About
Social historian and the writer of "The Café Brûlot" (2021) and "The Obituary Cocktail" (2025) by Louisiana State University (LSU) Press. "The Obituary Cocktail" was a James Beard Award finalist in 2026.
Sue is a journalist with a focus on art, culture, culinary and the cocktails of New Orleans and Louisiana. She has written for The Times-Picayune, New Orleans Advocate, Gambit New Orleans, Time (Asia), New Orleans House and Gardens, HG (House and Garden) magazine, New Orleans Magazine, Inside New Orleans, St. Charles Avenue, Uptown/Mid-City Messenger, Louisiana Life and the Camellia Beans blog, among others.
She is also a copy editor, editor and reporter for Benzinga, a business news site, and for various projects.
You can see some of her work at suestrachan.com.
Featured Work
The Obituary Cocktail
James Beard Award Finalist (2026)
In a city known for celebrating in the face of death, it’s no surprise that the
funerary tradition is honored by a drink. The Obituary Cocktail is a spirited dive
into New Orleans’s bohemian past, chronicling how this cocktail — made with gin,
vermouth and absinthe — became central to mid-twentieth-century café society
before fading temporarily into obscurity.
Like a good obituary, this book shares stories about the drink, beginning with its
1940s origins at Café Lafitte, the oldest continuously operating gay bar in the
U.S. and the stomping ground for the city’s café society, which included
Tennessee Williams, Ella Brennan, and a rich crop of prominent New Orleans
visitors. Sue Strachan explores the history of the cocktail’s ingredients, shares
recipes for home mixologists, and resurrects the stories of other morbidly
monikered drinks.
With detours into the world of secret societies, second-line
parades, and celebrations of deathly holidays like Halloween and All Saints’
Day, The Obituary Cocktail gives new life to this unique beverage.
Other Works
-
The Café Brûlot
2021
Awards and Recognition
- James Beard Award finalist (2026) for "The Obituary Cocktail"
