. Whether the Sazerac Bar is named for the drink or vice versa is now a philosophical conundrum. Certainly the drink originally took its name from a bar (which in turn took its name from a brand of Cognac), but that bar was several blocks from the current location. Various changes in venue and ownership (of the bar) as well as composition (of the cocktail) took place over the years and the relationship is now problematic at best. Certainly, the Sazerac Bar is a fine place to enjoy a Sazerac cocktail, but there are, to my palate, better Sazeracs to be had in the city – especially when the Sazerac Bar is charging in the high teens for its eponymous cocktail. (When you're there, make your second drink a Ramos Gin Fizz or Clover Club instead.)
The real appeal of the Sazerac Bar is two-fold: the aesthetic experience of the room and the opportunity to tipple in the tides of history. On the first front, a few words are in order, starting with “Wow”. While there are more dramatic bars in the world, the Sazerac Bar continues to impress with a strikingly modern feel 80 years after opening. The walls are paneled from a single African Walnut tree and the murals by Paul Ninas would be at home at a top-flight museum (and, in full disclosure, some people believe that's where they belong).
Pro tip: if the place isn’t too busy, ask the bartender about the actual people represented on the mural stage right of the bar. The picture above shows a portion of it, and it’s a veritable Who’s Who of the 1930s, all pictured at Mardi Gras in New Orleans' own Jackson Square. The gentleman chomping on the cigar is none other than J.P. Morgan, Jr. We can only speculate whether his hand in his pocket has anything to do with the teenaged Gloria Vanderbilt – apparently dressed for flashing – just beside him. Jean Harlow is posing off to the left for a faceless cameraman (Paul Ninas' wife left him for a photographer, so no love lost there, I guess). Elsewhere you'll find the Duke (formerly King Edward VIII) and Duchess (Wallis Simpson) of Windsor. Next to them is a figure that I'm pretty sure (based on past commentary and pure appearance) is James Joyce, but which current theory holds to be Groucho Marx; this is very likely the only case in which the two could be confused. By the way, when you visit, give yourself bonus points for finding the green worm joining the party elsewhere in the tableau.
As to history, the Sazerac lays legitimate claim to at least a couple of items that pre-date its current abode. First, the cocktail: The Sazerac as a drink dates back over 150 years to the dim primeval days of the modern cocktail era, and the Sazerac Bar (and its predecessors) played an important part in its birth and development. (It’s worth noting that, unlike most cities, New Orleans never lost its taste for old-school drinks, especially those of its own patrimony. Even before the world rediscovered quality cocktails, you could get a solid Sazerac at bars around the city – and people did.)
Second, the Kingfish: Huey P. Long, the legendary governor of Louisiana (of a-chicken-in-every-pot-and-every-man-a-king fame) was a patron extraordinaire at the Roosevelt Hotel and the Sazerac Bar. It was his home in New Orleans and, in many ways, the seat of governmental authority under his regime. The hotel is where he supposedly kept the infamous "Deduct Box" with slush funds for lubricating the wheels of politics when a few cocktails weren’t enough. He may also have arranged for early highway construction to ease the trip from Baton Rouge straight to the doors of the Roosevelt. There’s even a persistent myth that a chip in the wall of the bar is a result of an unsuccessful attempt on his life. As it happens, though, a successful attempt happened in 1934, so Huey wasn’t around for the current location’s 1937 debut. This bullet didn’t come until years later.
He did, however, take a bartender from the Sazerac (then housed in a different location in the hotel) on the road with him to New York City as he was drumming up support for a likely presidential bid (undermined by the aforementioned assassination). The governor, you see, wanted to be sure the boys in the Big Apple knew how to make a proper Ramos Gin Fizz (and more importantly, that he made it on the news reels).
Even if Long never gazed upon the burnished walls of the current Sazerac, it’s seen its share of celebrity and other historic moments – which leads to my own private, completely unverified theory which I am now happy to launch into an unsuspecting world. Let it stand as my greatest (and only) contribution to American letters - or just an urban legend, which in a saloon is just as good. On either side of the long mirror behind the bar, sit two monumental silver trophies dating back to the 19th century. The one nearest the mural of fame is from the Royal Ascot of 1898, won by a horse named Lady Golightly (and incidentally the last silver trophy for the race; since then, they've all been gold).
One evening as I sat opposite it at the bar, enjoying perhaps my third Sazerac that night (but who’s counting?), I was struck at just how similar that name is to everyone’s favorite Audrey Hepburn role, Miss Holiday Golightly (Traveling). Our man Truman Capote was no slouch when it came to matters of the jigger. I like to think that one evening, he was sitting in about that spot, enjoying perhaps his third Sazerac that night (but who’s counting?) and working through the details of his latest literary undertaking when inspiration struck from across the bar. It could have happened, and bars have made their reputations on a lot less.
In any event, a bar that makes me think of Lauren Bacall and Audrey Hepburn is a bar with a visit in my book. Check it out next time you’re in town and if you’d like to buy a drink for Yours Truly, I won’t say no. Drink it for me if I’m not there.
Photo: Detail in Ninas Mural at the Sazerac
Photo Credit: Steve Morgan
