The Restaurant Guys' Regulars

Jimmy Bannos Sr.: Bringing “The Big Easy” to Chicago *V*

Subscriber Episode • • Jenifer Pascal

Share episode

This episode is only available to subscribers.

The Restaurant Guys' Regulars

Exclusive access to bonus episodes!

This is a Vintage episode from 2006 with a current day introduction

The Banter

The Guys add a modern day discussion about an easy and tasty bar garnish that you ought to try.

The Conversation

The Restaurant Guys catch up with third generation restaurateur Jimmy Bannos Sr. Jimmy joins The Guys to talk about his love of New Orleans cooking at his restaurant Heaven on Seven in Chicago. They discuss the great history of cocktails in New Orleans and Jimmy’s Big Easy Cocktails book. 

The Inside Track

The Guys and Jimmy share a love of New Orleans and they like to eat their way through it.

“ You go to Cafe Dumont for some beignets in the morning and then where are we gonna go for mid meal? We do a mid meal before lunch. So then we go there. Then after that we're going, well, where are we going for lunch? And then where we're going for supper? Where we're going for dinner and where we're going for late night? That's the whole kind of New Orleans culture. It's all about food, beverage and people,” Jimmy Bannos Sr. on The Restaurant Guys Podcast 2006

Bio

Jimmy Bannos Sr., a third-generation restaurateur, worked at his parents’ diner when he was growing up. After receiving his formal culinary education at Washburne Trade School, Bannos became infatuated with Crescent City cooking in the early 1980s and worked with famous New Orleans chefs, such as Paul Prudhomme at K-Paul’s, Frank Brigtsen and Emeril Lagasse.

Jimmy’s bustling New Orleans-style Heaven on Seven restaurants have been one of the most popular eateries in Chicago for decades (recently closed).

Jimmy’s books are The Heaven on Seven Cookbook: Where It’s Mardi Gras All The Time! and Big Easy Cocktails, Jazzy Drinks and Savory Bites. 

He and his son, Jimmy Bannos Jr. will be opening Koulkas Greek Eatery in Illinois later this year. 

Info

Jimmy Sr. and his son, Jimmy Jr., will be opening Kouklas Greek Eatery in 2025

kouklasgreekeatery.com




The Martini Expo!

Presented by the award-winning publication The Mix with Robert Simonson 

https://martiniexpo.com/

Sept 12 & 13, 2025 @ Industry City in Brooklyn

Join us for martini experiences with acclaimed guests (see martiniexpo.com)

RG Regulars get a 10% discount and a free burger at Stage Left Steak in NJ. Email us for a code TheGuys@restaurantguyspodcast.com

Our Sponsors
The Heldrich Hotel & Conference Center
https://www.theheldrich.com/

Magyar Bank
https://www.magbank.com/

Withum Accounting
https://www.withum.com/

Our Places
Stage Left Steak
https://www.stageleft.com/

Catherine Lombardi Restaurant
https://www.catherinelombardi.com/

Stage Left Wineshop
https://www.stageleftwineshop.com/

Reach Out to The Guys!
TheGuys@restaurantguyspodcast.com


Francis:

Today our guest is Jimmy Anos, who with his family owns Heaven on seven, a New Orleans style restaurant in Chicago. He's also co-authored a book on New Orleans cocktails that's out now called Big Easy Cocktails, jazzy Drinks and Savory Bites from New Orleans. Jimmy, why a New Orleans restaurant in Chicago?

Speaker 10:

Crazy, ain't it? Yeah. Did you get lost? What happened? I'm lost. I made the wrong turn. You know, I, uh, well, 20, 26 years ago, my, uh, well my parents, my dad and myself in the kitchen, my mom, my brother in the back of the house, we bought a, uh, I'm a third generation restaurateur, so, you know, so your

Francis:

whole family's crazy. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. And actually I'm first generation crazy. And what do you, what do think, actually my

Speaker 10:

son is be fourth generation. He just graduated up. Culinary school two years ago, and he is working in New York right now, so it's easy. Uh, where's he working? He's actually working with, uh, a buddy of mine, Mario Vital, at uh, uh, his restaurant called Del Posto. Great place. We, we've eaten there and actually great place

Francis:

actually. We, we went to college with Mario.

