I was working as an actor in a TV commercial for the MTV Awards that centered on rap star Sean “P. Diddy” Combs. In the ad, this musical icon was hosting a night swimming pool party atop a New York high-rise condo. The atmosphere surrounding the shoot was as surreal as any Fellini movie.

Gorgeous bikini-clad young women frolicked in the pool with young chiseled, sculpted men as rap music fi lled the nighttime sky. Even Arctic penguins got into the pool for a nighttime dip!

The character I portrayed was P. Diddy’s plain-clothes security man.

 

As I stood on vigil looking totally out of place — a no-nonsense guy wearing dark suit, sunglasses and whispering over a surveillance ear piece — the catchy primal rap song being played blared out lyrics that often used the slang word “yak”, as in ‘‘Cognac’’.I learned then that the ubiquitous party booze of choice on the black nightclub scene in New York, Atlanta, Chicago and other major party towns is the pricy brandy Cognac, now known simply as yak.

This immensely smooth high-end liquor is major in right now, as are the mixed cocktail versions that come with bold names such as “Thug Passion, Gangsta Colada and French Connection.”This amazing partnership of rap and Cognac has helped set off a phenomenon in liquor sales that is the stuff of legend. Cognac is flying as high and as fast as Superman! Little did I know that one year later, I would be playing another role: the Cognac Man.

 

SUMMER 2006
I was asked by TASTED Magazine to write an article about Cognac in New York City. However, I couldn’t find the time to take in its Cognac scene in all its many forms. I was traveling so much I didn’t think I could do it.

A bosom buddy of mine suggested that I wing it, do a brandy blitzkrieg, shoot from the hip flask, that is. Pick a whole day and go about town chasing the Cognac scene until I dropped!

I used to be able to do that with ease, but now I was out of practice, a guy who, more often than not, is in bed by eleven. Also, I was scheduled to leave the next day on an early morning flight to Miami.
But my friend cajoled me, calling me a wimp, until I agreed to try and pull off a Superman-like endeavor — a 24-hour non-stop chase along the NYC Cognac trail right up until flight time. I figured that since I had played a Klingon in the movie Star Trek : the Undiscovered Country and had “gone where no man has gone before,” certainly I could go toe-to-toe with Manhattan for 24 hours.

My friend laughed and dubbed me the Cognac Man. And so I set out on a quest to do a cross section sweep of restaurants, bars, nightclubs, wine stores and Cognac drinkers in Manhattan to better understand this brandy’s rocketing popularity.

These fast-paced, wondrous 24 hours chasing Cognac went as follows:

 

 

STOP #1 - 8:00 A.M.
New York City college campus (Village)
I started from the ground up, with the youngest legal age group of drinkers — college campus students. Another friend of mine, Alan, a writer, was tutoring some local college coed students in the New York University area. I barged in on their session to ask their views of Cognac’s place on the American college campus.

 

“It used to be that wine, beer, and whiskey was the norm in our dorm,” one student writer said without hesitation and with excellent rhyme.
“But thanks to rap and its continual praise, yak has joined our drinking days. Either straight or mixed, we like it fixed.” Another chimed in, “When reading Proust or Pound, Bellow or Balzac, nothing goes better than the taste of yak.” I thanked them for their insights and moved on.

 

STOP #2 - 10:00 A.M.
Stage Rehearsal (Theatre district)
I met up with an actor friend of mine, Dan Lauria. Among his long list of credits is playing the dad on the hit TV show, The Wonder Years and just recently portraying former C.I.A. head Tenant in the TV mini-series The Path to 9/11. Dan and I used to live in a Hollywood house with a bunch of other actors. Lauria was in town starring in the wonderfully poignant and humorous play, The Stone Carver, written by William Mastrosimone, who writes both for Hollywood film and Broadway (the Tony award-winning Extremities).

I met both of them on their rehearsal break for a cup of coffee. Lauria’s a wine lover and Mastrosimone is a serious collector, so we talked about Cognac and its history in the entertainment world. I learned that, among some singers, a small shot of Cognac was helpful.
Dan told how the famed torch song singer of the 1950’s, Peggy Lee, used to take a “short” snifter of Cognac to “loosen up the vocal cords” and also help her face the audience.Dan and William had to go back to work and so did I. We said our goodbyes and I promised to bring some Cognac to their opening night cast party.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

STOP #3 - 12 NOON
Bice Ristorante 7 East 54th St. (Midtown)
I decided to keep my energy up with a delicious nutritious lunch, so I sojourned to this eternal stronghold of ultra-chic in Manhattan.While I ate, I asked General Manager Jozef Juck for his appraisal of Cognac.

