Cafe Brulot

A dramatic New Orleans after-dinner tradition featuring flaming brandy infused with spices and citrus peel, poured into strong coffee.

Café Brûlot — Creole French for burned brandy coffee — is one of New Orleans' most theatrical dining traditions, a flaming after-dinner preparation that has been performed tableside in the city's finest restaurants since the early 20th century. The drink is most closely associated with Antoine's Restaurant on St. Louis Street in the French Quarter, which was founded in 1840 by Antoine Alciatore, a Marseille-born chef who established what would become the oldest family-operated restaurant in the United States. Antoine's has been operated by five generations of the Alciatore family since its founding. The Café Brûlot tradition at Antoine's involves a chafing dish in which orange and lemon peels, cinnamon sticks, and cloves are combined with cognac and curaçao or triple sec, then ignited — the alcohol burns with a blue flame while the citrus oils from the peels infuse into the hot brandy. The flaming brandy is then ladle-poured over a long spiral of citrus peel, the flame tracing the ladle's arc in the darkened dining room, before hot, strong black coffee is added to extinguish the fire and complete the drink. The mixture is strained into demitasse cups and served immediately. The theatrical tableside preparation is as much the point as the resulting drink, and the Café Brûlot has been a defining element of the formal New Orleans dining experience for over a century.