Sazeracs Are The New Canadian Bacon

Every year the New Orleans Culinary and Cultural Preservation Society awards the "Seal of the Sazerac" to bars and restaurants that uphold the tradition of the city's official cocktail. The honorees this year are Bellocq, Iris, Columns Hotel, Superior Seafood, and Hawksworths, the outsider hailing from Vancouver. Though cocktail nerds will be certain to tell you which one is really the outsider.

Owner of Bellocq and Cure, Neal Bodenheimer, told Nola Defender that to make a bad ass Sazerac: "It's the ratio of bitters to sugar, you have to make sure it's in accordance with the right ounceage of rye whiskey with the right proof, and controlling the dilution based on that proof." So, basically no, you can't have his recipe.

Yesterday, the honorees got a little love at Tales of the Cocktail (the NOCCPS' golden child) during the welcoming toast, but oddly enough, the Tales' Spirited Awards (highly regarded by the mustachioed booze industry) don't include a single New Orleans bar or bartender nominated in any category at all.

?Gwendolyn Knapp

· Sazerac City [NoDef]