Description

Sue Strachan, author of The Café Brûlot presents her new book, The Obituary Cocktail, with a Café Brûlot demonstration courtesy of Alys Beach Chef Michael Sichel. This complimentary event will get the Crafted spirits flowing to kick off the week’s events. Join author Sue Strachan as she shares the stories behind some of New Orleans’ classic cocktails, Café Brûlot and The Obituary Cocktail, while Chef Michael performs a fiery demonstration of the dramatic Café Brûlot cocktail.

The Obituary Cocktail features a blend of gin, vermouth, and absinthe in a spirited honoring of funerary tradition rooted in New Orleans’ clandestine history of “secret societies, second-line parades, and celebrations of deathly holidays like Halloween and All Saints’ Day.”

Café Brûlot exemplifies New Orleans’ love for the dramatic with a theatrical presentation that holds as much weight as the libation itself. A concoction of coffee, brandy, sugar, cinnamon, lemon, oranges, cloves and sometimes an orange liqueur, the cocktail is served in a special Brûlot cup and set aflame in a highly ceremonial preparation that requires its own specialty tools and expertise. Born of legend and enduring through the centuries, the old-line restaurants of New Orleans — Antoine’s, Arnaud’s, Brennan’s, Broussard’s, Commander’s Palace and Galatoire’s — continue the tradition of this “devilishly incendiary coffee,” also known as Café Brûlot Diabolique.

This special “Crafted” edition of NEAT’s weekly Wine & Song event is complimentary and open to the public with live music and opportunities to purchase The Obituary Cocktail and the Café Brûlot cocktail after the demonstration. Strahan’s books on these legendary cocktails and the New Orleans history and cultural insights around them will be available for purchase, with a book signing from 5-7PM.