Taigan Fetch Magazine by Taigan

New Orleans is a city of long-ingrained habits and almost sacred shrines, and when either is tampered with, however slightly, the locals retreat into a firm denial. So it was that in 1965, when the much-loved Roosevelt Hotel became the Fairmont, just about everyone—even out-of-town visitors—refused to call it that. Now, almost 35 years later, the stubbornness has paid off. Not only has the hotel become the Roosevelt again, it has been restored to its former glory.

There’s a Guerlain spa, a rooftop pool, and sprawling suites named for the likes of Louis Armstrong, who played in the hotel’s legendary Blue Room, and Huey Long, who often took up residence on the 12th floor. (He was such a fan of the Roosevelt’s Ramos gin fizzes that he took a hotel bartender with him to New York so he could continue to enjoy them there.)

But, as in its heyday, most of the action is reserved for the first floor, where the grand lobby runs a full city block. The enormous crystal chandeliers have been restored, and the carpet pulled up to reveal fabulous 1920s mosaic tile. John Besh, of Restaurant August and Iron Chef fame, has opened an Italian restaurant called Domenica—full of buzz and amazing handmade pastas and pizzas. Best of all, the Blue Room is back and an even deeper blue, and the Sazerac Bar, whose stunning Art Deco murals of New Orleans street life are as beloved as its signature drink, is once again the place to be.

It was not always the case. By the time Katrina hit, the hotel had already become a rather tawdry shadow of its former self,—and it shut down indefinitely after the storm. But two years later, investors bought it for $17 million and put in another $145 million to bring it up to the standards of the Waldorf-Astoria Group, to which it now belongs.

Even the Sazerac itself is having something of a resurgence. Said to have been the world’s first cocktail, it was invented in the 1830s by Antoine Peychaud, a pharmacist who offered customers an after-hours mixture of brandy and bitters served in an egg cup (hence the theory that a cocktail is a badly pronounce coquetier).

The drink caught on, but a few years later, when a deadly grapevine pest made brandy hard to come by, rye whiskey was substituted and a dash of absinthe added. The recipe was altered once more after absinthe was outlawed, and Herbsaint, a local pastis, was substituted.

Last year, the Louisiana legislature voted the Sazerac the official cocktail of the city (only in Louisiana would it take a total of ten votes to decide such a thing), and now bartenders all over town are creating slightly tweaked versions. Not surprisingly, the Roosevelt is sticking with the one that has long been served in the bar that bears its name. New Orleans native and Hollyhock owner Suzanne Rheinstein prefers the original as well—in a William Yeoward “Caroline” old-fashioned glass. Herewith, the recipe:

The Sazerac Cocktail

• 1 sugar cube
• 1 ½ ounces Sazerac brand rye whiskey
• ¼ ounce Herbsaint
• 3 dashes Peychaud’s bitters
• Lemon peel

1. Pack an old-fashioned glass with ice.
2. In a second old-fashioned glass, place the bitters and the sugar cube, crush the sugar cube, and add the whiskey.
3. Empty the ice from the first glass, coat the glass with the Herbsaint, and discard any that remains.
4. Pour in the whiskey/sugar mixture and garnish with lemon peel.

Images above: Top left, the entrance to the refurbished Roosevelt Hotel; lower left, the famed Sazerac bar; right, a blueprint for New Orleans’ official cocktail

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