SAZERAC COMPANY OPENS SAZERAC HOUSE IMMERSIVE SPIRITED EXPERIENCE
New homeplace celebrates New Orleans cocktail culture in completely restored historic building; brings first whiskey distillery to downtown New Orleans
Source: SAZERAC COMPANY
October 2, 2019
The Sazerac Company, an American family-owned company based in New Orleans since 1850, today opened the Sazerac House, an immersive, spirited experience exploring the history of New Orleans through its cocktails. The Sazerac House, located at the intersection of Canal and Magazine Street, is just a few hundred yards from the original 1850 Sazerac Coffee House-the site where the Sazerac Cocktail was first introduced and the company was born. Cutting-edge, immersive exhibit technology throughout the experience allows guests to dive into the French Quarter in the 1800s, take a seat at a simulation of the original Sazerac House café tables, chat with virtual New Orleans bartenders about their signature drink recipes and learn how to build drinks from the famous Mr. Boston guide, based on their favorite flavor profiles. The Sazerac House is open Wednesday through Saturday from 1:00 pm to 6:00 pm through the end of November 2019, and will then be expanding its hours. Complimentary tickets, available at www.sazerachouse.com, are required for entry.
Inside, guests will learn about the roots of the Sazerac family, which date back to the 1630s in France, explore interactive exhibits about the iconic Sazerac Cocktail, as well as learn about the impact of New Orleans on international cocktail culture. The Sazerac Company worked with a number of archivists to thoroughly research and document all of the information in the exhibits. More than a museum, guests can also take part in the production of Peychaud’s Bitters and Sazerac Rye Whiskey-marking the first time that whiskey has been legally distilled in the New Orleans Central Business District.
“The opening of the Sazerac House gives us a show-stopping homeplace in the heart of New Orleans, in a building with a history that aligns so closely to ours,” said Mark Brown, president and chief executive officer of the Sazerac Company. “The Sazerac House showcases our roots in this remarkable city, our commitment to our guests to create an incredibly memorable experience and our celebration of the Sazerac Cocktail.”
Upon arrival, guests will travel past a three-story-tall bottle wall featuring signature Sazerac brand spirits to elevators that bring them to the third floor, where the self-guided journey begins. Guests will first immerse themselves in New Orleans in the 1800s before traveling to the second floor exhibits which feature modern day cocktail craftsmanship. Finally, visitors will explore whiskey production in the distillery before exiting through the retail store on the first floor. Along the way, guests who are age 21 and over will enjoy sampling stations with a variety of Sazerac products or cocktails, which will vary by day of the week and the season.
Sazerac House Highlights Include:
Sophisticated Spirits
Sit down, choose a drink and enjoy a virtual cocktail mixed up by a New Orleans bartender. Four bartenders who represent the city’s diverse cocktail culture share their craft, cocktail history, and personal stories. Watch an expert in action and along the way, learn about important tools, ingredients, spirits, and lore. Visitors leave feeling inspired and empowered to order or make new drinks.
Café Culture
Café Culture captures the Sazerac House, c. 1902, one of the city’s top destinations-a place where the who’s who went to cut deals, handle business and discuss politics. Visitors use physical coasters to activate the three stories and touch to expand upon story elements. Guests will meet the Sazerac House’s famous bartenders, enjoy tales of its spirited history, learn methods for making its most famous drinks, and get a taste for some of the celebrations. At the end, visitors can take the coaster as a souvenir, which has a drink recipe printed on the back.
Magic Mirrors
Using hidden motion sensors, seemingly regular mirrors magically reveal a series of animated films. Through each of the three mirrors, visitors will see historic advertisements, photographs, and iconic Sazerac products, including Herbsaint, Sazerac de Forge & Fils Cognac, and Sazerac Rye Whiskey.
The Power of the Dash
Visitors discover that bitters are a versatile product with the power to elevate cocktails and food recipes. They learn what bitters are, how they’re made, and simple pairings for each of the three featured Sazerac products. While learning about bitters as a concept, guests will also be able to view production and bottling of the famous Peychaud’s Bitters.
Mr. Boston
Inspired by the Mr. Boston Bartender Guide, this interactive exhibit offers a curated-but-extensive menu of cocktails and a playful mode to find just the right one. Spin the virtual wheel to locate the perfect drink based on favorite flavors and spirits. Visitors can also browse recipes and learn about how drinking has changed since the first Mr. Boston guide was published in the 1930.
