Part of the fun of drinking cocktails is tapping into a history and a culture of a particular time. This is a discussion of drinks, spirits, bartending, and history for beginners and professionals alike.
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Every
hotel, bar, or restaurant used to have a signature drink. In fact, for a
few hundred years from the peak of punch through the heyday of plain
and fancy drinks in the mid 19th century, all alcoholic beverages were
named after either their ingredients or the establishment that created
them. Some famous examples include the Manhattan, Brooklyn, Clover Club,
Pegu Club, and Sazerac. One of the many sad consequences of U.S.
Prohibition was that any business relying on selling alcohol had to be
shut down, and often with it went an interesting history and a signature
drink.
The Seelbach Hotel in Louisville, Kentucky, is a great
example. Built in 1905 by the Seelbach brothers, this hotel was an
attempt to recreate the beauty and decadence of western Europe. Located
within was The Rathskeller, a 400-seat capacity nightspot whose menu
claimed that “every essential, artistic detail is a reproduction of the
underground drinking and council hall of one of the famous castles on
the Rhine.” Most impressively, this was one of the very first
air-conditioned rooms ever built, requiring forty tons of steam-produced
refrigeration every twenty-four hours to maintain at least a ten degree
cooler temperature than the hot Kentucky air outside.
Theatre-goers and socialites spent evenings here, likely
enjoying the signature cocktail, The Seelbach – a light, spicy mixture
of bourbon, Cointreau, Champagne, and a hefty dose of both Angostura and
Peychaud’s bitters. Though unconfirmed (as most of these stories are),
the tale of its inception involves a bartender opening a foaming bottle
of Champagne and grabbing a nearby customer’s Manhattan to catch the
spill. This patron enjoyed the combination and a new drink was born.
Most famously, the Seelbach Hotel was frequented by F.
Scott Fitzgerald, who at the time was writing “The Great Gatsby,” and
supposedly based some of the novel on his experience there. The female
lead, Daisy Buchanan, was from Louisville, so perhaps he found
inspiration in a particular guest? Perhaps for Gatsby as well?
Once the 18th Amendment was passed, the bars inside were
closed and The Rathskeller became simply an extended dining room. Part
of this space was even leased to Walgreen Drugs. The Seelbach Cocktail,
now illegal, was forgotten.
In the 1930’s a new bar was opened that offered its own
theatre and musical entertainment, and though many ownership and design
changes have occurred over the last eighty years, the Seelbach still
stands and parts of the original Rathskeller designs still remain. The
story goes that in 1995 when ownership was undergoing another renovation
of the hotel, a manager discovered (I like to think it was physically
found in the basement) a recipe for the Seelbach Cocktail and again made
it the house drink, though the specifics were guarded. Thanks to Gary
Regan, who convinced the Seelbach Hotel to allow the recipe to be
published in his “New Classic Cocktails” book, we can all share in the
drink’s history and unique flavour.
At Pourhouse, we’ve altered the recipe slightly to suit our
tastes, so come try our version and tip your glass to Fitzgerald,
Gatsby, forgotten cocktails, and air conditioning.