“The high-end Cognacs here are not affected by a trend, such as rap musicians,” Jozef informed. “People who come here often can have the finer things in life and find Cognac — neat, in a snifter — one of them. We also have a lot of pro sports athletes here who like it after dinner, especially the hockey players with European backgrounds, where Cognac has been a special part of drinking for generations.”

STOP #4 - 2:45 P.M.
67 Wine, 68th St. and Columbus Ave. (Lincoln Center area). I asked the likeable and knowledgeable store manager Bart Hopkins for his assessment of Cognac buyers in the Lincoln Center area.
“Cognac has a much more diversified audience than it used to,” Bart said. “It used to be an old man’s drink. Nowadays, it’s not just a cold weather drink but also one for all year round. Cognac has a wealth of diversity of styles and people are discovering its digestive properties as a wonderful after dinner drink.

 

There is a big push going on for Cognac cocktails, but our buyers prefer it the traditional way - straight.”Cognac Man braced for the long day — and night ahead. I kept to my plan to spend the day visiting traditional establishments where Cognac has ruled for years, as the great king that it is.

The late night would be spent exploring the hip-hop scene and other after-hours spots where hormones are raging and drinks are flowing.

 

 

STOP #5 - 4:30 P.M.
Brandy Library 25 Moore St. (Tribeca)
At the upscale, sumptuous Brandy Library, I met with Jean-Louis Carbonnier. This affable and erudite man knows his Cognac. The Bureau National Inter-Professional du Cognac (BNIC) has recently appointed Carbonnier Communications their representativein the U.S. Jean-Louis enlightened me on how Cognac’s history is full of colorful personalities and celebrities as diverse as Napoleon and P. Diddy.

 

We heard no rap music amidst Brandy Library’s citadel of sophistication, made all the more alluring by the room’s amber lighting, dark wood paneling and cocktail waitresses who nimbly climb ladders to fetch bottles that line the vertical shelves. The clientele are fashionable locals and also a business crowd. The impressive loose neck bound menu displays a long Who’s Who of refined Cognacs (as well as a 1914 brandy costing $230 for a snifter).

Ethan Kelley, its spirit sommelier, has encyclopedic knowledge of Cognac and beyond. Brandy Library’s owner Flavien Desoblin, concurred with what has fast become a fact in Manhattan: the town is going through a cocktail surge that is very creative.

Says Ethan “Cognac may be a couple of dollars more, but when I try a customer new to Cognac, they realize that it’s better than expensive cocktails.

And with a little help in educating them, women love it, especially the 30 to 35 year-old successful woman.” Cognac now comes in many forms of enjoyment: neat, frozen, on the rocks, with soda or tonic water, in fruit cocktails and long drinks.

 Ethan made me my first Sidecar cocktail- made with Cognac, Cointreau, lemon juice and sugar on the rim. The concoction hits your palate from half a dozen satisfying angles.
I next had to hurry to keep an appointment on the Upper West Side. But instead of Cognac Man jetting the skies like Superman, I took the subway at rush hour when I couldn’t hail a cab.

INTERLUDE
Close Encounters of the Cognac Kind:
Crammed into the #1 train, I ran into another old actor friend, Joel Leffert, on his way to rehearsal for a play in the New York Fringe Festival. When I mentioned the Cognac mission I was on, it reminded him of an elderly actor he’d worked with years before at a dinner theatre in a dry county in rural Kentucky.

This wonderful old-timer had been a gigolo during the Great Depression, escorting many women to the fabulous speakeasies of the era. He had fallen in love with a Cognac cocktail that he still drank to that day.

It was called a Southern Rebel (he had grown up in Mississippi) and consisted of Cognac, Irish Mist, Southern Comfort, lemon juice and grenadine. He swore it was the only thing that got him through a night of dinner theatre.

 

STOP #6 - 6:00 P.M.
Gotham Wine Store 94th St. & Broadway (Upper West Side)
The store was really busy at this hour, but manager Costas Mouzouras found the time to expand upon the recent rise of Cognac at Gotham.“People are moving up to Cognac after their exposure to single malt and higher end whiskies,” says Costas. “Their palates have been exposed to the subtleties of barrel ageing.

They moved to Cognac, one of the original products aged in this manner. Although everyone cannot afford the finest Cognacs, there are some quality bottles for $30.” After concluding at Gotham, the alarm clock to my stomach was ringing again for a good meal. I swung back to midtown.

Being Cognac Man was exciting but also demanding. Meeting some very interesting people was great but I was also pressed to jot down notes on Hall of Fame Cognac names such as Hennessy, Remy Martin, Courvoisier, Martell, etc.