Sazerac Rye Distillery Exhibit
One of the showstoppers of the Sazerac House is the Distillery Exhibit, which includes a new, custom-built still on the first floor of the Sazerac House. The 60-inch diameter, 500-gallon capacity still, which will produce Sazerac Rye Whiskey, is viewable from two stories through a glass front facing Canal Street, making it a prime attraction in the heart of downtown New Orleans. Sazerac Rye will also be bottled on site and available for sale in the Sazerac House retail shop. A 2,200 gallon thermal energy tank, viewable in the Distillery Exhibit, makes 14,000 pounds of ice at night to cool and condition the distillery equipment during the day.
Retail Shop
At the close of their visit, guests will have the opportunity to purchase items from the retail shop, including apparel, bar tools, exclusive gift sets and even the spirits represented at the Sazerac House.
The Sazerac House is a full renovation of two nearly 200-year-old buildings which were previously vacant for more than 30 years. Local historic preservation architects Trapolin-Peer Architects and Ryan Gootee General Contractors led the renovation efforts of the 48,000 square foot space over the course of two years. Throughout the renovation there was a focus on restoring and reusing historic elements of the building, which reduced landfill load by 5300 tons and saved 2.557 metric tons of CO2.
Gallagher & Associates, a museum design company known for its work on the National WWII Museum, The Spy Museum, and many other notable attractions designed the exhibits. The New Orleans-based Solomon Group fabricated and installed the exhibits, and provided audio-visual integration.
In addition to exhibit space, the Sazerac House provides state of the art meeting and event space, with a capacity of up to 400 guests. Private events can include tastes of the spirits portfolios of the Sazerac Company with cocktail experts.
The buildings also house Sazerac company offices, which are home to 60 employees, 45 of which are new positions due to the Sazerac House creation.
Sazerac has a history of buying hidden gems and restoring them to their natural beauty. In 1992 the company bought Buffalo Trace Distillery in Kentucky, complete with ramshackle buildings, barbed wire fences surrounding the property, and an employee base which had dwindled down to 50 from its thriving post World War II days of 1,000 employees. Today, Buffalo Trace Distillery is one of only 2,600 national historic landmarks in the United States, employing nearly 500 workers, and welcoming more than 250,000 visitors a year who enjoy its lush gardens and picturesque campus.
Sazerac is projecting 200,000 visitors within the Sazerac House’s first year of operation. The purchase price and renovation price is not being disclosed.
About Sazerac House
Standing proudly in a historic building at the corner of Canal and Magazine, and just a short stroll from the original 1850s era Sazerac Coffeehouse, the Sazerac House is an immersive exploration of the spirited culture of New Orleans. Featuring three floors of interactive exhibits across 48,000 square feet, including private event venues, an on-site Sazerac Rye distillery, and Peychaud’s Bitters production facility, the Sazerac House welcomes visitors to experience New Orleans history through the stories of its cocktails. For more information on the Sazerac House, please visit www.sazerachouse.com
Pictures: https://www.sazerachouse.com/media/image-gallery/
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Sazerac House opens its doors, and a new portal for New Orleans cocktail culture
Source: https://www.nola.com/
BY IAN MCNULTY
SEP 30, 2019
Wine aficionados can pursue their passion at vineyards and tasting rooms around the world. Breweries will draw beer hounds wherever they set up shop.
New Orleans, meanwhile, is America’s cocktail heartland. Now it has a new entry point to explore these drinks, the spirits behind them and the city’s own imprint on their history and culture.
Sazerac House officially opens Wednesday (Oct. 2). Taking its name from a New Orleans classic, the Sazerac cocktail, it is also the brand embassy for a liquor industry giant with roots entwined with that drink – the Sazerac Co.
It is a multifaceted complex: an interactive museum, an event space, a fully functional (albeit small scale) production facility for whiskey and bitters. Admission is free, and events, seminars and other programs will soon take place under its roof.
Housed in a newly restored historic building at Canal and Magazine streets, Sazerac House opens to a gleaming vista of white tile, cast iron and woodwork the color of bourbon. The visual centerpiece is a tower of illuminated bar shelves lined with liquor bottles and stretching for three stories through the museum’s open center. On the floors above, and around each corner, there’s a chance to delve deeper into a topic that has long been part of the New Orleans allure.
“People are coming to explore and experience,” said Sazerac House general manager Miguel Solorzano. “They want to explore our neighborhoods and restaurants and experience our culture. This is a place where they can explore and experience the traditions and culture of spirits.”
A stirring history
The new attraction gives the Sazerac Co. a way to tell its story and show off its many brands, which run from the ubiquitous (Southern Comfort) to the mythically rare (Pappy Van Winkle). But Kevin Richards, the company’s marketing manager, said Sazerac House was conceived to offer more than a factory tour and gift shop.