[originally published on pourhousevancouver.com/blog]
Taste
should not be gender-specific. Good food and drink are enjoyed by any,
and there shouldn't be "manly" drinks and "girly" drinks - but there
are. There are a few reasons for this: -
Generally, women taste things differently than men - they tend to be
more sensitive to flavour, particularly bitter. Because of this
sensitivity, women often have more distinguished palates. (Again, this
is a generalization, but scientific research does support it). -
In western culture, the woman was seen as the weaker sex and therefore
shouldn't be enjoying the same things men do, such as strong drink. This
is particularly true for cocktails in the first half of the twentieth
century when many a book and magazine told women what they should be
drinking in order to be a proper and all-around good lady. These drinks
were colourful and sweeter. In
the dark ages of bartending (the 1970's-1990's) the above points were
interpreted into drinks involving copious amounts of sugar, artificial
colour, drinks with 'feminine' names, and a lot of vodka so as to
further disguise the taste of alcohol. Many of the classics had both
pretty colours and names but also happened to be great drinks, and
strong ones at that. These cocktails were not gender-specific, or often
started as a "gentleman's drink" (see the Clover Club) before becoming
popular amongst the female folk, likely due to the media and populace
deciding that a pink drink should be for a woman. For
this list, I'm taking inspiration from the 1920's to 1940's in
particular, when men were gentlemen and women were ladies, and there
were excellent drinks on both sides to be enjoyed by all. Should you
wish to drink like a fancy lady of the time, below are some classic
suggestions. Clover Club This
light and pink drink predates Prohibition when it was enjoyed by the
members of the Philadelphia men's club of the same name. By the 1930's,
it had lost popularity, and 1949's "Handbook for Hosts" from Esquire
placed it in the "something for the girls" section. If made properly
this drink can be drier than expected, using fresh raspberries and not
artificial liqueurs or commercial sweeteners. The Okanagan Spirits
liqueur is an excellent substitution for real raspberry, tasting both
dry and natural. If using a home-made raspberry syrup, bump up the gin
and juice or lower the sugar amount. Below is the recipe from Pourhouse
in Vancouver, which is fairly close to the recipe of old: 1.5oz London Dry gin 0.5oz fresh lemon juice 0.5oz simple syrup 0.5oz Okanagan Spirits Raspberry Liqueur 1 egg white Combine ingredients and dry-shake. Then add ice and shake again. Strain into a cocktail coupe. French 75 A
refreshing start to your evening, particularly a celebratory one due to
the addition of sparkling wine. As with any drink, it should be made
dry so as to awaken your palate and if so it makes an excellent
aperitif. Created in 1915 by Harry MacElhone at the New York Bar in
Paris, it was named after the WWI French 75mm field gun - which “packed
quite a punch." German officers famously order it at Humphrey Bogart's
bar in 1942's "Casablanca." Cocktail historian David Wondrich suggests
increasing the gin to 2oz and serving over ice in a Collins glass. While
this tastes better, I prefer the drink in more elegant attire. Here is
the Savoy Cocktail Book recipe from 1930: 2/3 gin [1oz] 1/3 lemon juice [0.5oz] 1 teaspoon powdered sugar [0.5oz simple syrup] Shake
ingredients with ice and strain into a Champagne glass or cocktail
coupe, then top with chilled Champagne or a dry sparkling wine (Brut). Sidecar This
cocktail's origins are of some dispute, as so many are, but while the
Ritz Hotel in Paris claims its birthplace, there are earlier and more
reputable sources that differ. Harry MacElhone's 1922 cocktail book
"Harry's ABC of Mixing Cocktails" gives credit to Pat MacGarry at Buck's
Club in London some time after WWI. It was named after the motorcycle
sidecar in which an American army captain was driven to the Paris bistro
where the drink was created for him. It is essentially a Brandy Daisy, a
style of drink dating to the mid 19th century. There are several
recipes, namely the "French school" which has each ingredient at equal
parts, and the "London school," which has 2:1:1 brandy to liqueur to
lemon. David Embury's very influential "The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks"
in 1948 recommends 8:2:1. I like my drinks dry, and below is my go-to
recipe. Avoid the sugar rim, a practice that popped up in the 1930's and
is both sticky and unnecessary. This drink is fruity but boozy and
perfect for an elegant lady who has come in from the cold.It also happens to be Cointreau's signature drink, a liqueur represented by the fanciest lady alive today: Dita Von Teese. 2oz Cognac or other brandy 0.5oz Cointreau 0.5oz lemon juice Shake ingredients with ice and strain into a cocktail coupe. Champagne Cocktail In
the 19th century this drink was one of the very first variations on the
“cock-tail,” a combination of spirit, sugar, water, and bitters.
Embellishments were inevitable, and the best of them is likely the
addition of brandy (technically making this a “Brandy Champagne
Cocktail”). Adding this extra punch to the equation balances the sugar
much better. This cocktail has shown up in both literature and film,
most famously in 1957’s “An Affair To Remember” with Cary Grant and
Deborah Kerr, and again in “Casablanca.” Don’t skimp on the bitters, and
be sure to use a very dry sparkling wine lest the drink be cloyingly
sweet. 1 raw sugar cube Several dashes of aromatic bitters (Angostura) 1oz Cognac or other brandy (optional) Champagne or dry sparkling wine Drop
the sugar into a Champagne coupe or glass and soak it in the bitters.
