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24 MYROUSESEVERYDAY JULY | AUGUST 2016
the Cocktail issue
“Step right up to the bar” has been
the warm welcome at Tujague’s
since 1856. Tujague’s Restaurant,
currently celebrating their 160th anniversary,
is the home of America’s oldest standup
bar. America’s early barrooms often lacked
bar stools. Customers (all male, of course!)
stood at the bar, often with one foot resting
on the brass floor rail. Very few bars of that
style still remain today.
Customers and bartenders alike are reflected
in the ancient mirror that backs the bar’s wall.
The mirror, which arrived in New Orleans
in the mid-1850s, spent its first century in
a Parisian bistro. Today, as in centuries past,
neighborhood locals stand side by side with
visitors toasting occasions large and small or
just catching an after work beer.
The original Tujague’s was located on
Decature three doors down from the
19th century New Orleans pre-eminent
restaurant, Begue’s Exchange. In 1917,
when young Philip Guichet, Sr. moved his
restaurant into the vacated Begue’s space,
big things began happening in the bar.
Young, competitively natured Guichet
travelled to New York City in 1918 on the
eve of Prohibition where he invented a
sweet, creamy, green concoction, dubbed the
Grasshopper. He took second place in that
competition but from then on the cocktail
was a fixture at Tujague’s.
Despite the nuisance of Prohibition, the bar
at Tujague’s never closed.
Photos from those days show sober
gentlemen gathered at a bar that doesn’t
seem to offer more than soda water and near
beer. But the bar was far from dry.
Waiters carried bottles in the pockets of their
voluminous white aprons to accommodate
thirsty customers, a practice not totally
ignored by the authorities.
The Times-Picayune reported in 1931,
“New Orleanian, Philip Guichet was seized
by a raider after serving absinthe. He denied
selling liquor despite the accusations of
a Prohibition agent who claimed to have
seen him serving absinthe to a patron in the
restaurant below his apartment.” Luckily,
Mr. Guichet eventually escaped the charges.
His love of competitive bartending never
left him. Almost forty years after inventing
the Grasshopper, Guichet travelled again
to New York City to compete in the Early
Times National Cocktail Competition.This
time, he captured first place with a drink he
called the Whiskey Punch.
The Whiskey Punch never achieved the
international fame of the Grasshopper,
and was in fact completely lost in time
until early 2015 when four photos and the
first place red ribbon were discovered in
Tujague’s third floor attic.
The greatest discovery was an envelope on the
back of the framed piece. Inside the envelope
was a typewritten page with Guichet’s
winning recipe for the Whiskey Punch.
America’s
Oldest Stand-up Bar
by Poppy Tooker
In 1982, the late Steven Latter purchased
Tujague’s from the Guichet family proudly
keeping the 125-year-old tradition alive.
Judges and lawyers kept lively company
in the bar, often whiling away the hours
playing poker dice at a round table. Not
much of a drinker himself, when Steven
did imbibe, his drink of choice was Crown
Royal. Just a few years before his death,
Steven saw a purple, velvet Crown Royal
throne on display at his Rouses. He heckled
the local distributor for one of those
thrones, until finally it was installed in the
bar’s back corner, where Steven held court
over America’s oldest standup bar.
The Grasshopper
Serves 1
WHAT YOU WILL NEED
¾ ounce green crème de menthe
¾ ounce crème de cacao
¾ ounce white crème de menthe
½ ounce brandy
¾ ounce heavy cream
¾ ounce whole milk
½ teaspoon brandy for topper
HOW TO PREP
Combine all ingredients, except for the
brandy, in a cocktail shaker filled with ice.
Shake vigorously. Strain into a champagne
flute and top with brandy.
Interior Tujaque’s, New Orleans, LA