|
 From the moment the sun rises over the Mississippi River until the moon shimmers over Lake Pontchartrain, beverages punctuate life in New Orleans. Steaming, chicory-spiked coffee wakes us up; pitchers of Luzianne iced tea in the icebox keep us going; mugs of Dixie or Barq’s Root Beer wash down lunch, and Sazeracs, Southern Comfort and Hurricanes set the mood at sunset. Beverages are part of our daily ritual. They keep us cool, they keep us talking and they offer opportunities for introductions, solicitations and felicitations. Without them we’d be more than thirsty, we’d be lost.
New Orleans has a lot of nicknames, and many of them refer to her reputation as a drinker’s town. The Big Easy, the City that Care Forgot, the city of sin. This is, after all, where the cocktail was invented. And while everyone knows Bourbon Street – who hasn’t spent an evening letting loose on that bawdy, beer-soaked boulevard? – there’s more to the story, and to the city. Drinks can be taken for granted: they wash down a po’boy or keep us cool inside a sticky, sultry jazz club. But they are as important as the food, music and architecture in making New Orleans unique. What would New Orleans be without café au lait at the eternally-open Café du Monde? Luzianne, producer of iced tea, the ubiquitous Southern beverage, is based here. There is a great tradition of breweries here, like Jax, Falstaff and Regal, and that tradition is carried into the present day by Dixie, Crescent City and Abita. Absinthe is long gone, but Herbsaint, Peychaud’s Bitters and New Orleans Rum are still home-grown commodities. Sodas like Barq’s and Big Shot and the recently-returned New Orleans Nectar Soda are “only in New Orleans” drinks held dear by natives and visitors alike. Drinks are a part of our collective memories. They tie us together and tie us to our history. In telling their stories, we tell our own. Elizabeth Pearce, a native New Orleanian and a self-proclaimed foodie since age three, is curating the exhibit. This exhibit is made possible through the generous contributions of our sponors, including Reily Foods, Southern Comfort, New Orleans Centre', Pat O'Brien's, the Kabacoff School of Hotel, Restaurant and Tourism Management at the University of New Orleans, the Napoleon House, Beuermann Miller Fitzgerald, History Factory and Blaine Kern Productions.
|