Speaker 10:

Oh yeah. We're at Rutgers. Yeah.

Francis:

Yeah. That's, that's where we're broadcast out of. We're broadcast out of New Brunswick, New Jersey. Oh, awesome. Look at that. The world is a small, small place. Is it not? And as

Speaker 10:

we get older, as you know, it's getting smaller and smaller. Now, where's your son? That's only,

Speaker 6:

that's only'cause I'm getting bigger and bigger. Jake

Speaker 10:

thought you've seen a picture of me. Have you? Well then we talk about big, we're talking about Mario too. Nobody, nobody trusts skinny. Nobody trust skinny

Francis:

re tur. So, um. Where, uh, where's your son working? Which, which place? Uh, he's

Speaker 10:

working at Del Poso.

Francis:

At Del Poso. Wow, that's a fabulous, fabulous restaurant.

Speaker 10:

Yeah, a really great opportunity for him. And he's learning a lot. It's, uh, it's a really good experience. 21-year-old kid. It's a great experience for

Francis:

him. You know, what's, what's interesting is when we see, and I'm sure you did the same thing, and I think that, you know,'cause. A lot of people out there who are listening to the show don't own restaurants or work in restaurants. When you see, um, someone's whose family owned a small restaurant mm-hmm. On a resume, you hire that person almost,

Speaker 6:

almost automatically. Sure. Nobody

Francis:

knows hard work like a restaurateur kid.

Speaker 10:

Yeah. You know, I started washing dishes at nine, you know? Mm-hmm. And, and I actually really liked it, and it's just, uh, working my way up, going to culinary school and then, uh, college for a little bit. And, uh, I would never think about doing anything else, you know? and, and I love the business and I, I never, I would never try to talk my kids into it. I was never one to force'em into it because, you know, you know how it is. Anybody ever force their kid in any type of business, what always happens is a disaster. You know, I'm thinking about

Speaker 6:

forcing my kids out of it. Are you kidding me?

Speaker 10:

Yeah, exactly. So, you know, and I told'em, I said, you know, we were looking at, you know, CIA and Johnson Wales and stuff like that. And I told him, I said, listen, don't, uh, I don't want why want you go in this business. I eat, drink, and sleep it. You see me all these years. You know what we do? And he said, Hey, listen, don't, don't ask me that question again. This is what I want to do. This is, I've always wanted to do. So he's, uh, he's got, you know, he's got a great resume. Went to, you know, worked at Emeralds in New Orleans already. El Forno and Providence, Rhode Island. Uh. Couple great restaurants, me at Francesca's in Chicago, a place called Miramar.

Francis:

So let's talk about when you were his age and you're outta culinary school and you're coming up in your parents' restaurant and you, you opened the new Garland Coffee Shop in Chicago, right? Right. you're a young chef, you're cooking great food, and you decide to take your parents' Chicago restaurant, which is the new Garland Coffee Shop and reinvent it, and you get them to buy in. As, uh, heaven on seven, A New Orleans style restaurant. Right. How'd that come about? Man,

Speaker 10:

you know, it was, how I would travel would be through my, through my, through different cookbooks, you know, we were almost, almost newly married at the time, and, you know, busted no money, you know, of course three families with three families working outta one joint, you know? Right. And, and, uh, you know, and then, and how I would travel through cookbooks. So I got Paul Peron's cookbook and, uh, back in early 84, I think, when I came out 84, 85. And, uh, made a couple things from him. People went crazy for it, you know, and then I, I, so I called him up and said, Hey, chef. You know, I kind of told him my story and he says, why don't you come on down? So I, I flew down there and I had about a two hour meeting. It was an instant kind of, uh, a love fest. You know, we really, it's like we were long lost brothers, we just, uh, took a liking for each other. And he says, why don't you hang out in my kitchen for the night and. A guy named Frank Bryson was the head chef back then who owns a place called Bryson's in New Orleans. Mm-hmm. Sure. Greg. Greg and Mary Sonya was actually, it's one of the best restaurants down there in, uh, Greg and Mary Sonya, a place called the Gabriela's. And, and so did you

Francis:

work in these places or you just lodge in the kitchens?

