Here's something you might be interested in.
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed
Big Screen — Movie commentary
Blurt — Music's inside track
Booze News — San Diego spirits
Classical Music — Immortal beauty
Classifieds — Free and easy
Cover Stories — Front-page features
Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes
Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts
Feast! — Food & drink reviews
Feature Stories — Local news & stories
Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore
From the Archives — Spotlight on the past
Golden Dreams — Talk of the town
The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it
Letters — Our inbox
Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites
Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans
Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists
Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news
News Ticker — News & politics
Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated
Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna
Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated
Poetry — The old and the new
Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers
Reading — The hunt for intellectuals
Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails
San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds
SD on the QT — Almost factual news
Sheep and Goats — Places of worship
Special Issues — The best of
Street Style — San Diego streets have style
Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves
Theater — On stage in San Diego this week
Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative
Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work
Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego
Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads
Your Week — Daily event picks
The smoke and magic of Louisiana Purchase’s Voodoo Carré
A perfect pairing for rich southern cuisine
Rob McShea
- Rob McShea
- Lousiana Purchase
- 2305 University Avenue
- North Park
Look no further than North Park for a taste of the French Quarter. In keeping with the theme of Louisiana Purchase, Rob McShea put his own spin on a menu of Big Easy cocktails. The Voodoo Carré is “based off of a Vieux Carré, which was invented in New Orleans in the 1930s, at a bar called the Carousel Bar inside the Hotel Monteleone — it’s very famous.”
Sticking to the spirit-forward classic, Voodoo Carré is made with rye, cognac, sweet vermouth and bitters. McShea wanted to reinvent the old-timey drink by substituting Bénédictine liqueur in favor of a more modern palate. “We add Amaro Nonino, which is a guava-based amaro. And it really lends itself well to flavors. It’s not as super syrupy or bitter as other amaros. And then we add a dash of peach balsamic vinegar — gives it a nice, nice bite.”
“Then we smoke it with applewood.” McShea explains how one smokes a cocktail. “We have this contraption, I kind of invented this one. I just made it out of stuff that I had,” he says, pointing to a device on the bar top. “Basically it’s a cloche device. A hand smoker runs through it, and the pipe runs through the base and comes up through the bottom of the cloched area. It will fill up with smoke and give a nice aromatic texture to the cocktail.”
Wood smoke flavor coats glass and the top of the drink. “You’re getting the aroma when you’re tasting. So you’re getting these campfire notes along with pepper from the rye, the fruit flavors from the cognac… It’s a nice melding of a lot of different sensory ingredients.”
Using this technique, Voodoo Carré taps into the spirit of Nola. “With smoke you think magic and ‘mysticism,’ if you will. That’s where the smoking element comes in. It adds that mystic aura around it, which would equate to voodoo.”
McShea thinks it’s a perfect pairing for rich southern cuisine. “The balsamic component of the cocktail is acidic, so it really cuts through. If you’re going to eat a nice fried chicken entrée with mac and cheese, you want something that will kind of cut that fat. The rye, cognac and the balsamic vinegar are going to cut that for you. It compliments soul food really well.”
Voodoo Carré
- Louisiana Purchase’s
- Voodoo Carré
- 1 oz Rye Whiskey
- 1 oz Cognac
- ½ oz Amaro Nonino
- ½ oz Sweet Vermouth
- 1 bar spoon peach balsamic
- 1 dash pechauds
- 1 dash angostura
- Add ingredients to mixing glass, stir until adequately diluted and chilled. Smoke with applewood; garnish with orange twist.
Here's something you might be interested in.
The smoke and magic of Louisiana Purchase’s Voodoo Carré
A perfect pairing for rich southern cuisine
The smoke and magic of Louisiana Purchase’s Voodoo Carré
A perfect pairing for rich southern cuisine
Rob McShea
- Rob McShea
- Lousiana Purchase
- 2305 University Avenue
- North Park
Look no further than North Park for a taste of the French Quarter. In keeping with the theme of Louisiana Purchase, Rob McShea put his own spin on a menu of Big Easy cocktails. The Voodoo Carré is “based off of a Vieux Carré, which was invented in New Orleans in the 1930s, at a bar called the Carousel Bar inside the Hotel Monteleone — it’s very famous.”
Sticking to the spirit-forward classic, Voodoo Carré is made with rye, cognac, sweet vermouth and bitters. McShea wanted to reinvent the old-timey drink by substituting Bénédictine liqueur in favor of a more modern palate. “We add Amaro Nonino, which is a guava-based amaro. And it really lends itself well to flavors. It’s not as super syrupy or bitter as other amaros. And then we add a dash of peach balsamic vinegar — gives it a nice, nice bite.”
“Then we smoke it with applewood.” McShea explains how one smokes a cocktail. “We have this contraption, I kind of invented this one. I just made it out of stuff that I had,” he says, pointing to a device on the bar top. “Basically it’s a cloche device. A hand smoker runs through it, and the pipe runs through the base and comes up through the bottom of the cloched area. It will fill up with smoke and give a nice aromatic texture to the cocktail.”
Wood smoke flavor coats glass and the top of the drink. “You’re getting the aroma when you’re tasting. So you’re getting these campfire notes along with pepper from the rye, the fruit flavors from the cognac… It’s a nice melding of a lot of different sensory ingredients.”
Using this technique, Voodoo Carré taps into the spirit of Nola. “With smoke you think magic and ‘mysticism,’ if you will. That’s where the smoking element comes in. It adds that mystic aura around it, which would equate to voodoo.”
McShea thinks it’s a perfect pairing for rich southern cuisine. “The balsamic component of the cocktail is acidic, so it really cuts through. If you’re going to eat a nice fried chicken entrée with mac and cheese, you want something that will kind of cut that fat. The rye, cognac and the balsamic vinegar are going to cut that for you. It compliments soul food really well.”
Voodoo Carré
- Louisiana Purchase’s
- Voodoo Carré
- 1 oz Rye Whiskey
- 1 oz Cognac
- ½ oz Amaro Nonino
- ½ oz Sweet Vermouth
- 1 bar spoon peach balsamic
- 1 dash pechauds
- 1 dash angostura
- Add ingredients to mixing glass, stir until adequately diluted and chilled. Smoke with applewood; garnish with orange twist.
Felicyta_Nowicka
This comment was removed by the site staff for violation of the usage agreement.
June 26, 2021
Rose9697
This comment was removed by the site staff for violation of the usage agreement.
Oct. 12, 2021