Second Thursday Lecture Series: The Obituary Cocktail with Sue Strachan 

Join us for a virtual evening with Sue Strachan  as she discusses her recent book, The Obituary Cocktail (LSU Press, July 2025). This program is sponsored by the Friends of the Cabildo as part of the Second Thursday Lecture Series. It is free and open to the public, but registration is required. The program will take place on Zoom. Please register here and a link will be emailed to you on the day of the lecture.

About the Book

In a city known for celebrating in the face of death, it’s no surprise that the funerary tradition is honored by a drink. The Obituary Cocktail is a spirited dive into New Orleans’s bohemian past, chronicling how this cocktail—made with gin, vermouth, and absinthe—became central to mid-twentieth-century café society before fading temporarily into obscurity.

Like a good obituary, this book shares stories about the drink, beginning with its 1940s origins at Café Lafitte, the oldest continuously operating gay bar in the U.S. and the stomping ground for the city’s café society, which included Tennessee Williams, Ella Brennan, and a rich crop of prominent New Orleans visitors. Sue Strachan explores the history of the cocktail’s ingredients, shares recipes for home mixologists, and resurrects the stories of other morbidly monikered drinks. With detours into the world of secret societies, second-line parades, and celebrations of deathly holidays like Halloween and All Saints’ Day, The Obituary Cocktail gives new life to this unique beverage.

About the Author

Sue Strachan is a social historian, journalist, and author who has written about New Orleans culture, food, history, and current events for numerous publications.