Speaker 10:

No, no, no. I just hung out in the kitchen that night and became friends with all these guys and just, you know, I, I've been blessed to thank God with a good palate. when I taste something, I can usually recreate it and I just kind of put my spin on it. my original restaurant especially, and I've got three of'em, you know, three heaven on seven of them. But my original place is, uh. You know, just open breakfast and lunch and you know, basically po boys ate to fe you know, red beans and stuff like that. Mm-hmm. You know, one pot cooking and then we kind of, elevated a little bit and it's what I call the creolization of anything I get my hands on, you know, so it's, uh, you know, we'll do like a sesame crusted pancake chicken. We'll do a. great beef tips with a, um, homemade wisher sauce, fried vil, onion crush. Now,

Francis:

what year was this when you opened the original Heaven on seven, uh, 1980. How did people react, to that in Chicago? I mean, you know what?

Speaker 10:

Because, only because, I mean, new Orleans style, there's a, there's a huge connection between New Orleans and Chicago, so when I started doing it, people were, I mean, it. Cross-cultural, uh, boundaries. I mean, we had a guy from, Illinois state, uh, Supreme Court Justice, sitting at a, you know, because we have a counter where we have like a. 13 seat counter, you know, all of a sudden the, the judge Supreme Court judges is eating, uh, eating a bowl of gumbo. Then I got a guy from the streets of San, sanitation, and the city's eating a bowl of red beans, and next to him is a, is a, a, you know, streetwise guy was kind of homeless, homeless guy, selling newspaper. He's sitting there and so they're all talking, you know what I'm saying? Uh huh And they're all talking about food or all, you know, it's like, Hey, is this something different? this is something where I got back home, I'm from New Orleans, I'm ex uh, new orian and stuff like that. So then it just kind of, just took,

Francis:

and that's, and that's really the purpose of, of what the best purpose of what restaurants are all about is when they're locus of community.

Speaker 6:

So Jimmy, uh, are the, do you imply that there are a lot of, new Orleans transplants in the Chicago area? Uh, definitely. is that historical big population? Yeah. You

Speaker 10:

know, historical plus, you know, the birthplace of jazz of course in New Orleans and the Blues in Chicago. a lot of the musicians made their way up from, you know, from New Orleans to St. Louis to Chicago, you know, and it's amazing how many people we have and. when I started cooking it, it just like people were coming, you know, and it's like, oh my God, this is the place to go. And then, you know, it was what we call no hotdog in the gumbo, you know? It's a real thing. No macaroni

Francis:

in the chili. No hot dogs in the gumbo. Yeah, exactly. And it was like, come

Speaker 10:

on, you know? You know people like, oh, those. Let's do New Orleans style food. Let's put, well, we can't find any duy. Let's put hot dogs in there and let's put like a pound of cayenne pepper in there.

Speaker 6:

No hotdog in the gumbo. I like that. That's not really it, Ben. What I like about it is no hurricanes, but maybe a lot of snow. Yeah, exactly.

Francis:

I got a, I got, I got a sister who puts elbow macaroni in the chili. I keep saying there's no pasta in Mexico. Oh my. I got. Alright, we, this segment's gonna end and I wanna save talking about cocktails to the next segment. I wanna talk about your book in the next segment.'cause you can't talk about New Orleans without talking about cocktails. Great. Um, but you, your original restaurant was on the seventh floor. Right now we just opened our second restaurant and it's on the second floor. Oh, great. And we are nuts. Are you? Three and a half times as nuts as we are for Oh, I've got one on the

Speaker 10:

second floor too. Oh, I see. Yeah. The first one's on the seventh floor. Second one's on the second floor, and then the, the third one is on the, on the, on the main floor. On the ground floor. And

Francis:

don't you find it, it's, it, it's a little harder. Like there's a certain reticence of people to make the commitment of going all the way up for some Oh, yeah. Well,

Speaker 10:

I mean, for the seventh floor especially, we've defied all odds, you know, because it is in a nondescript medical building, where people are like. And what the heck is this? But it's got, it's actually, uh, it's got a real, it's a cult following. It's kind of, actually, it's very new, new Orleans. Like, you know. Well,

Francis:

it's, it's the kind of thing about where once you find it, it's your secret hideaway. Exactly. Little clubby kind of place. And

Speaker 10:

everybody has, you know, I was in the elevator going down yesterday and they, and, and, and I, I kind of followed these people out, you know, and they were talking about, they, I heard'em talking about the whole story type of thing. You know, it's, it's pretty interesting. Everybody has their own little twist.

