This is a rye cocktail that Mr. Booze very much enjoys. I haven’t known this drink for that long but we’ve become pretty good friends none-the-less. Six ingredients make the Vieux Carre’ a drink you’ll want to make at the start of the evening. She’s special and your guests will appreciate the work. The drink has a strong taste so it’s not for the Cosmo set. If you or your friends enjoy a Manhattan, then you’ll very much enjoy the Vieux Carre’. I sure do.

A good friend on the Board of The American Cocktail Museum, provided a bit of history on this drink. “A New Orleans Bartender, Walter Bergeron created the drink to honor the New Orlean’s Quarter Vieux Carre’ in the 1930’s. The drink represented the demographic composition of the neighborhood. American whiskey, Italian vermouth, French Cognac. The quarter, at that time, was teaming with Italians, French Creoles and Americans.”
My kind of history…you can drink it.

Here we go –

• ¾ ounce of Rye Whiskey
• ¾ ounce Cognac
• ¾ ounce Sweet Vermouth
• 1 tsp. Benedictine D.O.M.
• 2 dashes Peychaud’s Bitters
• 2 dashes Angostura Bitters

Mix all ingredients in a double Old Fashioned glass over cracked ice; stir.

Like the Pink Lady, this drink has to be made and tasted to be believed. The taste is old, not old like the ingredients have passed their shelf life, but Old like someone would be drinking one during the closing party in an Abbott and Costello movie. This drink is part of the fun of having a bar. You have a bar to have friends over and make drinks like the Fallen Angel. A unique flavor and a cool drink. I like this one.

Here we go –

• 2 ounces gin
• 2/3 tsp. of white Crème de Menthe
• Juice of ½ lemon
• 2 dashes Angostura Bitters

Shake all of the ingredients in a shaker with cracked ice. Strain into a small, pre-chilled cocktail/martini glass and add maraschino cherry as a garnish.

There’s a great scene in the hilarious, 1963 movie, It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, where, while trapped on a drunk’s plane 2 boobs are ordered to the cabin bar to “whip up a couple of Old Fashioned. For every reason I laugh every time at this scene and used to wonder what was this drink that Jim Backus would send Mickey Rooney and Buddy Hacket to the back of a screaming twin-prop to whip up? Well, after I had my first Old Fashioned, I understood.This drink is damn good. Apparently, an honest to goodness bourbon distiller and a bartender chum came up with this classic back in 1900. Yes sir, Colonel James E. Pepper and a bartender at the Pendennis Club in Louisville were responsible.

This one takes a bit of time and trouble to make but she drinks well and is a drink absolutely conducive to conversation. 3 friends plus 6 old fashioned = 2+ hours of bar talk. There’s just something about bourbon that loosens lips.

Here We Go –

• 2 ounces Bourbon (this drink was made for Early Times)
• 2 dashes Angostura Bitters
• 1 White Sugar Cube
• Soda Water.

Place sugar cube in an old fashioned glass and soak with the bitters. Add a splash of soda to cover the cube and crush cube with a bar spoon. Add cracked ice to near top of glass. Add bourbon to fill. Stir and garnish with a slice of orange and a maraschino cherry. I add a twist of lemon peel. Enjoy and gab away.