Bartenders of NO - Home

INTERVIEWS
O’Neil Broyard
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Gilberto Eyzaguirre
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Bobby Oakes
Michael Santucci
Martin Sawyer
Michael Smith
John Strickland
Floria Woodard

Cheers!
Drink Recipes

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This project was sponsored by a grant from Southern Comfort.

Interviews and photographs by Amy Evans

Floria Woodard

“Because, as I say again, [when you make a drink,] if you don’t put the love and tenderness in there with that, it’s not going to taste good. So you take your time—I mean, you’re rushing. You’re doing that, but—but you take your time, and you make it right.”

– Floria Woodard

Originally from Mississippi, Floria Woodard headed to New Orleans seeking opportunity. She found it as server at The Court of Two Sisters (the first African-American server at that), but she eventually set her sights on the bar. Thirty-eight years later, Miss Flo is still behind that bar, serving cocktails to the locals and returning tourists who seek her out at this well-known French Quarter restaurant. Miss Flo calls herself a mixologist and prides herself on the consistency of her drinks. She’s so good that every year Flo has entered the French Quarter Fest’s bartending contest, she’s won. Whether it was for her handmade Hurricane or her special Golden Coconut, Miss Flo claims that measuring the ingredients is her secret to success. She thinks that people won’t enjoy a drink if it’s mixed too strong. Whatever the secret, people certainly feel strongly about her.

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What follows is a portion of the original interview that has been edited for length. To download the entire transcript in PDF form, please click here.

SUBJECT: Floria Woodard, bartender
DATE: March 31, 2005
LOCATION: The Court of Two Sisters bar
INTERVIEWER: Amy Evans

Amy Evans: This is Thursday, March thirty-first, two thousand and five, and I’m in New Louisiana in the French Quarter on Royal Street at The Court of Two Sisters with Floria known as Miss Flo—a bartender here. And, um, Miss Flo, would you mind saying your whole name for the record?

Floria Woodard: My name is Floria Woodard, and I’m old as dirt. [Laughs] My birthday is six, six, thirty-eight [June 6, 1938].

Okay. And I understand you’ve been working here at The Court of Two Sisters for forty years or some such thing.

It’s close to forty. It’s thirty-eight years this February seventh, two thousand five…And I’ve enjoyed it ever since I’ve been here. I’ve been—I started out here as a bus person and a server for so many years. And then I moved up to seating captain, from seating captain to receiving at the front door, and then one day they decided they [were] going to give me a bartender’s job. [Short laugh]

Just out of the blue?

Just out of the blue, yes. Well, and I read in this article that’s on the wall here at the bar that you were the first black server here at The Court of Two Sisters and so—
In the evening, yes…And that was starting back in sixty-eight. And even though it was integrated—they was integrated like in the daytime—at nighttime it wasn’t. Or they couldn’t get [black] servers, I’m not sure what the cause was. But I had no problem getting acceptance. They accepted me with open arms. And I came in, and I liked the place, and I decided to stay for a little while.

Yeah? Well, just to back up a little bit, you said [before we started recording that] you’re from Mississippi originally.

Yes, born and raised in Tylertown, Mississippi. Uh, I come from a large family. Uh, from eleven siblings that’s alive, that I’m the youngest of all.

And what brought you to New Orleans?

Survival. [Laughs] You know, survival? That’s what it was. It was nothing in Mississippi to do as far as work-wise, and if you couldn’t farm you couldn’t—you wasn’t making anything. It was really tough for the people of color in Mississippi. Mm-hmm. It’s tough.

Was the job here the first job you had in New Orleans, or did you work other places?
No, it wasn’t. I did other jobs. I worked, um, as a home keeper for children for a while, and then I did hotel maid service for a while, and I did healthcare for a little while. But then I decided none of those was for me.

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Did they just throw you into the fire?

Yeah, they just threw me into the fire. Into the—into the lake and said swim! No—no paddle either!

Yeah?

Yeah, when they put me in over here they hadn’t [had] anyone at all to train me. I really had to train myself. I had to learn everything back here, and I had a lot of reading to do. I had a lot bar-guide books. And there—they have a recipe book themselves [The Court of two Sisters], so I don’t make the drinks the way I want to drink—to make them. I make them the way they want them made…So that means I follow their recipe. So if you have a drink from me today that you’d enjoy, tomorrow or next month or two years from now, when you return, it will be the same because you use the same recipe.

There’s a formula that you follow for success. I see.

Exactly.

Do you have a cocktail that you enjoy making more so than others?

I enjoy making a Mint Julep, and I enjoy making a Sazerac. Sazerac were the first cocktail that was called coquetier, which was made a by a pharmacy. He was New Orleans. And he made it to cure anything that ails you. So—we call it the potion.

Do you get a lot of calls for the Sazerac?

Yes, very much so. It’s a big—it’s a big deal here.

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And so the Brandy Milk Punch is more of an early day drink that y’all sell a lot of.

