This feature is part of our 2023 Next Wave Awards.
A longtime legend in New Orleans cocktail circles, Neal Bodenheimer elevated his status nationally — and beyond — this past year. In late 2022, he released his first cocktail book along with co-writer Emily Timberlake, “Cure: New Orleans Drinks and How to Mix ’Em from the Award-Winning Bar.” This year it was nominated for a James Beard Award and won an IACP Cookbook Award.
“Any time you win an award you end up getting a bunch of people that don’t really know about your bar and don’t know why they’re there, just show up,” Bodenheimer jokes, adding, “It’s a good problem to have, though.”
Bodenheimer is referring to Cure, the bar the book was named after, which he opened all the way back in 2009. His family had been in New Orleans since the 1850s. Even in a drinkin’ town like New Orleans, these were still the nascent days of the cocktail renaissance, and Cure would go on to be recognized as the city’s first standalone modern craft cocktail bar.
“Some tourists thought of New Orleans as a big-ass beer, getting blackout drunk, and eating a Lucky Dog at 4 a.m. on Bourbon Street,” he recalls. “But others knew about the longstanding drinking traditions and wanted to peel back that sugary sweet drinks schtick New Orleans had become known for.”
He recalls those still being the days when many locals were aware and proud of New Orleans’ cocktail traditions, but
