Historian Elizabeth Pearce enjoys sharing the rich history of New Orleans through cocktails. She currently runs Drink & Learn, where she takes travelers on an interactive tour of the city as they sip on famous drinks. She also shares her love of the city on her podcast and through books that are guides to the bars of New Orleans. Pearce recently made a pit stop in Houston for a special cocktail dinner at Brennan’s, where she tied the history of New Orleans with the restaurant’s delicious dishes and cocktails.
What ignited your passion for cocktails and talking about New Orleans history?
“I helped create and open the Southern Food and Beverage Museum. I was the founding curator there. I learned how to make something out of nothing. The museum opened in early 2008, and that year ended in a great financial apocalypse. Funding dried up. Everybody got laid off. I needed a job. I took all the programming that I had been presenting at the museum, and I had a lot of friends who worked in the conventions and visitors meeting planner world. So, I entered this world not as a bartender, not as a chef, but as somebody who talked about food and drink for a living and told the history of New Orleans through that.”
If a Houstonian is visiting New Orleans, what’s a place that you like to go to that you never get sick of?
“That place is the Mississippi River. The thing that made New Orleans be New Orleans, be where it is and so much of its history is tied into the river. Because open container drinking is legal, what you should do is go get a drink. It can be somewhere fancy or not. The great thing about the French Quarter is whatever you want is available. So, go get a drink, look at the Mississippi River, and be awed by its magnificence, and think about what it was and what it is.”
What’s an easy cocktail someone can make at home?
“This is a drink that’s not invented in New Orleans, but it is a drink that is very popular there and it is a drink that evokes the vibe of the city and everybody likes it. You should make a French 75. Most people make it with gin, but in New Orleans it’s very popular to serve it with cognac. If you can’t squeeze a lemon, go buy the fancy lemonade. Put on some really good music. No one can be grumpy drinking a French 75. I dare you!”
