Latin spirits are so 2016 (just kidding, we love them!). But why not kick off the new year with a little taste of Southeast Asia at Bar DeVille on Tuesday? For one night only, the West Town spot hosts Chicago’s own Annemarie Sagoi for Holiday out of Cambodia, where The Dawson vet mixes up drinks from her bar, Le Boutier, that opened last year in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
With drinks inspired by Cambodian rock ‘n’ roll from the 1960s, Sagoi puts an American touch on Khmer drinking culture with sips such as the Cambodian Space Cocktail, rye whiskey, yellow Chartreuse, sweet vermouth, Angostura bitters and a tincture made from kampot pepper, a rare peppercorn that’s only grown in a specific region of the Southeast Asian country. It’s named for a local rock revival band paying homage to Cambodia’s lost legends in music, which aligns with the bar’s overarching concept.
Originally only a brief consulting gig at a hotel bar, Le Boutier became a passion project for Sagoi, a managing partner at the bar. The concept is meant to take guests back to the 1960s and early ’70s, a cultural “Golden Era,” Sagoi said, before the Cambodian genocide that ravaged the country from 1975 to 1979.
“It was their [heyday], culturally speaking, when they were the crown jewel of Southeast Asia,” Sagoi said in an email. “When tourists come to Phnom Penh today, they go to the genocide museum and the killing fields. Even expats that have lived here for years sometimes don’t even know how glorious it was in the ’60s and early ’70s.”
The cocktail menu at Le Boutier—borrowing its name from Sagoi’s business partner’s mother, who grew up near the bar—serves as an educational reminder of that thriving time for Cambodia and includes brief descriptions of each thoughtful cocktail name. Sagoi said she enjoys using dragon fruit, mangosteen and other regional fruits, such as longan, a tropical berry related to lychee. On Tuesday night, guests at Bar DeVille can taste it in her Don’t Think I’ve Forgotten, with vodka, sticky rice syrup, ginger, longan and lime juice.
Sagoi is also bringing a fish sauce cocktail—an ingredient that throws even Le Boutier patrons off—in the rum-based 1,000 Tears of a Tarantula, which also includes pineapple juice, coconut milk, curry syrup and lime juice. “It adds a little umami and saltiness to the fruit and curry flavors,” she said.
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