A hot-blooded tribute to New Orleans by Nightjar

One of my favourite bars, Nightjar (entered through a nondescript door just off Old Street roundabout down to a candlelit bar that takes you back to the 1920s) are hosting a hot-blooded tribute to New Orleans on Saturday 11 August with live music, performance, food and drink from the Big Easy.

Here's what they say:
The city of ‘blood, lust and magic’ is also thought to be the home of jazz – where Jelly Roll Morton and Louis Armstrong both refined their musical trade in the district of licensed pleasure houses of the Fin de siècle French Quarter, on the corner of Basin Street, otherwise known as Storyville.

Storyville recreates the precocious and hot-blooded culture borne out of those bordellos in our very own East London by transforming Shoreditch event space Factory 7 into a Belle Epoque vision of the past. Featuring Nightjar’s regular musicians Hugo Simmonds, The Basin Street Brawlers, Brass Volcanoes and Dom and the Ikos, with support from Monkey Stomp Blues, guests will be led on a musical journey from early Ragtime numbers and brass band parades to the stomping sounds of Professor Longhair and Fats Waller. This musical feast will be complemented by fast-stepping dancers of Swing Patrol and a series of performing and interactive artists from Les Enfants Terribles dedicated to bringing the enduring spirit of New Orleans alive.

In order to enliven our audience’s spirit, we have gone straight to the heart of the Big Easy, using Southern Comfort, Gentleman Jack & Woodford Reserve Bourbon to create a range of classic New Orleans cocktails on the menu, overseen by the Nightjar. It wouldn’t be a New Orleans without a Sazerac (Woodford Reserve Bourbon, Enigma Blanche Absinthe, sugar, Peychaud’s bitters), the Bayou Barbeque (Smoked Gentleman Jack, maple syrup, chocolate bitters, BBQ rim) or New Orleans Julep (Southern comfort, rose-water , almond syrup, fresh lime juice, mint). Guests will also be able to sample a range of traditional serves from the dedicated Enigma Absinthe bar. Be sure to bring an appetite as we will likewise be serving New Orleans gastronomic delicacies Gumbo and Jambalaya.

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