France has done well by the American cocktail revival. French liqueurs, bitters and aperitifs that were gathering dust on the shelf (like Lillet and Benedictine) or weren’t available in the United States (like Suze) now enjoy a renewed relevance.
But France’s big dog in the spirits world, brandy, has struggled for years to find a foothold in this country’s cocktail culture. Cognac, Armagnac and Calvados come in as also-rans behind whiskey, gin, rum and tequila.
The reasons for this are several. Some bartenders have perceived Cognac as being a bit old-fashioned, while others were put off by the overly sweet profile of the leading Cognac brands. But the main stumbling block is price; most French brandies are too expensive to be practical mixers.
A few bars and restaurants, however, haven’t given up the fight. Xavier Herit, the head bartender at the Greenwich Village restaurant and bar Wallflower, has two Cognac-based cocktails on his current menu. Mr. Herit, who was born in Paris, also slips Calvados, the ancient apple brandy from Normandy, into a popular gin concoction called the Betty Draper.
At Bacchanal, a restaurant on the Bowery, the bar manager, Naren Young, deploys Cognac in both the Aztec Sazerac (where it marries with rye) and the Orchard Pear Julep, which includes poire Williams and pear purée. Armagnac, the aromatic, single-distilled, lesser-known cousin of Cognac, is the base of the Pistachio Sour.
“We could have used a bourbon base or a rum base,” Mr. Young said. “But I thought, why not use an Armagnac? We never see that in cocktails. And it’s worked beautifully.”
But there is perhaps no greater brandy evangelist among America’s bartenders than Thad Vogler. At Bar Agricole and his other San Francisco restaurant and bar, Trou Normand (which opened early this year, named after the Norman tradition of taking a shot of Calvados between courses), it is hard to escape the liquid fruits of France’s vineyards and orchards.
“I’ve always been interested in spirits that have an appellation,” Mr. Vogler said, “where every aspect of production from the agricultural component to the bottling component has been considered.”
That kind of attention and prestige often means prohibitive prices. Mr. Young said, “In the past, to put a brandy cocktail on the menu and have it be profitable, you’d have to charge $18.”
Some producers have tried to compensate by creating less expensive brandies geared toward mixing, like Pierre Ferrand’s 1840 Cognac. “It is so affordable,” said Mr. Herit, who has made it Wallflower’s house brandy. “That’s one of the reasons I use it.”
Mr. Vogler circumvented the cost issue another way. “When we started thinking of opening a second place, we knew that was going to allow us much more economy of scale,” he said. “We could buy barrels directly from producers and get pricing that would allow us to put the stuff in cocktails.” Mr. Vogler is sitting on eight barrels of Cognac, Armagnac and Calvados. His cocktails sell for $12 to $14.
Less concerned with price is Dirty French, the new Lower East Side restaurant, where Thomas Waugh, the director of bar operations for Major Food Group, is trying to bring back the faded tradition of an after-dinner glass of brandy. So far, he offers seven Cognacs, 11 Armagnacs and two types of Calvados by the glass. Prices range from $16 to $73, and customers are responding well, he said.
Still, before you can sell it, you have to explain it. The first question you get when trying to pitch an Armagnac, Mr. Waugh said, is, “What kind of Cognac is that?”
Mr. Vogler has had less trouble putting his brandy-heavy menu across. He credits the cocktail renaissance.
“One thing it’s accomplished is, in metropolitan areas, the consuming public is up for what’s on the menu,” he said. “I’ve been amazed at how much brandy is selling. And how little resistance there is.”