Francis:

Right. And how they make it your own. How they make your place their own. Joining us is fellow restaurateur, Jimmy Anos, who with his family owns Heaven on seven New Orleans style group of restaurants in Chicago. He also co-authored a book, a New Orleans cocktails called Big Easy Cocktails, jazzy Drinks, and Savory Bites from New Orleans. Hey Jimmy. So how important are cocktails to New Orleans cuisine and to New Orleans in general?

Speaker 10:

Well, you know, all you gotta do is say one word is just Bourbon Street, you know? Right, right. You know, it's got, you know, it's not called skim. It's

Francis:

not, it's not called skim milk Street for a reason. Yeah, exactly. You know,

Speaker 10:

so, I mean, you take it for what you want, you know, it's just, uh, not that, uh, you know, every time we go to New Orleans you're getting hammered, but, uh, it's, uh, most people

Speaker 12:

I know every time they go to New Orleans, they, as a matter of fact, now that

Speaker 10:

I think about it. Yeah, exactly. Well, yeah, exactly. Now that I think about that, lemme rephrase it. No, but it's, uh, you know what, um. I, I wanted to do a book of, you know, the traditional drinks and then kind of my. Twist on some of them also too. And then, uh, and then I wanted to do, uh, you know, we have like 30 or so different, uh, appetizer snack, uh, uh, recipes. Like we have an open face muffett, you know, which we take it and, uh, you know, layer with the meats and cheeses in the all salad and just bake it in the oven for like 12 minutes and it's a, great little snack. You could eat the whole thing or you could cut it up and it's a, you know, good o for appetizers and things. And, uh. The drinks a, uh, a bananas foster drink. You take, um, you know, some rum, some premium vanilla ice cream, some ripe bananas and uh, creamy banana. It's like a lako. I don't you love that word. Creamy banana drives me crazy. I

Francis:

do, if I'm a girl, you naughty little kitten. I'm not, I'm not drinking that Jimmy. I'm more, I'm more like the rye cach kind of a guy. I'm a guy.

Speaker 10:

Yeah, exactly. But I'm telling you, you'll like this. It's those pool drinks, man. Both drinks

Francis:

maybe for dessert. I don't know. I'm a guy and I'm over 22. I can't drink something. Looks like that. It's pretty and all, but you know it's a chick drink anyway. Exactly. But there's a lot of Really,

Speaker 6:

oh my God, I can, I can just read the email now and see them. Yeah, I see them flooding in across my computers. Lighting up across the world.

Francis:

Oh. And I'm sorry, I just, I

Speaker 6:

want everybody to remember Francis said it's a chick drink. Yeah. And I want, mark did not say that. And I want

Francis:

everybody to remember to, to try and envision in their head my three 30 pound partner trying to drink a bananas Foster drink at the bar. Wouldn't you find it amusing? But his wife could drink one and you wouldn't find it amusing. And that's my point. But you know, new Orleans has got a really important history, you know. It as, as far as cocktails are concerned, I mean, Antoine Pecho invented Peau Bitters. Theres the CAC comes from there, the Ramos fizz. Those are probably two of the most important drinks in American cocktail history. Doesn't think.

Speaker 10:

Yeah, exactly. Brandy Milk Punch. And you know, it's just, I'm thinking, even thinking about the Bloody Maryam, I don't know what the origin of that, but I mean, you know. I, I can't, uh, can't beat a bloody mirror when you're in know, especially New Orleans.

