In the Land of Cocktails

How Lu Found Herself Behind Bars

Posted by Lu Brow on October 28th, 2008

I’d like to intro­duce myself, Lu Brow, Bar Chef at the Swiz­zle Stick Bar.

Our bar is part of Cafe Ade­laide, located inside the Loew’s Hotel in the Cen­tral Busi­ness Dis­trict of New Orleans, the great­est city in the world.

Friends, fam­ily, guests and all sorts of peo­ple asked me why I moved to New Orleans. I had always been in love with this city — its peo­ple, food, diver­sity and cul­ture. I come from a “front of the house” restau­rant back­ground and the part of my job I always enjoyed most was deal­ing with the bar. The spir­its, wine, beer, all of the above.

When a lit­tle storm named Kat­rina came to visit New Orleans I had a lit­tle time off from work. I evac­u­ated to Shreve­port, my home­town, to be with my fam­ily. I found myself bored and a job came call­ing. A friend of a friend told me about a lit­tle bar owned by a gen­tle­man who was will­ing to offer me work while I was away from New Orleans. I bar­tended sev­eral nights a week and fell in love with being behind the bar, and I fell in love with the patrons. So many tales, so many his­tory lessons, and so much fun. Some of the sto­ries I got to hear! I was hooked!

I came back to New Orleans when the call came and shortly there­after I sat down and had a long con­ver­sa­tion with Ti Mar­tin, one of the Cock­tail Chicks. She just hap­pens to be the CEO of Commander’s Palace — our big sis­ter restau­rant. Once we started talk­ing I had to con­fess — I wanted to be behind the bar every day, every shift. I always knew that’s where I was sup­posed to be but I never had to oppor­tu­nity or the guts to just do it. I knew right then I had the chance. I had to just take it and do what I loved. And Ti was very cool about giv­ing me the oppor­tu­nity. I ran with it.

Now, many days and many, many shifts later I get to be part of this web­site! This is just like work­ing the bar except for the part where we actu­ally get to see each other. I’ll do my best with recipes, advice regard­ing cock­tails, bar gear, glass­ware… you name it! One of the best things about being in this amaz­ing city is that I get to meet the coolest spir­its pro­fes­sion­als any­where. You know, the girls and guys you see in all the fancy mag­a­zines. So if I don’t know the answer to your ques­tion, I know some­one who will!

But until you stroll into the Swiz­zle Stick and say “Hey, you’re that girl from that web­site, aren’t you?” and I get to pour you a deli­cious cock­tail, I’ll be right here, In The Land of Cocktails.

- Lu