It was created in 2007 by Davy Nérambourg for an independent (non brand affiliated) competition. He took first prize. Then, in 2009, Nérambourg opened with Julien Escot a bar called Papa Doble in Montpellier, where the drink quickly became the bestseller. Papa Doble remains to this day the only non-Paris French bar to have featured on the World’s 50 Best Bars list (in 2011) – and a fine bar it was in its heyday. Nérambourg left a year or so after the opening and took his drink to Lyon and then to Switzerland. Everywhere it went, it became one, if not the, bestseller.
When Escot sold Papa Doble to open a new project with a completely different focus – a stunning bar called Aperture – he dropped the Bombshell as it didn’t fit the style of drinks he meant to serve. Within 6 months he had to bring it back and it remains one of the bestselling drinks.
It’s a bit of a similar story to Nico De Soto’s St Germain des Prés (initially Nico’s Gimlet), which De Soto created in Canada and then took to all the Experimental Cocktail Group locations he worked at. He has long left the group but the cocktail remains the bestseller at a few of the locations and it can also be found at other French bars. As a cocktail made famous in Paris and London its fate has however been more global than the Blonde Bombshell, a cocktail made famous in Montpellier.
I feature both in my 101 Cocktails book.