Your night out is a labor-intensive affair. Restaurants are able to hide much of it behind walls or portholed swinging doors. Bars on the other hand put it front and center. There’s not much between you and your drink. Just a rail, a bartender and some tools. Their only cover is the speed at which they make drinks. It’s obvious when they’re busy and the best, almost supernaturally, never let you feel it.
Arnaud’s French 75
Chris Hannah
Chris Hannah at Arnaud’s French 75 is one of the best. Arnaud’s, the restaurant adjoining the lounge is— along with Galatoir’s— considered one of the four classic Creole New Orleans restaurants1. The French 75 with its tile floors, ornate monkey lamps and dark polished wood measures up to the first-class tone set by the restaurant. During Tales of the Cocktail, everyone, it seems, passes through this bar. The few times we were there among the throngs, Hannah remained unfazed in the face of dozens of tipplers, imbibers and down-right drunks ordering everything from Crown and 7’s (complete with pantomime across a crowded bar of a crown) to the Vieux Carré.
Bar Tonique
Chris Keil, owner of 1022 South, JT and I walked into a quiet Bar Tonique at around 12:30AM Thursday night/Friday morning. Perfect. After drinking in crowds for three days, a slow bar was exactly what we needed. A local, red from beers, thickly and sincerely (speaking for everyone) thanked us for coming to New Orleans.
Chris, aware of the time, asked the bartender, Ashley, if it would be cool to get a drink.
“Oh yeah, you’re good. It’s been dead and I’m closing a little early, but you’re good for a couple rounds.”
Just then, a couple from Tulsa, Oklahoma, here for Tales popped in fresh off an 11-hour drive desperate for a fine drink. Moments later, another gaggle of conference attendees wandered in. Over the next 20 minutes the patrons’ ranks grew to near capacity.
Ashley
Ashley soldiered on. Mixing Vieux Carre’s, Last Words, Corpse Reviver #2s and Tonique’s signature Blanche Dubois. Never did her attention or her drinks’ quality flag. Considering that we were the jinx on her early night, she could have easily froze us out and had our full understanding and sympathy. Instead, she made time to mix us a couple rounds of custom shooters, including a Whistlepig/Frenet eye-popper that finally broke us.
Around 4:30 AM we left with our new friends from Tulsa, excited for the chance tomorrow may bring and singing the praises of Ashley, champion of the late-night rush.
This is the fourth in a five-part story about my first trip to New Orleans for Tales of the Cocktail 2011. Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
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