café royale

alternative cafe royale

1. uncountableCoffee with brandy, sometimes served with spices, cream, etc.; (countable) a serving of this beverage.First known use 1890

   Come here and sit down. Have a cigar and a café royale.

   1890 November 23, “What Is the Remedy?”, in The New York Times, volume XL, number 21,243, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 30 Jan 2026, page 11, column 1

   5 more examples

   Café royale was also a favourite beverage with them—a cup of strong black coffee with brandy, the latter being bought separate in a bottle. The coffee could be doctored to any degree of strength. At first, my shipmates would take one portion of brandy, a swallow of café royale, and in would go another, and so it continued until each bottle was emptied.

   1902, Stanley Waterloo (indicated as editor), “A Glimpse of the Mediterranean”, in The Story of a Strange Career, Being the Autobiography of a Convict: An Authentic Document, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton and Company, pages 145–146

   We had a café royale—with Lanagan pouring his thimble-full of cognac in my glass—and Morton left.

   1913, Edward H. Hurlbut, “The Conspiracy of One”, in Lanagan, Amateur Detective, New York, N.Y.: Sturgis & Walton Company, page 73

   “I’ve got a little real good brandy in my tent. Like to drop over and have a café royale?”

   1928 May 15, Thomson Burtis, “Misfortune Hunters: A New Novelette of the Border Air Patrol”, in Anthony M[elville] Rud, editor, Adventure, volume LXVI, number 5, New York, N.Y.: The Butterick Publishing Company, page 174, column 2

   Sherry before dinner—when in her fury she had thought it impossible to face her mother’s stupid guests—and a cognac after dinner to satisfy Peter Knorr’s whimsy for a café royale had fanned Hope Borden’s smoldering anger against that intolerably rude boy downstairs.

   1934 October, Beatrice Blackmar, “Charity Ball”, in H[arry] P[ayne] Burton, editor, Hearst’s International Combined with Cosmopolitan, volume XCVII, number 4, New York, N.Y.: International Magazine Company, Inc., page 158, column 1

   He followed this with a thick and tender small steak, soufflé potatoes, asparagus hollandaise, a tossed green salad and zabaglione, along with a café royale for a finisher.

   1951 September, Sam Merwin, Jr., “House of Many Worlds”, in Startling Stories, volume 24, number 1, Kokomo, Ind.: Better Publications, Inc., section XI, page 62, column 2