Pour in the brandy, then top with the wine. Garnish with a lemon twist. Arsenic and Old Lace
This
one is a little more obscure, but perfectly fit for a classic lady in
that it’s floral, light purple in colour, and dry. Descending from the
pre-Prohibition Attention Cocktail, this one hails from the 1940’s and
was considerably more dry. Modern recipes for both are basically the
same, with the Attention having the addition of orange bitters, which
makes for a more interesting drink with a less interesting name. The
name comes from the black comedy play from 1939 which was later adapted
by Frank Capra into a film starring Cary Grant. The story revolves
around a drama critic who tries to protect his homicidal aunts who like
to murder old men with poisoned elderberry wine. The recipe below
changes the classic one by reducing 0.5oz of pastis to an absinthe
rinse. Absinthe makes the flavour more complex, but is more potent than
pastis and can overwhelm the drink so no more than a rinse is necessary.
It employs crème de violette, an ingredient lost for decades until a
few years ago. The quality of this violet flower liqueur will determine
the overall quality of this drink, so be sure to avoid overly perfumey
artificial ones and to balance accordingly. 1.5oz gin 0.5oz dry vermouth 0.25-0.5oz crème de violette Absinthe rinse Rinse
a cocktail coupe with absinthe by pouring a little into the glass and
spinning so it coats the inside before discarding the excess. Stir gin,
vermouth, and violette with ice, and strain into the coupe. Garnish with
a lemon twist and express the oils over the top of the drink. Next post (which you can see here) I'll be sharing another five classic cocktails for a lady, then we'll get into those for the gentlemen. [The science of taste and intoxication and how they relate to gender can be found in the science section of this site.]
What better night to enjoy some Champagne or sparkling wine than New Year's? Should you be in a cocktail mood, here are some delicious drinks containing sparkling wine perfect for celebrating the arrival of 2013. We'll start with some classics and move on to more contemporary sippers.
The best choice of sparkling wine for mixing is always dry. In fact, the best wine for any use is almost always dry. Also, be aware of the acidity you're adding to the drink when you top with sparkling wine. The carbonic acid will affect the sweetness of your drink, despite the sugar content in the wine itself, which is one of the reasons to choose something dry. When mixing your other ingredients, balance things on the sweeter side, and likewise don't be surprised if you find your drink too sweet before topping with the wine as it will be dried out. French 75's, for example, should be a little sweet before you top them.
A great choice for any use is cava, as these tend to be great quality for how much you pay. Prosecco is great for the same reason, and they also tend to be dry so are excellent choices. Should you choose a North American sparkling wine or a Champagne, look for a "Brut" or "extra Brut", which means the wine is dry (i.e. not sweet). "Sec" refers to high levels of sugar, which is something you want to avoid if mixing (and in my opinion, something you should avoid altogether).
The Champagne Cocktail 1 raw sugar cube Several dashes of Angostura or other aromatic bitters Top with Champagne or sparkling wine Drop the sugar cube into a Champagne flute and soak with the bitters. Top with sparkling wine. Garnish with a lemon twist.
This drink dates back to the 1850's and is the first recorded variation on the "cock-tail," a combination of spirit, sugar, water, and bitters. Later variations included the addition of Cognac or brandy, which is in my opinion an excellent choice and I suggest going with 1/2oz. Should you have no sugar cubes on-hand, the original recipes call for 1/2 teaspoon of sugar, or 1 teaspoon of 1:1 simple syrup. Twist as always means just the peel of the lemon with the pith cut off, which you squeeze over the top of the drink to extract the oil.
French 75 1oz gin 1/2oz lemon juice 1 teaspoon of sugar Sparkling wine Shake ingredients with ice and strain into a cocktail coupe or Champagne flute. Top with sparkling wine.
This drink originated at Harry's New York Bar in Paris in 1915, created by American bar owner Harry MacElhone. The drink was said to "pack a punch like the French 75mm field gun," hence the name. The above recipe is from Harry Craddock's seminal cocktail tome, "The Savoy Cocktail Book," though more modern recipes contain up to 2oz of gin (which I must be honest I prefer). In David Embury's equally as influential cocktail book, "The Art of Mixing Drinks," the recipe claims that Cognac is the true spirit of choice here, lest the drink not be called the "French" 75. However, considering that earlier recipes call for gin and that earlier accounts claim the name comes from the French rifle and not from the spirit, the general consensus is that the drink be made with gin, which in my opinion makes a better drink anyway. Dropping a real cherry into the bottom of the glass adds a nice touch.
