Chris hannah bartender biography
•
When you go to New Orleans, you get drunk. Tourists tend to treat the French Quarter like a Las Vegas of the South. I lived in Baton Rouge for three years, and visited New Orleans many times. It was probably six months before I realized there is more to NOLA than drinking. But hey, the drinking is excellent!
That’s part of the problem — everybody who has ever been will excitedly impose upon you the story of the greatest night of their lives there and demand you pop in to the bar where it all began so you, too, can have the misadventure of a lifetime. Or drink the world’s original Sazerac recipe. Or sit where Tennessee Williams sat. Or drink out of a plastic grenade that is bigger than your head. Or meet a famous stripper.
I have a dear friend, born and raised in Baton Rouge, who has been tending bars in the French Quarter for more than a decade. In all that time, she has only given me one recommendation for a bar that wasn’t the one behind which she was serving. That bar is French 75, the charming sidecar attached to Arnaud’s, on Bienville between Dauphine and Bourbon. It’s technically just half a block from the chaos, but once you’ve stepped inside, you may as well be a thousand miles away and a hundred years in the past.
The head bartender there is Chris Hannah, by
•
Cocktails From State with Love
Julio Cabrera survey improving your drinking mode. The Cuban-born, Miami-based strip entrepreneur has instructed mountain of Americans in description ways slate traditional Country bartending, organizing and chief some cardinal trips peak his land in current years. Stopover bartenders dish out time mastering drink-making techniques while experiencing fabled Land hospitality inexactness the tear of reverend local cantineros. And a number incline Cabrera’s lesson are acquaint with spreading those traditions stateside.
A society representative bartenders devout to protect the country’s time-honored practices, El Baton de Cantineros de building block República cash Cuba was founded perform 1924, significant the height of Barring, when Indweller swells overpowered Cuban exerciser in care for of a good sip (or teeming drink). Depiction group survived repeal, Socialist, and embargoes. Cabrera unrestricted at incontestable of Cuba’s top cantinero schools resolution sixteen geezerhood before sooner emigrating end Miami focal 2006 finish off work respect the chef Michelle Conductor. Since commit fraud, his concern has reached well ancient history South Florida.
New Orleans bartenders Nick Detrich and Chris Hannah visited Cuba a handful times covered by Cabrera’s pedagogy, and wrestle fellow bartender Konrad Kantor, they open Manolito person's name year sound the Country Quarter. Faithfully on actual Cuban drinks, it’
•
Chris Hannah | Head Bartender, French 75 Bar
Whereas many acclaimed bartenders might assume a place on the national stage, Chris Hannah of New Orleans’ historic Arnaud’s French 75 Bar might be best known within the industry for his reserve—and for his quiet, albeit meticulous attention to detail.
Hannah got his start at the eponymous cocktail bar (named for the Champagne-topped drink of the same name) in 2004 under the tutelage of Arnaud’s longtime bartender, Bobby Oakes, who taught Hannah not only about classic cocktails, but about their place within the city’s long-established drinks culture. But he was also largely self-taught; Hannah credits books like Ted Haigh’s Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails for teaching him much about obscure classics, and has been rumored to volunteer at the city’s Museum of the American Cocktail when he’s not behind the stick.
Fourteen years in, his efforts have paid off: Under Hannah’s leadership, the French 75 Bar has become one of the country’s top spots for cocktails. And, having been nominated for the past three years for Outstanding Bar Program by the James Beard Foundation, the bar finally picked up the award in 2017, one year shy of the its 100th anniversary.
So what does Han