New Orleans

New Orleans, I love you.

I love your sidewalk brass bands, your Cajun spices, your feathers and beads. I love your smoked rabbit with smothered greens, your tipsy tourists, your cochon de lait, your red beans and rice.

I love your melting pot makeup, your Dixieland percussion, your bourbon and beignets. I love your African backbone and your French accent, your shaded gardens and your late-summer swelter. I love that you gave birth to jazz. I love that you wear seersucker to brunch.

I love that you get up after you’ve been knocked down hard. I love that you’re working to put things right again. I love your pride, your mettle, your joie de vivre.

I love your Greek Revival mansions, your Creole cottages, your Victorian filigrees and peeling-paint front porches. I love your Streetcar Named Desire, your Vampire Chronicles, your Confederacy of Dunces. I love your cemeteries and your parks and your parades. I love that you call me ma’am, that you smile on the street and hold open doors. I love that you’re like no place else I’ve ever been.

And maybe most of all, New Orleans, I am in love with that chicken and andouille gumbo of yours. I’ll be back as soon as I’m able.

Vieux Carré Cocktail
invented in 1938 at the Hotel Monteleone in New Orleans

• 3/4 oz Brandy
• 3/4 oz rye whiskey
• 3/4 oz sweet vermouth
• 1/4 oz Bénédictine liqueur
• dash Peychaud’s Bitters
• dash Angostura Bitters

Stir ingredients with ice and strain into a glass. Laissez les bon temps rouler!