NEW ORLEANS (press release) – Louis Armstrong’s favorite cocktail and best dressed baseball team will be the centerpieces this Friday, Aug. 8, at International House and Loa. This New Orleans boutique hotel celebrates the legendary jazz musician’s birthday (Aug. 4), which happens to be the same week as that of Henry C. Ramos (Aug. 8). In addition to a Ramos Gin Fizz competition with judges from Turning Tables and Great Day Louisiana, Loa will present its Laughin’ Louie, an improvisational riff on the Ramos Gin Fizz, the jazz icon’s favorite New Orleans cocktail. Hotel founder Sean Cummings and Eddie Brown, Jr — son of “Armstrong Secret 9” baseball team member Edward “Eddie” “Kid” Brown Sr. — will offer a birthday toast to Armstrong and Ramos.
SHAKE IT TIL YOU MAKE IT — RAMOS FIZZ COMPETITION
Loa’s Abigail Gullo will host a Ramos Gin Fizz making competition featuring judges Touré Folkes and Ariel Neal of Turning Tables and Malik Mingo of Great Day Louisiana. The crowd can enjoy $5 mini Ramos Gin Fizzes (or any variation) while watching the competition. Ambitious guests are invited to test their 12 minute “Shaker Boy” shakin skills.
DON’T BE SHY, ORDER THE GIN FIZZ — LOA’S “LAUGHIN’ LOUIE”
This drink was originally called the “New Orleans Fizz,” but Loa’s version is dubbed “Laughin’ Louie” after a song Armstrong recorded in 1933, in the prime of this cocktail’s popularity.
The Ramos Gin Fizz was invented in 1888 by Henry Ramos at the Imperial Cabinet Saloon, just a few doors down Gravier St. from Loa at the corner of Carondelet St. It’s made with gin, lemon, lime, cream, sugar, egg white, orange flower water and soda. When mixed and shaken extremely well – and we mean like a forever-long-twelve-minute-mixing-time – the drink comes alive with a striking meringue top and an ethereal, cloud-like lightness. Making it the perfect beverage to pair with Armstrong’s favorite sport: baseball. But back to booze…the gin poured at Loa is the sublime Henry Ramos Gin, whose botanicals include gardenia and bergamot, “pinch hitting” for the orange flower water.
ARMSTRONG SECRET 9
Armstrong loved baseball so much that he sponsored his own semi-professional team, the Secret 9. Formerly known as the Raggedy Nine, the Secret 9 was part of a robust baseball scene in New Orleans that included gifted Black American players who – in a different era – could have gone pro. The finely dressed Secret 9 players were all members of the Zulu Social Aid & Pleasure Club and played against other Black baseball teams, as well as some college and prison teams.
One of International House’s most popular merch items is its finely made, cotton “Armstrong Secret 9” jersey, inspired by the original and the remarkable story of Armstrong’s 1931 team. Loa will be raffling the jerseys on Friday, or guests will be able to purchase them directly!
All told, this celebration is at once a tip-of-the-cap to Armstrong’s legendary personal style, as well his excellence in craft – in addition to the Secret 9’s “finest whitest uniforms ever seen on the sandlots of the Big Easy.”
HISTORY SHAKEN, NOT STIRRED
Friday, Aug. 8
6-9 p.m.
International House and Loa
221 Camp S. | New Orleans
