Meaning of chasse-café | Babel Free

Definitions

A small serving of spirits taken to remove the taste of coffee, tobacco, etc.

dated

Equivalents

Examples

“"[…] And here comes tea and coffee—may as well have some, I suppose it will be all the same price. And what's this?" eyeing a lot of liqueur glasses full of eau de vie. "Chasse café, Monsieur," said the garçon. "Chasse cafe—chasse cafe—what's that? Oh, I twig—what we call 'shove in the mouth' at the Free-and-Easy.—Yes, certainly, give me a glass."”

“The business of the drama is now over, and by way of epilogue, you toss off a demi-tasse of café noir, with its accompanying petit verre de liqueur, which has been appositely termed chasse-café, from the peculiar rapidity it usually exhibits in following that aromatic beverage. […] Such are the details of a Parsian dinner; […]”

“The former will have devoted himself to you for the first half-score hours, have promenaded, dined à la carte, and chasse café’d with you, seen you to your hotel with bows, promises, and ravishing language, and then—have forgotten you for ever.”

“The dinner was in the best French manner—choice fruit, and wines of the greatest variety and richness; melon, with boiled beef as usual; coffee after dinner, without cream, and a small glass of liqueur called chasse-café, after it.”

“Sir Louis began by ordering the woman to bring him chasse-café. She offered him coffee, as much as he would; but no chasse.”

“I could not understand why they gave us unlimited light claret for dinner, with Madeira and champagne, with any number of chasse cafés, all included in the passage-money, whilst any one calling for a modest glass of ale had to pay extra, and pretty handsomely, for the same.”

“At the concert (which was at three) I found [Anton] Rubinstein who is here visiting his wife for Christmas. We dined together (at the Grand Hôtel de Russie, Babuino). As a chasse-café I banged out for him my arrangement of the Tic-tac Tarantelle by [Alexander] Dargomizhsky.”

CEFR level