Celebratory Cocktails

In February, I signed a book deal for my debut novel. It was the culmination of years of dreaming and at least a dozen years of hard work, learning to improve my craft and making time for my writing. At the end of all that, I was overdue for a celebratory cocktail!

Champagne often comes to mind when thinking about a celebration, and it’s hard to go wrong with a nice flute of cold bubbly. But sometimes, you want a little something more, and that’s when the champagne cocktail comes into play.

One of my favorites is the Seelbach cocktail, named for the famous old hotel in Louisville, Kentucky, where it was created. It’s a delicious concoction of bourbon, orange liqueur, champagne (or sparkling wine of any sort) and two kinds of bitters. It’s also a fine piece of fiction, in and of itself. The man who created it, Adam Seger, was the bar manager of the Old Seelbach Bar, a cozy little nook inside the grand hotel’s lobby. In 1995, he claimed to have discovered the long-lost recipe for the bar’s signature cocktail from the pre-prohibition era. He stuck to his story for two decades before finally coming clean and admitting he’d created the drink himself. You can read more about it in this story from The New York Times.

If you want to try the drink, shake one ounce of bourbon, ½ ounce of orange liqueur (I usually use triple sec, but you could use Cointreau or orange curacao if you prefer), 7 dashes of Angostura bitters, and 7 dashes of Peychaud’s bitters with ice until it is cold. Strain into a champagne flute and top it off with the sparkling wine of your choice. If you’re feeling particularly festive, garnish it with an orange twist.

A New Orleans Cocktail

I began writing my debut novel in the fall of 2019, starting with a kernel of an idea about a young woman (perhaps a little like me) who was a former newspaper reporter and a little obsessed with craft cocktails. I was only a few chapters into it when my family and I made a trip to New Orleans for a short, fall break. When looking around for an Airbnb, I couldn’t resist the opportunity to stay in the former childhood home of author Lillian Hellman. Her play, The Little Foxes, was one of the first live performances I remember seeing as a child, and of course, I absolutely love the movie adaptation with Bette Davis.

As I sat in the little kitchen of the apartment, working on a few scenes in my novel, I hoped that there was a little of Lillian’s magic left inside the apartment to inspire me. In honor of that stay, I’d like to recommend a New Orleans cocktail, The Battle of New Orleans, a variation on the Old Fashioned, with a touch of absinthe. 

To make it, add 2 and ½ ounces of bourbon, ¼ ounce of simple syrup, a dash of absinthe, a dash of orange bitters, and two dashes of Peychaud’s bitters to a mixing glass with ice. Stir it until cold and strain into an old fashioned glass over ice (I like to pour it over one big ice cube). Rub the peel of a lemon around the rim of the glass, drop it into the drink as a garnish, and enjoy.