New Orleans has played a significant role in cocktail culture over the past century-plus. The City That Care Forgot has been responsible for classics like the Sazerac and Ramos Gin Fizz. Its contributions also include the Vieux Carré, which was first stirred to life during the 1930s by Walter Bergeron, a bartender at New Orleans’ legendary Carousel Bar (then known as the Swan Room) inside the Hotel Monteleone. Vieux Carré means “old square” in French and refers to the city’s French Quarter neighborhood. Like so many classic cocktails from that city, the recipe represents the crosscurrents of America at the time: brandy and liqueur from France, vermouth from Italy, and rye whiskey from just up the Mississippi. The Vieux Carré is at once boozy, sweet, bitter and smooth—in other words, it’s New Orleans in a glass.