Kir

 

Last week, in my post about a disappointing book on French culinary history, I included the photo above, showing the start of a meal we enjoyed several years ago in Avignon. The drink was Kir, a combination of white wine and Crème de Cassis. While I have had this delicious drink often in France, and have from time to time made it at home, I realized that I’ve never really written about it here. I’ll start with a bit about the origin and history of this popular aperitif:

"Kir originated in Burgundy, France. It is named after the priest Canon Félix Kir, who was a hero in the French Resistance during the Second World War, and also the Mayor of the Burgundian town Dijon from 1945 to 1968. He was much revered, and history tells us that he was also a big fan of local products and hence created the drink by mixing the local white wine made from the Aligoté grape (bone dry, acidic, with fairly neutral aromas and flavors and unoaked) with the local blackcurrant liqueur ‘Crème de Cassis’." (Source: The Kitchn)

Google images of Kir— it’s been a fashionable drink on and off in the US for a couple of decades.

Here is what I wrote about Kir and other drinks in the restaurants where we ate during our year-long stay in Paris in 1989-1990 — maybe by now things have changed, as most things do! At the time, French restaurants didn’t seem to need a special license to serve alcohol — even McDonalds' outlets there sometimes offer beer. Typically French restaurants, bistros, or brasseries offered aperitifs such as Port, various sorts of sweet white wine, or Kir, a mixture of white wine or champagne and Creme de Cassis. Brasseries served special beers associated with their Alsacian cuisine, but any restaurant would serve you a beer if that's what you wanted. American-style mixed drinks or cocktails were available in larger restaurants, although Spanish sherry — an English and American favorite — seemed rare. As in an American restaurant, the proprietors offered a variety of pre-dinner drinks, including Kir, which boost the final cost of a meal. 

During our stay in Paris we went often enough to our favorite neighborhood place, La Gitane, that the propietor began to offer us a pre-dinner Kir with a little plate of crackers at no charge. Our French friends, when they invited us to dinner, usually served aperitifs, including sometimes Kir, with a few little crackers, or in some cases, a few delicious “amuse gueules.” Well, that’s the way it was! And it was before I started taking photos of my meals, so I have none of my own to show.

The corner where we lived in 1989-90, showing La Gitane, our apartment, and my favorite butcher shop!
The courtyard behind our apartment was also the back door of the restaurant kitchen.
(I can’t believe I found this photo on the web!)

I’m dedicating these memories of my French experiences and beverages to bloggers Elizabeth, Nicole, Iris, Kate, Erika, Valerie-Jael, Lisca, Chris, and all the others who share their thoughts and their beverages each week.

 Blog post © 2022 mae sander.