Rye, stirred
Vieux Carré
Barline Q,Q,Q,1b,1,1,Rl
The code is the shorthand off my printed menu; the Key tab decodes every letter.
- 3/4 oz Rye
- 3/4 oz Cognac
- 3/4 oz Sweet vermouth
- 1 barspoon Bénédictine
- 1 dash Angostura bitters
- 1 dash Peychaud's bitters
Stir with ice until cold, then strain.
Rocks, iced, lemon twist.
Taste
Three-quarters of an ounce each of rye, cognac, and sweet vermouth, equal and small. One barspoon of Benedictine is honey and herbs. One dash of Angostura, one of Peychaud's. Rocks with ice, lemon. Split-base Manhattan with an herbal film.
History
Walter Bergeron, head bartender at the Hotel Monteleone in New Orleans, built the Vieux Carré in the 1930s and named it for the French Quarter, the old square. Stanley Clisby Arthur prints it in 1937: equal rye, cognac, and Italian vermouth, a half teaspoon of Benedictine, a dash each of Peychaud's and Angostura. The Carousel Bar, where the drink now lives, opened in 1949; Bergeron was mixing it in the hotel's earlier lounge. Chuck Taggart, in The Oxford Companion, notes Bergeron had worked the bar before Prohibition and returned at Repeal. This menu keeps the equal three-quarters and both bitters, with a barspoon of Benedictine, over ice with a lemon twist.
Same shape, other bottles
The Martini family, with the bottle that changed.
- Automobilescotch and gin for rye and cognac
- Fitchettgin for rye and cognac
- Journalistgin and orange liqueur for rye, cognac, and Bénédictine
- Vancouvergin and dry vermouth for rye, cognac, and sweet vermouth
- 1910mezcal and maraschino liqueur for rye and Bénédictine
- Country Clublight rum and dry vermouth for rye, cognac, and sweet vermouth
This is one drink on my home bar's menu. Tick the bottles you own and the menu lists which of all 185 drinks they pour.