The Fond de Culotte seems too simple a drink to be shrouded in such mystery. A mix of the French gentian liqueur Suze and crème de cassis (black currant liqueur) finished with a lemon twist, the cheekily named Fond de Culotte actually began life as a Suze-cassis, or “Suze-cass” for short, and the origins of the name seem to be all people know about it.
“‘Fond de culotte’ in French translates literally as ‘pants’ bottom’ in English,” says Rose-Manon Baux, creative director at Le Syndicat, a bar in Paris’ 10th arrondissement that serves exclusively French spirits. “The name of the drink is actually a play on words,” Baux says. “The 1930s slogan for Suze was ‘l’apéritif qui ne s’use pas,’ or in English, ‘the aperitif that never wears out.’” Also, pronounced quickly, she explains, “Suze-cassis” sounds like “ne s’use qu’assis,” which means “It only gets worn out if you sit down.” That phrase is reminiscent of another, long-forgotten phrase: “user ses fonds de culotte” meaning, “to wear out the seat of your pants [somewhere],” or, to have spent a long time in a place.
Gaël Allier, head mixologist at Le Royal Monceau, agrees that the Fond de Culotte name originates from an association with the Suze slogan, but admits he hasn’t heard of the “fond de culotte” expression, perhaps because it’s fallen out of fashion. “Maybe it was a common expression at that time that we don’t use a hundred years later,” he says. “But the Suze-cassis has always been popular in French bistros and café culture, and I do think that the wordplay put the drink into the conversation and got people talking about it in these establishments.”
Even less is known about the origins of the drink itself. I reached out to Paris’ top bars, historic venues, aperitif specialists, cocktail book authors and even representatives at Pernod Ricard, the group that now owns Suze, but no one could tell me about how, exactly, this two-part drink came to be. Some, however, have suggested that it may have been created by Suze’s own marketing team to promote the liqueur. Others, like Franck Audoux of the Paris bar Cravan, see it as a twist on a Kir, an aperitif comprising crème de cassis and white wine.
What everyone does know is that it’s old, which could explain the mystery: It’s not always easy to find archives on a drink that dates back a century or so. In his book Drinking French, David Lebovitz describes the cocktail as “a truly autrefois (old-fashioned) café drink in France.” While Suze is popular at cocktail bars around the world, in its native France, younger generations have not been gravitating toward it. Lebovitz also notes in the book that, when he asked French people about Suze as part of his research, most replied that they knew of it from their grandmother having a bottle stashed in the back of the drinks cupboard.
However, more local bartenders are now reaching for a bottle of the once-forgotten gentian liqueur, and more people are ordering it. At the Experimental Cocktail Club, orders of Suze, particularly in a Suze-tonic, are on the rise. The influential bar always has two to three types of gentians, and they’re often served with cassis. The bar’s own Fond de Culotte—which is available off-menu—swaps out the Suze for Gentiane des Pères Chartreux, which the team thinks dials down the bitterness to give the drink more balance.
Most bars that serve the Fond de Culotte update the classic by lengthening with bubbles for a lighter and all-around more refreshing version. At Le Royal Monceau, Allier draws inspiration from the Americano, and adds a couple of dashes of orange bitters and soda water to “make it a fresh and more modern aperitif.” Candelaria bolsters its version with gin, and, in lieu of traditional cassis, calls on fermented cassis wine. The take is finished with white tea flavored with peach and apricot before being force-carbonated.
Back at Le Syndicat, Baux likewise feels that the Fond de Culotte needs to be retooled for the modern palate. “A traditional Fond de Culotte might taste overly bitter nowadays, and with its medicinal flavors, outdated,” she says. “We aim at renewing what it could be, highlighting the fruitiness of such a drink and turning it into a carbonated highball that pays tribute to the French aperitif tradition.” To make its version, Le Syndicat “jacks” Suze with frozen blackberries, using the method of infusing spirits with frozen fruit for a faster infusion with more intense color and flavor. Bartenders combine that with crème de cassis and another traditional aperitif, St Raphaël Le Quina Rouge, which Baux says offers “gentle notes of bitter quinquina, chocolate and oxidized fruits.” Adding it, she says, “helps bridge the three dimensions of a Fond de Culotte: dry bitterness, round fruitiness and underlying cassis tannins.” Finally, it’s topped with club soda and a lemon twist.
While the drink remains a mystery, it also remains a classic combination for bartenders to play around with. Each of the bars mentioned has put its own creative twist on the drink, but, true to its mysterious nature, each only offers the drink as an off-menu serve—if you know, you know. And for a cocktail with such an elusive backstory, that couldn’t be more fitting.