The Obituary Cocktail

In a city known for celebrating in the face of death, it’s no surprise that the funerary tradition is honored by a drink. The Obituary Cocktail is a spirited dive into New Orleans’s bohemian past, chronicling how this cocktail--made with gin, vermouth, and absinthe--became central to mid-twentieth-century café society before fading temporarily into obscurity.

Like a good obituary, this book shares stories about the drink, beginning with its 1940s origins at Café Lafitte, the oldest continuously operating gay bar in the U.S. and the stomping ground for the city’s café society, which included Tennessee Williams, Ella Brennan, and a rich crop of prominent New Orleans visitors. Sue Strachan explores the history of the cocktail’s ingredients, shares recipes for home mixologists, and resurrects the stories of other morbidly monikered drinks. With detours into the world of secret societies, second-line parades, and celebrations of deathly holidays like Halloween and All Saints’ Day, The Obituary Cocktail gives new life to this unique beverage.

Sue Strachan is a social historian, journalist, and author who has written about New Orleans culture, food, history, and current events for numerous publications. Her first book, The Café Brûlot, was published in 2021.