Francis:

Well, new Orleans is, new Orleans is very specific for, um, they have a lot of, in the history of the cocktails,'cause we had Ted ha on Dr. Cocktail just recently about his, uh, recent book. And, and he's a great guy and we talked to him a lot off the air as well. But one of the things he said was that New Orleans was particularly well known for, um, what they call eye openers, which was like the Ramos fizz was an eyeopener. In other words, morning, the whole idea of the

Speaker 6:

cocktail in. In the very early stages of cocktail was that it was actually a morning drink. Right. Which, you know, most of us try not to drink in the morning. I'm, I'm for it. Yeah, exactly. You

Francis:

know, the other, there was an interesting point in your book where you wrote, you and your co-author wrote, Booze bankrolled, the restaurant, dynasties of the towns. So cocktails play a pretty important role in that city's history overall. I mean, it, it's, if it weren't for the booze, those, those amazing restaurants that New Orleans became known for wouldn't have been able to become what they were.

Speaker 10:

you know, you have the great bars also too, you know? Mm-hmm. And it's all, uh, it is all kind of, all mixed into one. my best story is, and you know, You guys have been there. You know, you go for Cafe Dumont for a couple, some beignets in the morning and well, where are we gonna go for like mid, mid meal? You know, we don't go lunch, we do a mid meal, you know, you know, before, before, uh, before lunch. So then we go there. Then after that we're going, well, where are we going for lunch? And then we're going for like, you know, supper, where we're going for dinner and where we're going for late night. You know, it's just, uh, and that's the whole kind of New Orleans culture, you know, it's all about food. It's all about. beverage and, and, and people, people, it's

Francis:

not, it's not exactly a svet city like Miami. You know what I mean? Yeah, exactly. Tell me about

Speaker 6:

it. You know, it's, it you, but you talk about how, you know, the cocktail culture can help encourage restaurants to grow. I mean, we have that same experience here in. In New Brunswick, New Jersey where we have a, a very large kind of cocktail crowd and they'll go to the new place and support it for the, for a year. Right. And restaurants kind of get a chance to work the kinks out while they have this kind of cocktail culture to keep them alive. Oh, that's pretty nice. And so you have some really, a really diverse, uh, assortment of restaurants here that's grown in New Brunswick. And a lot of that is because of that cocktail culture has, has supported these places while they kind of got all their kinks out and became real restaurants. That's nice.

Francis:

Now you own, you own a couple of restaurants in Chicago and, and you've written. A couple of books and this book on cocktails in Chicago. Mm-hmm. Are you seeing the same kind of rebirth of the cocktail in Chicago as we are in New York and, and this area around here?

Speaker 10:

Yeah. We've seen in the last couple years, have you seen it really happen? I mean, you saw like, food, wine this year, you know, the year of the cocktail. Mm-hmm. And, uh, I think people like to come out and have a, I mean, everybody's into wine, you know. You. As long as we get'em off the merlott, it'd be fine, you know? But, but, uh, you know, everybody is, and so, which I love Merlot too. I don't want, you know, I don't wanna get any letters. You know what's, there you go. You got me two more letters. Thanks very much. What's going on? You merlo know. But, uh, you know, just come in and have a, couple cocktails before and after dinner, drink or coffee with something in there. You know, it's, it's the whole thing, but then you got, then you have the other flip side of it. I mean, if you're in New York City. a lot of them aren't driving. Mm-hmm. Yeah. But, uh, you know, you gotta worry about, you know, the DUIs and stuff like that. You gotta be responsible

Francis:

I, I think that's one of the reasons that you're seeing, you're seeing cocktails really in cities more than you are elsewhere. Mm-hmm. Even in New Brunswick, New Jersey, which is a small city by, you know, national standards, you have a few cocktail places, including, we have one, but there's, there's another one in town. Clyde's is famous for their cocktails. Um, but I think that. You know, they, they have, there's a proportion of the people who are going to Clydes and coming to our place that either can take a taxi home, right? It's, uh,

Speaker 6:

or can walk home. New Brunswick's gone through a kind of regentrification. So you do have a lot of people who live in town and, and you know, maybe they work in the city or they work for, uh, one of the local corporations and they're, and they're living in, you know, one of the high rises or one of the places around. But they can walk home or again, take a cab home. Yeah. That's nice. And that's a big difference than, you know, out in the middle of South Brunswick. Yeah. Where you still can take a cab home. And we do have some people Yeah. But it costs$35 instead. Take an hour to get there. Three bucks. Right

Francis:

Now you have a couple of restaurants in the city and you also have ventured outta the city a little bit, huh?

