Cary Bonnecaze is known for many things. Music fans know the Baton Rouge native as the co-founder and original drummer of the alternative rock band, Better than Ezra. Fellow alums of University High School know him as a talented placekicker who walked on to the LSU football team while in college. And over the last several years, the home interiors world has come to recognize him as a key collector, authority and producer of all things absinthe.
“It started from a personal passion for anything from France,” Bonnecaze says. “My family is French on both sides.”
Absinthe’s storied history began in late 19th century France, when it became a staple of Parisian café culture and the choice aperitif of artists and writers. Drinking it required the sort of free time that life afforded back then, since it was “dripped” first.
Too bitter to sip straight, it was made palatable by perching sugar cubes on a specially designed flat spoon placed on top of an absinthe glass. A patron would drip cold water onto the sugar cubes from a multi-spouted absinthe fountain, allowing water to pass through the cubes and fall through detailed perforations on the spoon’s surface until the spirit was sweetened and diluted to taste. The natural green hue turned cloudy in the process.
“It was made to your liking, sort of like when we make coffee at a Starbucks today,” Bonnecaze says.
Nicknamed the “Green Fairy” and associated with creativity and bad behavior, the herby, anise-flavored drink was banned in the United States during Prohibition and throughout Europe around World War I.
The drink’s main ingredient, a bitter herb called wormwood, contains a compound called thujone, which was incorrectly thought to be a hallucinogen. This wasn’t disproven until the next century when it was discovered that, while a harmful chemical in large quantities, only trace amounts of thujone existed in absinthe, making it safe to drink. The ban was lifted in the United States and in Europe in the late 2000s, resuming consumption of authentic absinthe after a 95-year hiatus.
Bonnecaze became obsessed with absinthe’s gadgetry after leaving Better Than Ezra and opening a gift store in 1998 in the French Quarter. Named Vive la France, it carried items that were truly French, not Cajun French, including absinthe spoons. They played well in New Orleans, which itself has a connection to the cocktail through the local invention of Herbsaint, an anise-flavored liqueur that has served as an alternative to banned absinthe since the ’30s.
Real absinthe became legal again here in 2007, the same year Bonnecaze converted the store to Maison d’Absinthe and started selling only absinthe wares. His collection included large numbers of original and reproduction spoons with ornate designs, absinthe fountains and absinthe glasses.
The spoons, in particular, became a key component.
“There were a couple dozen different recurring patterns you’d see on the flat part of the spoon, where you place a sugar cube, like leaves, stars and flowers,” Bonnecaze says.
He ended up closing the retail storefront in New Orleans, moved to Dallas and later, the Pacific Northwest. But, he remained in the antiques trade and continued to collect and sell absinthe wares.
“A lot of history surrounding absinthe was lost when it was illegal. It’s really fun to be part of its return.”
[Cary Bonnecaze]
In 2013, he returned to his hometown of Baton Rouge and opened Bonnecaze Absinthe and Home Wholesale, a mail-order manufacturer and online distributor of absinthe wares and home goods. His company fabricates detailed, high-quality absinthe spoons, hand-blown absinthe glasses, reproduction French café tables and other items that help preserve the cocktail’s glamorous culture.
The timing has been perfect. New absinthe makers in Europe and the United States are producing complex versions of the spirit that appeal to today’s cocktail-cognizant class.
“A lot of history surrounding absinthe was lost when it was illegal,” Bonnecaze says. “It’s really fun to be part of its return.” maisonabsinthe.com
This article was originally published in the April 2018 issue of 225 Magazine.
