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into New Orleans was a brand manufactured by the
firm of Sazerac-de-Forge et fils, of Limoges, France. The
local agent for this firm was John B. Schiller. In 1859
Schiller opened a liquid dispensary at 13 Exchange Alley,
naming it "Sazerac Coffee-house" after the brand of
cognac §erved exclusively at his bar.
Schiller's brandy cocktails became the drink of the
day and his business flourished, surviving even the War
Between the States. In 1870 Thomas H. Handy, his
bookkeeper, succeeded as proprietor and changed the
name to "Sazerac House." An alteration in the mixture
also took place. Peychaud's bitters was still used to add
the right fillip, but American rye whiskey was substi
tuted for the cognac to please the tastes of Americans
who preferred "red likker" to any pale-faced brandy.
Thus brandy vanished from the Sazerac cocktail to
be replaced by whiskey (Handy always used Maryland
Club rye, if you are interested in brand names), and the
dash of absinthe was added. Precisely when whiskey
replaced brandy and the dash of absinthe added are
moot questions. The absinthe innovation has been
credited to Leon Lamothe who in 1858 was a bartender
for Emile Seignouret, Charles Cavaroc &Co., a wine im
porting firm located in the old Seignouret mansion still
standing at 520 Royal street. More likely it was about
1870, when Lamothe was employed at Pina's restaurant
in Burgundy street that he experimented with absinthe
and made the Sazerac what it is today.
But this history delving is dry stuff, so let's sample a
genuine Sazerac. We will ask Leon Dupont, now vice-
president of the St. Regis Restaurant but for years one
of the expert cocktail mixers behind Tom Handy's origi
nal Sazerac bar, to make one for us.
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