Speaker 10:

Yeah, I've got two in the city and I've got, another heaven on seven, uh, in a place called Naperville, Illinois. It's like about 165,000 people. It's a huge town. And then, uh,

Speaker 6:

is it on the seventh floor?

Speaker 10:

No, that's on the main floor. And then I just open up actually a breakfast place about, uh, in, uh, beginning of February.

Francis:

How do you find the place in the suburbs versus the place in the city? Are they very different to run? Very different, differently. Received definitely

Speaker 10:

different clientele. Definitely like, like we'll see, I'll see in my suburban location, we'll have more women. It reminds me of a very stereotypical New Orleans restaurant where, people will come and lu really lunch there. Mm-hmm. I mean, they'll, the women will pull the strollers up with the kids. They're having a couple cocktails, which is. You know, and they're, they're sitting there chatting the whole time, and it's a, it's a, you know, Friday afternoon, Saturday afternoon, you know, we do brunch on Saturdays and Sundays, and it's a, it's really, uh, it's a, it's a pretty good happening, you know, type of thing where, you

Francis:

know, and as opposed to the city is what

Speaker 10:

Yeah. Everybody's, you know, everybody's on a timeframe. They, except when it's, dinner. Nobody's, nobody's having a cocktail for lunch anymore. Those days are gone.

Francis:

Yeah. That's sad, ain't it? That's very sad. You know, it's funny, you know what's funny is Mark and I will occasionally, you know, it depends on the company and obviously you observe like we do, but we'll occasionally do business with Europeans for one reason or another. Right. I love going out to lunch with the French guys.'cause even the bankers, you can sit down and have a, you know, they'll, they'll have a glass of wine, but you know, woe to the young intern who orders an Amstel when his boss takes him out to lunch for the first time. Right? Right. And like his boss orders nice tea and then he gets a dirty look for ordering a. Right. A, a light beer with lunch and they wanna think, well, you guys just

Speaker 10:

grow up. Everybody stands up in the restaurant and starts pointing at the guy. Yeah, exactly. Like

Speaker 6:

he's fired. It's like watching The Apprentice. My problem with too many cocktails at lunch is that, you know, I still got 14 hours left in my day. That's the, I gotta get to

Francis:

two in the morning. Hey Jimmy, wanna thank you for coming on the show You've been. Hey, thanks for having me, guys. Appreciate it's really super. Uh, the man's name is Jimmy Anos. He's the chef and owner of, uh, heaven on seven restaurants in Chicago. His book is called Big Easy Cocktails. We'll put a link up to that book on our website, uh, and you can check it out. And if you're going to Chicago, you should pay him a visit. Thanks for being on the show, man. You're listening to the Restaurant Guys, Our guest was Jimmy Banos. Sounds like a really nice guy. Yeah, yeah,

Speaker 6:

definitely, definitely kind of guy. I would visit him. Be fun to go out and have a couple of coffee. Can I, can

Francis:

I tell you so. I will go visit his restaurants when I go visit Tiago, but then I want to go take him for drinks elsewhere. Do you know what I mean? No, no.

Speaker 6:

I want him to take us for drinks elsewhere. Oh, that's right. That's what, because he's gonna know all the hotspots. Yeah,

Francis:

that's exactly what I meant. Um, we were talking about, and we didn't get a chance he had to run, we didn't get a chance to talk about some of the interesting things that are talked about in this book. It's not just a collection of recipes. although there are some cocktail recipes and there are some, food recipes in here. As well. He talks about the history of the cocktail in New Orleans. And New Orleans was a very important city for the cocktail. It's the home of Antoine Peau who invented Pecho Bear. You

Speaker 6:

know, you, you're selling it short a little though. It's still a very important city for the cocktail.

