Vieux Carré

Few cocktails are as romantic as the Vieux Carré – it is French inspired after all. 

The Vieux Carré is a boozy cocktail born out of jazz playing, drink swigging, 1930s New Orleans. The city’s hugely popular party scene is responsible for famously classic cocktails like the Sazerac, Milk Punch, Roffignac, and the Ramos Gin Fizz, but this cocktail is really something special. 

Like most of its counterparts of the time, the Vieux Carré was first stirred up at one of New Orleans’ prominent hotel bars. It was at the Carousel Bar in the Hotel Monteleone where Walter Bergeron first created this seductive, boozy drink. Cocktails of the time were prime celebrations of the French influences in New Orleans and the Vieux Carré was no exception. Bergeron went full francophile by incorporating to signature French creations : Bénédictine and Cognac. 

Bénédictine is a liqueur of more than 27 herbs and spices that was invented by monks in 1764 in Normandy. The original recipe was lost during the French Revolution, but the recipe has since been recreated and is currently being used to distill and age Bénédictine in a French palace. Très chic. Cognac is similarly bourgeois – it’s a variety of brandy that falls under strict legal restrictions with grapes that can only be grown in particular regions of France. Needless to say, the use of these two ingredients made a pretty big French statement. The Vieux Carré is a French name after all, translating to “old square,” which references New Orleans’ French Quarter. 

The Vieux Carré leans on all of these French influences, but then pulls in spicy, rye whiskey and smooth, sweet vermouth to really round out its flavor profile. The end result is an effortlessly balanced, yet complex cocktail that will have you falling in l’amour.