Vieux Carre

The Vieux Carré is a decadent version of a Manhattan, slightly sweeter, and definitely showing more depth and complexity, it is a powerhouse of a cocktail in its own right. There are varying recipes out there and we all have varying tastes so it is a personal choice situation, but for me this cocktail must use Rye Whiskey and not Bourbon.

Created in New Orleans in the 1930s by Walter Bergeron at the Carousel bar in the Hotel Monteleone it is said that the Vieux Carré is New Orleans in a glass. Vieux Carré (Vyhu Karay) means old square in French and when naming this cocktail Walter Bergeron was referencing the old French Quarter of the City.

The Vieux Carré is an early twentieth-century Americana cocktail if ever there was one, bringing together French Spirit and Liqueur, Italian Vermouth, South American Angostura Bitters, Louisiana-inspired Peychaud Bitters, and Rye Whiskey from just up the Mississippi.

It is a very decadent, very boozy cocktail with a depth of flavour that really takes you by surprise.

The first printed recipe for the Vieux Carré is from Stanly Clisby Arthur’s 1938 book Famous New Orleans cocktails and how to mix ‘em. In the 1938 printed recipe, it suggests adding a piece of pineapple and a cherry, but again tastes evolve over time and these days we are not put off by a cocktail that has a strong flavour, and so these days the Vieux Carré is garnished simply with a lemon twist. If you want to create this cocktail just how it would have been made back in the 1930s you can always put a piece of pineapple and a cherry on a cocktail stick and use it to blend the cocktail in the glass.

30ml Rye Whiskey

30ml Cognac/Armagnac

30ml Rosso Vermouth

10ml Benedictine D.O.M

2 Dashes Angostura Bitters

Shake all ingredients with ice and strain into an ice-filled old-fashioned glass, garnish with a lemon twist.