Francis:

I'm sorry. It was important for the birth of the cocktail. Mm-hmm. And actually there's, there's a story there. Custom, some competing stories about where the word cocktail comes from. Um, but. Pecho was a pharmacist who was sort of like a pharmacist bartender. There was a fine line back then. Mm-hmm. You know, and, uh, mix salad. He used to serve what eventually grew into the, uh, the ACH cocktail and his little pharmacy, in egg cups. And, and he spoke French, of course, in, in the, uh, there were always French and Anglo speakers in, in New Orleans. And he served his cocktail in a little egg cup, which is in French as a ti. And, uh, what. they posit that ETT became cocktail, uh, which there are references to cocktail from New Orleans in a while that eventually became cocktail. And so the original cocktail would have been. The, the precursor to a ak mm-hmm. In New Orleans, invented by Antoine PE showed. Now there's a competing, there are several competing stories, New York, but that sounds pretty reasonable. Mm-hmm. And I wouldn't raise any of those competing stories if you're in New Orleans. You know what I mean? Just, just talk about that one. Yeah. That's, that's the one you want to go with if you're there. Um, and so Antoine Pei showed was pretty important, but, but then the other, the one I love is, is the Ramos Fizz. Mm-hmm. And this is a drink that you won't find, I don't know any place in New Jersey for you to find it. Well, just one. Except for our own, except for Catherine Lombardi, because, well, you and I love it so much. but that's a, that's a classic drink. it was, hold on a second. It was brought by the Ramos brothers. Which Ram? The Henry Ramos survived Prohibition. That's a cocktail that straddles prohibition. Mm-hmm. It existed before prohibition and was really popular supposedly. In the 1915 carnival season, the bar that was owned by the Ramos brothers had to employ 35 bartenders all working at once, just mixing up Ramos Fizzes. Yet the place still had lines around the block. Right? That's a lot of fizzes. Isn't that crazy? It's a lot of fizzing. And, and then after prohibition, uh, one of the Ramos brothers, Henry Ramos survived. And he went on to the Roosevelt Hotel rather than open, uh, his old bar was called the Imperial Cabinet. So rather than reopen the Imperial cabinet, he went to the Roosevelt Hotel Hotel, which at that point then became the home of both the Ramos Fizz and the Cak. And you could have it made by. Henry Ramos,

Speaker 6:

but you need to tell people why the Ramos fizz was such a, a labor intensive cocktail.

Francis:

Ramos Fiz uses egg white as many of the drinks at the time did, as our ours does. Mm-hmm. It used milk, which was, uh, you know, unusual and it not as unusual then as it is now. Uh, it's not a heavy drink though. It's not like a cream of whatever. It's just uses a little bit of milk in there. Um, it uses, uh, gin, uh, it has some flavoring stuff in it as well, and it has just a couple of drops of orange flour water, which. You know, one drop of that stuff is, is perfect, two drops, and it smells like the inside of your grandmother's purse. Um, and then you shake it and it has to be shaken and shaken. And at the Roosevelt Hotel, they had this shtick where they would line up like 10 bartenders and they would shake the Ramos. The one bartender would shake it for a while. In

Speaker 12:

order to get it to fizz, you really need to shake this drink. And you shake it and shake it and shake it, and shake and shake it.

Francis:

And then, and then that bartender would pass it to the next bartender who would shake it. It would pass to the next bartender who would shake it. And then it gets served not on ice, but in a Collins glass. Mm-hmm. Like a Tumblr. You fill it up three quarters of the way and it's got this egg white, frothy thing to it, and then you add soda to it and that's brings it out. And it's just the most light and ethereal, delicate drink. I had it only recently other than our, at our place. I went to, again, our favorite cocktail place in New York. It wasn't on the menu, but I asked for it and because it's the best cocktail place world. And of course they had all the ingredients and knew exactly how to make it. They said, oh yeah, hold on. And I was out with, uh, me, my friend Corey, and my friend Dale, Dale DeGraff, who's the most famous part in the world. My friend Fred, uh, and all in the restaurant business and, uh, the bartender. You were at

Speaker 6:

Pega Club. You didn't mention the, the name of the place. Oh, sorry. I

Francis:

was at the Pega Club. Yeah. Audrey Saunders place. Mm-hmm. Who's coming on the show soon. And, uh, the bartender picked up the made the Ramos fizz. And I said, can I get a Ramos fizz? And the guy said, sure. Like it was nothing. Right. This is probably the only bar in New York you can do that. And the guy makes the drink the. And in and shakes it in the coolest move ever. He started shaking it and then he handed it to Dale DeGraff, who started shaking it, who handed it to me, who shook it and handed it to Fred, who shook it and handed it to Corey who shook it and handed it back to the bartender, and he made the ramo fiz. And that was just really cool. I'm sorry. That was just really, really cool. One of the