Yes, more of a breakfast drink. Brandy Milk Punch. The Ramos Gin Fizz. Both of those are made from milk, and they are totally different. Brandy milk punch sort of tastes like a milkshake. A little vanilla in it, sugar and milk and cream. But the Ramos Gin Fizz is very—very nutritious. [Laughs] Very much, uh, it’s own flavor. It’s very nutritious. [Laughs] [Some of the ingredients in a Ramos Gin Fizz are: lemon juice, orange juice, milk and an egg white]

So when you were learning to make all these cocktails from the recipes that the restaurant provided you, was there kind of a learning curve for New Orleans history and the history of the cocktail in New Orleans to kind of go along with the recipes?

Not really. Not really. I just kind of learned all that as I went, uh, from bar to bar myself. [Laughs]

Oh, yeah? You trained yourself out in the streets, huh? [Laughs]

Yeah. [Laughing] I trained myself in the streets.

Well and the bar here has this listing of old New Orleans cocktails and Court Specials. Can you talk about some of those? Like the French 75 and the Two Sisters Toddy.

Okay, the French 75 should be an old drink. You can get it anyplace. But the Two Sisters Toddy is a Court of Two Sisters drink. It was also picked—made—prepared here. And it sells very well also. Matter of fact, all of them on the board sell very well. But you also have the, uh, Golden Coconut, which I won first place in the bartender’s contest in the French Quarter Fest. They do, uh, French Quarter Fest, and they do the—about ten, fifteen bartenders—and they do a contest. I entered that about five, six years. And every time I entered, I won.

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What goes in [a Golden Coconut]?

[What] goes in that is amaretto, Malibu rum, orange curacao and milk. And you sh—and it looks sort of like a brandy milk punch, except it tastes similar to a Pina—a Pina Colada. So--It’s very good.

Well, and I heard that you won—there may not have been an award involved—but that you make a better Hurricane than Pat O’Brien’s [the bar that invented the drink].

That too. I was involved into this contest and beat them out. Uh, and matter of fact, it was presented at the same time of the Golden Coconut. And I got the two awards: for the Hurricane and the drink—and the Golden Coconut.

So what do you think that your special twist on those drinks is that makes them so—
I think it’s all because I use measurements. Uh, most bartenders like to free-pour, and I think measurements make a lot of difference. That it makes them not too overpowering but taste good. See, one thing about making drinks, you can give a person and drink, and if it’s too strong, they’re not going to enjoy it because it’s really to strong for you. You’re going to want something to cut it down. But I try to make mine just right. If you have two or three [drinks] back to back, it’ll be like you’re taking the first one. It won’t be overpowering.

You take pride in that consistency.

Mmm, yes, I do. Consistency makes a big difference. I tell all the bartenders that because they are under me in their own way. But I call them as equals. I am, um, [short pause] labeled as a bar manager as well. And they taking--a lot of things they might know more than I about certain drinks—

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Well and so what is it about your job that keeps you here, if you’re—you know, up towards retiring.

I think it’s the stress. [Laughs]

You like the stress? Crave the stress?

[Laughing] That’s a joke. Well, I enjoy it, sweetie. I don’t think it’s no one thing, but I always feel like what keep[s] me going, I’m not a lazy person. I like to work. [Vacuuming in background again] As long as I’m working, I’m happy. Because I know I’m gonna get paid. [Vacuuming stops] And as I tell all the young people that come through here, you know, you’re looking at thirty-eight years, and I can’t remember one payday [that] I didn’t get a check. You know? And that’s what work is all about. It’s a shame to say it, but we’re working until we get paid, because we can’t survive without it.

Oh, sure.

So that’s—that’s what it is again. I stay here for survival! [Laughs]

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Is there something that you just don’t like to make because it takes too much time or it’s too much trouble?

[Shakes head “no”] Not a thing. I make them all. Because, as I say again, if you don’t put the love and tenderness [in] there with that, it’s not going to taste good. So you take your time—I mean, you’re rushing. You’re doing that, but—but you take your time, and you make it right. Because I—I—I—as I tell my bartenders, “If it don’t taste good, you can’t sell it.” You see?

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What do you think it takes to make a good bartender?

Well, you have to like people, you have to have a cool personality, and you have to be patient. You cannot be [short pause] a chip on your shoulder that you have, you leave it at home. You can’t bring it in because [if] someone make[s] a statement to you that you don’t like, you can’t be touchy about things. See I’ve had people sit here at the bar and speak up [about] different things that’s going on, and black people are involved—it doesn’t affect me. Because that’s news. But you’ll find some people—people of color would get offended. You’ll find the gay part of the industry. You’re speaking of the gay people, they’ll get affected. But no, you can’t—you can’t do that. You’ve got to be open when you [are] tending bar. The only thing that I don’t do is—like I say earlier—I don’t have stories to tell. I tell stories, but they’re the truth—true stories. Something that has happened. But, uh, just—just remember jokes—most people that—think of a bartender as a joker. They can tell all the jokes and all that? I could never remember the punch line! [Laughs]

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To download the entire transcript in PDF form, please click here.