 Like a boxer hitting his opponent from all angles, I was going after Cognac every which way. And it was proving a daunting task, since Cognac in New York is poured just about everywhere, with the possible exception of street vendors selling hot dogs!

STOP #7 - 8:00 P.M.
Rothmann’s Steakhouse 3 E. 54th St. (Midtown)
Being in the mood for steak dinner, but not just any steak, I dined at this Mecca for macho masticators. Prime steak reigns here but I also welcomed meeting up with Wine and Beverage Director for the Rothmann’s Steakhouse group, Gil Travalin.

 

He and his “Young Gun” right hand man, Tom Gannon, oversee this steakhouse and five more, along with eleven other restaurants in the NY Metro area. Of Cognac, Gil said, “We try to keep up with trends, but our guests still embrace the more traditional uses of Cognac.” Both Gil and Tom agreed Cognac remains a steady force after a meal albeit, in this non smoking century, without a cigar and sometimes accompanied by club soda.

 

With this being an establishment with an avid sports following, Gil smiled when recalling the former New York Jets quarterback football great Vinnie Testaverde, coming into Rothmann’s one night and buying a bottle of Louis XIII to pass around in appreciation of those who protect him on the football field — his offensive linemen!

 

STOP #8 - 10:00 P.M.
Barbounia 20th St. & Park Ave. South (Flatiron district)
This ultra in vogue restaurant and lounge specializing in American and Middle Eastern fare has the able and personable wine and spirits sommelier Philip Pepperdine at the helm. Cognac is a huge seller for him and the leading after-dinner drink.

“Cognac is a sexy spirit on the higher end,” Philip explained. “If drinking straight, it’s very sensual in the mouth, soft and smooth and well-balanced. However, the strength of it can put people off. You have to let it pass over the tip of the tongue to the mid-palate to bypass its heat.”
Philip had a love affair going on with Audry Cognac. He says that they are perfectly elegant, soft, slightly sweet, round, long on the palate and without an aftertaste.
“If Audry was a woman,” says Philip, “I’d get on my knee and ask her to marry me. Until then, I’ll have her in a glass!”

 

 

STOP #9 - 11:00 P.M.
Dylan Prime, 62 Laight St. (Tribeca)
A restaurant is a restaurant but one thing that truly separates one from another is atmosphere. Dylan Prime is quite unique in that it has two separate atmospheres. Upon entering this ultra popular spot and opening the door on the right you become overwhelmed with an elegant steak haven (the best in Tribeca).

 

 If you instead enter through the left door, you are transported to an Irish/English upscale pub that’s invariably loud and hip and packed with young Wall Street types and other nearby professionals along with myriads of attractive people in need of winding up or gearing down.

 

In the pub, I found Dylan Prime’s owners Michael Waterhouse and John Mautone at their usual corner bar seats, and sat alongside them. When you spend time with these two laid-back, fun-loving guys, a gamut of conversational topics flow easily, laced with their fertile minds and razor-sharp wit. These two veterans of the NYC restaurant/bar scene know their spirits. As does Dylan Prime’s knowledgeable Beverage Director Gina Kohler, who joined us.

Says Waterhouse, “Customers are mixing all spirit drinks now more than ever, including Cognac. A lot of purists condemn doing this with such a fine product.”Waterhouse chuckled when recalling seeing a high-end Scotch drinker once mixing it with Coke. “Doesn’t that bother you ” Waterhouseasked.

To which the customer retorted, “Not at all. If one absolutely has to mix it, then mix it with a good product!” And nowadays, that goes for Cognac. Ms. Kohler, Mautone and Waterhouse were in agreement that, “For a lot of people, Cognac is a status symbol. They often show off when drinking it, even with Coke. But soon enough, that status thing passes and they begin enjoying Cognac straight for its purity.”

 

STOP #10 - 11:30 P.M. - 1:00 A.M.
40/40 Club 6 W. 25th St. (Flatiron district)
This is a Mecca nightclub for Rap icons. Though the 40/40 is predominately a sports bar, it’s also sophistication personified with comfortable leather couches, large plasma screens and an impressive selection of sports memorabilia. Making it even more alluring are the V.I.P. rooms that are often filled with celebrities from the sports, music and film worlds (not to mention a show all unto herself, Jay-Z’s gorgeous and mega-talented girlfriend, Beyonce).