Speaker 6:

things I like about the, the, the Pegu guys is they are historians, the, the bartenders and, and now we've begun using the expression bar chef or ologist at Pegu Club. Mm-hmm. They're historians, they, they don't just know about the drinks. It's like a great sommelier knows the story about the wine he serving you. These guys know the story of the cocktail they're serving you. And a lot of times the story has to do with exactly how the drink is made. Like the Ramos Fizz, for instance, the story behind the Ramos fizz that it got passed from bartender to bartender to bartender. Well, what does that tell you about how it's made? What it means is you need to shake this drink so much more than any other cocktail you've ever made in order to make it right. So if you know the story, you know how to make it right.

Francis:

And

Speaker 6:

you

Francis:

know what was really cool about that? Is I asked for Ramos Fizz and he just knew it and then he just assumed we knew the story. So he just handed up the cocktail shaker and we did. I was in like a James Bond movie. I'm a fat 40-year-old guy. You're just not that cool. No. James Bond, I get very, you are no James Bond. I get fewer. You're like

Speaker 6:

double

Francis:

Oh. Oh. I get fewer and fewer moments of cool as time goes on. I gotta embrace the one I, when I get'em, I tell about'em on the radio. I live'em again. Anyway, we'll be back in just a moment. You're listening to the Restaurant guys, Hello everybody and welcome back. You're listening to the Restaurant Guys, mark and Francis of Stage Left and Captain Lombardi. Restaurants in New Brunswick, New Jersey. We're talking about New Orleans today. Uh, our guest, hi Chicago at the same time and Chicago Jimmy Anos was, is a owner of uh, heaven on seven. A New Orleans inspired restaurant chain in Chicago, and his book is called Big Easy Cocktails, and he has some great stuff in the beginning of the book. It's a trend that I'm seeing more and more is when you get cocktail books or when you get cookbooks, they're not just collections of recipes anymore. Mm-hmm. They contextualize what's inside the book. They contextualize and their historical books more and more, and it's not just that they may not

Speaker 6:

necessarily be historical books. That may be books that give you the perspective of the person who's writing them and

Francis:

they're good to read and they have to be well read and fun to read, or they don't, you know. Cookbooks are, are a good market. You can make good living. Let's write a cookbook market. I think it's a great idea. Um, anyway, the, one of the stories they tell inside the book is, is a story that I knew that I had, had heard related to me, uh, over the bar from at some point. It's one of those things that just sticks in back of your head. I don't know where I got it, but, you know, it was Huey Long who was the, the governor of Louisiana. Mm-hmm. Who eventually became United States Senator, who eventually was shot. In the halls of the Senate Chamber of like the, the State House in Louisiana or something. He was murdered. I got that a little bit wrong, but he was dead. That's, he was shot. He's dead. That's when I got that. Right. But when he went from being governor of Louisiana, you know what, I

Speaker 6:

just, right now I just wish I were smart enough to correct. You

Francis:

went so does the rest of the listening audience. Um, but when he went from Louisiana to Washington, and this is how, you know, things spread before the age of the internet, he. Packed along a lot of his, his favorite belongings, one of them being a bartender. And, and he took a bartender from New Orleans to Washington and, and Ramos Fizz became the rage, and Cex became the rage. DC and New Orleans Styles cocktails became the rage in Washington DC and then they went back and spread out through the country that way. And I, I think that's fascinating. Don't you?

Speaker 6:

Well, it's, you know, it's a little history, you know, that that's, these things didn't, they didn't just happen the way things happen now. You know, you didn't telephone, you didn't have telephones, you didn't, you know, it had to go Word of mouth and word of word of barman.

Francis:

Exactly. I'll give you one more piece of information. Uh, it's, there's a lot, there's an old adage that says that during prohibition, the, the two cities that ignored prohibition most were New York City and New Orleans. And I think that that was really led to the survival of a lot of these cocktails. That's true. Anyway, hope you've enjoyed the hour listening to the restaurant. Guys. I'm Francis Shot. And I'm Mark

Speaker 6:

Pascal.

Francis:

We are the restaurant guys, central Jersey 1415.