t’s hard to know exactly how Mardi Gras will play
out this year, but no matter what, New Orleans
will be celebrating with great drinks. The city
is famous for its cocktails—the Sazerac, America’s
first cocktail, was invented here around 1850. And
although many people associate Mardi Gras with
hurricane slushies and giant beers (New Orleans
has more bars per capita than any other city in
the country!), the city’s best mixologists spend the
pre-Lent celebration making plenty of
carefully crafted drinks. “Mixology is
just as much of an art as the music and
dancing you see during Mardi Gras,” says
Daniel Victory, founder of the cocktail
school New Orleans Drink Lab. “The glass is a stage
and everything you put into it is a character.” Get in
the spirit with one of these recipes from famous
French Quarter spots. —Nora Horvath
new orleans