Here’s to Lieutenant Gaetan Picon

By Jane Fundis Tors

“Here’s to Lieutenant Gaetan Picon of the French Foreign Legion,” my father would say with his glass raised. The military rank may have been an embellishment, but history holds that Picon created the French liqueur while serving in Algeria. It would become the foundation of the Picon Punch drink, for many a symbol of the American-Basque and part of the northern Nevada experience.

The paradoxical Picon Punch. It’s thought of as a Basque drink in the American West, yet my mother’s family confirms the liqueur and the drink are unknown in the Basque region of Spain and France. Another twist is that the original Amer Picon liqueur has not been available in the U.S. for decades. The Picon Punch we know is most often made with Torani Amer, by the maker of Italian syrups in San Francisco. We may drink a Picon Punch, but we don’t drink the original Amer Picon brand. The drink was created in the Basque dining houses and hotels of California, but found its way to those sprinkled across communities in northern Nevada. These establishments are central to the Basque story in the American West, and it’s no coincidence that almost all are near railroad stations.

I think of my grandfather and his brothers who left their home in the coastal Basque region, bound for jobs as sheepherders in the high desert of northeastern Nevada. Like so many, the Urriola brothers emigrated because they had to, not because they wanted to, a story shared by many American Basque families.

The 1920 census records my grandfather at a boarding house on Plaza Street in downtown Reno and notes his “sponsor” with a Basque last name. He arrived with practically nothing and not speaking any English. What a relief it must have been to arrive at this place and be welcomed to Nevada by someone who spoke the mysterious Basque language. I never knew my grandfather to drink Picons, but the drink became a tradition at our family Sunday dinners. It connects us to the role of the Basque hotels and the story of the Basque immigrants.

The Picon Punch, more and more, is becoming ubiquitous to Reno and other Nevada communities, a frequent suggestion on the list of things to do when visiting. It is one of the many, many threads in the fabric of a welcoming region that celebrates reinvention and enjoys a good paradox.

To make a Picon Punch, fill a 5 oz. glass with ice. Fill to within a half-inch of the top with an Amer Picon substitute such as Torani Amer. Add a whisper of grenadine and a splash of soda water. Stir. Add a float of brandy on top and garnish with lemon peel. Sip.

Image/A Picon Punch and bottles of the Amer liqueur grace the bar at Louis’ Basque Corner in Reno credit: Marilyn Newton — Image/*A Picon Punch and bottles of the Amer liqueur grace the bar at Louis’ Basque Corner in Reno* credit: Marilyn Newton

This story by Jane Fundis Tors is from One of a Kind, a book by Mark Curtis featuring a collection of first-person essays and images about life in Nevada. Jane is a former member of the Nevada Humanities Board of Trustees. Born and raised in Lovelock, Nevada, and of Basque descent on her mother’s side, Jane has enjoyed a career in communications that includes more than a decade of service at her alma mater, the University of Nevada, Reno. She and her husband Ryan live in Reno, along the Truckee River, and cannot imagine living anywhere else. She was a contributor to the book Pershing County: 100 Years.