“If it was just about one company it wouldn’t stand the test of time, and we want this to be here for a while,” Richards said. “When people come to New Orleans they go home with stories. We want their visit to Sazerac House to be part of that story, for them to say ‘I went to New Orleans and learned the history of these cocktails.’ In that way, it doesn’t even matter if they know this is from the Sazerac Co. or not.”
Still, if one company is equipped to tell the story of cocktails through its own brands, it’s the Sazerac Co. Its own genealogical chart parallels cocktail history.
That starts with Peychaud’s Bitters. Developed by pharmacist Antoine Peychaud, who arrived in New Orleans from Haiti about 1830, it became a key ingredient in what would become the Sazerac cocktail.
The Sazerac name itself goes back to France and a family of the same name that started a winery in about 1600. By 1796, the cognac produced here, Sazerac de Forge & Fils, was being exported to New Orleans.
The Sazerac Coffee House in the French Quarter took its own name from the popular cocktail originally made with the cognac (later replaced with rye). This bar grew into a liquor company, acquiring other brands, including Peychaud’s. It became a wholesale grocery company to survive Prohibition, and got back to the booze business after Repeal, marketing its Sazerac cocktail.
In 1948, the Goldring family of New Orleans acquired the company. In the past few decades, its growth began to snowball, paralleling the dramatic growth of the bourbon business. It became the country’s largest spirits producer and one of the largest such companies in the world. Local businessman Bill Goldring directs the company from New Orleans.
A tour of taste
While the company’s brands are everywhere at Sazerac House, the museum focuses less on the “who” and more on the “how” and “why” of the larger cocktail culture around them.
Visitors can take self-guided tours over three floors of exhibits, with tales told by a mix of museum staff and interactive displays. Samples of cocktails are offered around the museum.
On the ground floor, visible through windows from Canal Street, the Sazerac House operates its own micro-distillery for Sazerac Rye whiskey. The facility replicates everything that happens at the company’s main Kentucky distillery, from the arrival of grain in huge canvas sacks to a bottling line for the finished product. Visitors even have a view into a working lab, where spirits in progress are analyzed, just like at the main production facilities.
“We wanted to show the authentic way of making alcohol, exactly what they do in Kentucky, but of course on a much smaller scale and with a bunch of people here to guide you through it,” said distillery supervisor David Bock.
Upstairs, an exhibit on bitters doubles as a boutique production shop for Peychaud’s Bitters. Pull open draws and you get a whiff of the various herbs, barks and roots used in bitters. It’s aimed at demystifying the potion, though only so much.
“Obviously, we’re not going to tell you exactly what’s in Peychaud’s,” said Bock, ever protective of the formula. “But we can show you common ingredients you would use to make bitters so you can better understand them and why we use them.”
While exhibits draw from cocktail history, they tap modern technology to deliver it. That includes virtual reality bartenders, or screens showing life-size videos of bartenders at different types of bars – from sleek lounge to old school joint. Take a seat, select a drink via touchscreen and they share tips and techniques – why they’re using an atomizer, for instance, or why a drink is on the rocks or strained. It all comes through in a patient recorded cadence you’re not likely to get at a busy real life bar.
The museum is tightly embroidered with detail. Look closely at the intricately patterned railings on the central staircase – S shapes signify Sazerac, outlines of anise blossoms represent an ingredient in bitters.
In one exhibit, a huge section of a white oak tree was hauled into the museum, a feat that required extra structural support in the floor beneath it, all so the museum could emphasize the importance of barrel aging.
“We can show every step – here’s the wood that will later become the staves, that will later become the barrels that are so important in creating the spirits,” said Bock.
Creating a “homeplace”
New Orleans has been home to a cocktail museum in one form or another since 2005, when a group of cocktail historians and enthusiasts formed the Museum of the American Cocktail. That collection is now part of the Southern Food & Beverage Museum in Central City.
The Sazerac name is also affiliated with the Sazerac Bar, at the Roosevelt Hotel, which uses the name under a licensing agreement with the Sazerac Co. but is not otherwise affiliated with the firm.
The Sazerac House is an estimated $50 million project that took shape on a corner of the CBD that had long been dormant. The Sazerac Co. brought in New Orleans architect Trapolin-Peer and museum designer Gallagher & Associates, the company known locally for its work with the National WWII Museum.
While the Sazerac House is designed for visitors, it also includes corporate offices on its upper floors, will host company events and, Richard said, gives the Sazerac Co. its own tangible “homeplace.”
“This is where the Sazerac Co. really invites people in, invites them into our home,” said Richards. “With 400-plus brands around the world, the framework for this company seems very, very big. But with this, we can shrink it down to the spiritual heart of the company, the beacon for everything we do in this big, global company.”
Sazerac House
101 Magazine St., (504) 910-0100
Free admission
Wed.-Sat. 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. (expanded hours to come)