Drink Up It's a Brand New Day ! - Barbotage A Drink Recipe
Thomas and Michou @ Maxim's Paris
Welcome to our ONLINE STORE and blog.
Every week we invite you for a peak behind the scene to see the things, people and places that inspire us.
As a barware company we choose this week to toast this Inaugural Week of 2026 by introducing you to a drink that you may have not heard of before, The Barbotage.
For those of you who know me, you will know that Gigi with Leslie Caron, narrated with the voice of Maurice Chevalier and Gaston played by the most handsome Louis Jordan is one of my all time favorite movies. Gigi's principal restaurant featured in the movie is Maxim's.
Maxim's (French pronunciation: [maksim‿s]) is a restaurant in Paris, France, located at No. 3 Rue Royale in the 8th arrondissement. It is known for its Art Nouveau interior decor. In the mid 20th century, Maxim's was regarded as the most famous restaurant in the world.
It became one of the most popular and fashionable restaurants in Paris under its next owner, Eugene Cornuché. He gave the dining room its Art Nouveau decor, installed a piano,[5] and made sure that it was always filled with beautiful women. Cornuché was accustomed to say: "An empty room... Never! I always have a beauty sitting by the window, in view from the sidewalk." It was so famous that the third act of Franz Lehár's 1905 operetta The Merry Widow was set there.
Gaston, Gigi and her Babotage Drink
In one of the scenes Gaston ditches Honore and goes to Mamita's but Gigi, who always cheers him up, isn't there so he doesn't stay long. When he leaves Mamita's he runs into Gigi near the park and—rather forcibly— takes her for an ice cream at the Ice Palace where he's meeting his "girlfriend of the moment".
The Ice Palace, the Palais du Glace, no longer exists as a skating rink; built in 1894, the Palais du Glace became the Theatre du Rond Point in 1980. While at the skating rink Gaston orders a ... Barbotage for Gigi.
Michou, Thomas & Friends @ Maxim's
The barbotage is a Champagne cocktail with an orange flavor like a mimosa. But it gets that orange from liqueur rather than from OJ. It’s also got a nice splash of cognac in there for some extra extra buzzzzzz.
INGREDIENTS
- 1/2 oz. cognac or brandy
- 1/4 oz. orange liqueur (like Triple Sec or Grand Marnier)
- 4 oz. dry (Brut) sparkling wine, very cold
- 1 slice of orange
-
Instructions:
Pour cognac (or another brandy) and Grand Marnier into a champagne flute, top up with brut champagne or a reasonable facsimile thereof (no need to go overboard in terms of quality, but you don't want something that you could use in a vapor degreaser, either).
There's another Barbotage the French seem to be mopping up these days in a certain quantity: Shake up with ice 1 teaspoon grenadine, 1/2 ounce lemon juice, and 1 ounce orange juice, strain it into a champagne flute, and have at it with the bubbly -- sort of a super Mimosa. If you wanna go that way, go that way. But we'll take the hooch -- and if you double the cognac, we should add, this makes a fine drink any time of day.
- Michou & Thomas at Chez Maxim's
As fate had it...
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