French Martini

I leave my downtown job at a quarter till midnight in search of a bar where I can have a drink and catch a little Mardi Gras action. The view from outside the windows of the Red Cat Jazz Cafe and Bar (924 Congress, 713-226-7870) looks all too inviting. Although I don't see any bare chests draped in beads, the five-piece band's horn player is wailing the end of his ass-kicking solo as I walk through the doors. I choose the lousiest seat in the house, behind a wall of liquor bottles at the end of the bar, where nobody can see me. The bartender seems to be ignoring me at first, but when he serves a couple of ladies who bellied up to the bar after me, I realize he's just a ladies-first kind of guy. I ask for a house specialty, a French martini. The band members end their set and take their seats at the bar, finishing whatever dinners they started before their set; looks like gumbo and fried catfish from where I'm sitting. I had planned to have only one before heading home, but the Cat's martini is so smooth I order another. A poetry open-mike starts up, and like watching a car crash, I cannot look away. The first in line is a New Orleans transplant, and she reads a piece called 'I Got's to Get Paid.' The musicians sitting at the bar eating and drinking nod their heads in unison and laugh, but in a good way, like they know who she's talking about. The inside of my glass dries up and the bartender is nowhere to be found. I pack it up and set out into the night. By the looks of things, all the flying beads are in another bar.

Troy Fields

The Red Cat's French martini

Location Info

Map

Red Cat Jazz Cafe

711 Franklin St.
Houston, TX 77002

Category: Coffeehouses

Region: Downtown/ Midtown

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• Razzmatazz DeKuyper
• Food and Cooking
• Cocktails

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3 ounces Grey Goose L' Orange vodka
2 ounces Razzmatazz DeKuyper liqueur
1 ounce pineapple juice

Shake ingredients in a ice-filled shaker and strain into a martini glass. Garnish with a cherry.