 

The place easily transforms into a top-shelf dance club. After reading about Jay-Z and 40/40 in The Wall Street Journal, I just had to see the place that even includes a Remy Room in honor of Remy Martin, Jay-Z ’s favorite Cognac brand.
“Cognac is a classy, sophisticated and really smooth thing to drink,” he says. Jay-Z even likes to sip Remy Martin’s Louis XIII — which comes in a gold-encrusted Baccarat crystal bottle for $5,000 — “whenever I wanna have a really relaxing moment, usually with a cigar.”The place is a unique must-see after-hours haunt.

STOPS #11 / 12 / 13 - 1:30 - 3:30 A.M.
Buddakan Restaurant, Morimoto, Cielo, etc. (Meatpacking Area)
If NYC is indeed the city that never sleeps, then in this area , sleep most definitely is for wimps! The crowds come here to party on until the Fat Lady Sings. Trouble is, she is nowhere in sight as various mixed concoctions of Cognac go side-by-side with Cognac straight.
I wrote in the previous issue of TASTED that the place is not hot, but on fire. With the hotness there ratcheting as we speak, forget Planet Hollywood. This is Planet Meatpacking time!

 

STOP #14 - 4:00 A.M
packing suitcase (Village area)
I was throwing clothes in a suitcase for Miami when I heard my apartment buzzer sound. As I left to jump into the back seat of the waiting cab and moved out of the glistening city, I, Cognac Man for a day, felt a mixture of sadness and relief. In the city that never sleeps, I kept “awake” the whole way through and loved every minute of it!

As the taxi made its way out of Manhattan and into Queens towards JFK, I glanced back at the hyper-reality city that I, from a small western Pennsylvania town of 9,000, thought I would hate only to love it. Though I was tired, my mind was in over-drive, taking copious mental notes on the whirlwind day I’d just had.
Certainly rap singers would agree with the legendary Peggy Lee, that Cognac and music is a very successful blend. Beyond those artists, Cognac in the traditional way -neat in a snifter- will forever continue. The sublime drink has proved durable and malleable, keeping in tradition but also changing to bring in more disciples.

The “old” image of Cognac as an after-dinner drink sipped neat, at room temperature or warmed slightly by cupping the glass in the palm of the hand, perhaps with a cigar, is great for many, but not all. Undoubtedly the hit tune Pass the Courvoisier may have single-handedly started U.S.

Cognac sales skyrocketing. That song was followed by countless others glorifying Cognac, the preferred brand of booze. Hennessy, another favorite among rappers, is affectionately known in about 100 songs as “Henny,” “Henn-dog,” “Henn-roc,” among others. Having been an actor in TV commercials for over 20-years, I know a little about the power of advertising. And one product has been receiving more free advertising than all others: Cognac.

American Brandstand, a San Francisco-based pop culture strategy firm ranked brands on how many times they were mentioned in 2005 in lyrics of Billboard top 20 songs. Mercedes Benz came in first, followed by Nike, Cadillac, Bentley, and Rolls Royce. Coming in sixth place of all the brand products in the world was Hennessy Cognac! Cognac’s surging U.S. sales are parallel to hip hop’s mainstream growth.
Americans imported 3.7 million cases of Cognac last year, 36% of the worldwide market compared to 1.3 million in 1993. According to The Wall Street Journal, Hennessy America’s biggest Cognac brand with 53% of the market claims that young African-Americans represent 60% to 80% of U.S. sales.

STOP #15 - 6:15 A.M.
JFK Airport terminal
I’m in line to board my flight, exhausted and done with Cognac for one day. Or am I Waiting at the adjacent gate for a departure to Los Angeles is Nicola Civetta - jetting to visit son Michele, a hot young Hollywood film director who is making Coin Locker Babies starring Val Kilmer. Michele’s elegant, dashing and proud dad Nicola is the owner of the Upper East Side formal and romantic hotspot Primavera Ristorante (Second Avenue & 82nd St.)

I’ve eaten there on special occasions and, invariably, there will also be a king or queen or president of some country or perhaps a big name star of Hollywood or Broadway. And no wonder; after the first bite of eclectic Primavera food, it is pure heaven!

 I asked Nicola if his formal clientele and Cognac make a good match. He answered, “We serve the biggest name Cognacs to the biggest name people in the world. They expect nothing less.”

 

STOP #16 - 7:08 A.M.
Airborne to Miami
As I fought to keep my sleepy eyelids open, the stewardess asked what I would like for breakfast.All I could think to say was, “I’ll have a C&C.”“Pardon me ”“Cognac and Cornflakes!” I answered with a wink.As she worked to form an answer, I, Cognac-Man, folded my cape into the form of a pillow and laid my head down.
Look, up in the sky! It’s a bird, a plane, or Superman! No, it’s Cognac Man, having finished his epic mission and now fast asleep!

TOP OF THE PAGE