If you can believe it, there was a time that a lot of New Orleans bars did not welcome in ladies. But a small contingent of brave, brazen women decided to change that so that all of us ladies since then could drink alongside the dudes. Actually, the whole idea was from a man's mind, though.
The Sazerac Bar only invited women to come and imbibe on Mardi Gras Day until 1949 when Seymour Weiss bought the joint. He reopened the bar with the addition of allowing women in all the time, but he really wanted to make a splash. He hired a few pretty ladies to bound into the bar on opening day, and he called it The Stormin' of the Sazerac. Genius business move for publicity or a supporter of feminism? We may never know which outweighed the other.
But every year since, we still celebrate the event. This year, the ladies-only luncheon where attendees where the fashions of the time are invited to Storm the Sazerac like our fore-mothers with a fancy second line. This year, we even had a lady who was at the original event, if you can believe that! The menu included a fresh salad of local greens and sugarcane vinaigrette, a pairing of New York strip steak and redfish with smoked gouda grits, and Sazerac Cake for dessert. The Veuve Clicquot was a pefert compliment to the meal, alongside a fashion show of period attire, fantastic dancers, and lots of history tidbits from our emcees.