Buck and Breck 1.5oz Cognac or brandy Dash of absinthe 2 dashes Angostura or other aromatic bitters Sparkling wine Rinse a small glass or Champagne flute with water. Fill the glass with powdered sugar and throw it out, leaving the glass frosted inside. Pour in the brandy, bitters, and absinthe, then top the glass with cold sparkling wine.
This drink is supposedly created by the grandfather of the cocktail, Jerry Thomas, in the mid 1800's. It is not only a fancy-looking drink, but a more obscure one and very tasty. Should you be without absinthe, absente, pastis, Herbsaint, or pernod will suffice, but be aware of their shortcomings in flavour and complexity in comparison to actual absinthe.
Stir bourbon, Cointreau, and bitters with ice. Strain into a cocktail coupe or Champagne flute and top with sparkling wine. Garnish with a lemon twist.
This was a favourite of mine for a time, and one that I brought to Pourhouse in Vancouver where we included it on our fall menu this year. It comes from the Seelbach Hotel in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1917. During Prohibition, the cocktail was lost until the mid-1990's when it was found in the basement of the hotel during renovations. The infamous Gary Regan convinced the hotel management to share their recipe for this spicy drink and now it is available for us all to enjoy. Should you be using other bitters, be aware of their bitterness and adjust accordingly. Bitter Truth Creole Bitters, for example, is more complex and interesting than Peychaud's, but are much more bitters and only require 2-3 dashes.
Death In The Afternoon 1.5oz absinthe Sparkling wine
Pour absinthe into a Champagne flute and top with sparkling wine (at least 4oz).
This one was invented by Hernest Hemingway, who was by all accounts a heavy and creative drinker. It was named after his novel published in 1932. This was not the only drink he created, another one of note being the Hemingway Daquiri or Papa Doble, with rum, grapefruit, lime, and maraschino liqueur, which is by all means worth making in the summer.
Moving on to more modern cocktails, here is a French 75 variation by Dale Degroff using bourbon instead of gin.
French 95 1oz fresh orange juice 3/4oz bourbon 3/4oz simple syrup 1/2oz fresh lemon juice Sparkling wine.
Shake the first four ingredients with ice and strain over rocks into a fizz glass. Top with sparkling wine.
And here are three great original sparkling wine cocktails contributed to this site for previous series.
1/4oz Cynar 1/4oz Taylor 10 Tawny Port Barspoon All-Spice Syrup Sparkling wine Stir all ingredients with ice, strain into champagne flute & top with dry cava
All-Spice Syrup: Boil a tablespoon of crushed allspice berries,
one stick of cinnamon, and three cloves in one litre of water. Simmer
for 15 minutes on low, then add two litres of sugar. Stir until
dissolved, then let cool before bottling.
Add all ingredients to a shaker tin minus the Cava.
Shake, fine strain into sugar decked flute. Top with Cava. Garnish with
a long orange peel around the inside of the flute.
And a personal favourite of mine that we still serve by request at Pourhouse, The Bittercup. Two bitter amari along with fresh juices and sparkling wine combine to create a very complex cocktail tasting like bitter strawberry.
The Bittercup 1 oz Campari
1/2oz Fernet Branca
1/2oz real cranberry juice (not cranberry cocktail)
3/4oz fresh grapefruit juice
1/4oz simple syrup
2 oz dry prosecco
Pour all ingredients except prosecco into a shaker. Shake. Taste and
balance bitterness with simple syrup (the taste of bitter strawberries
is the goal). Double strain into a cocktail glass. Finish with prosecco.
Both the Fairmont Pacific Rim and the lead bartender in its Lobby Lounge, Grant Sceney, are new additions to Vancouver. Hailing from Melbourne, Australia, and spending two years bartending on an island in the Great Barrier Reef before calling British Columbia home, Grant has obviously picked up the craft quickly and didn't waste any time making his mark on downtown's drinking scene. With a new menu focusing on both classic and modern drinks, and implementing both barrel-aging and the Perlini carbonation system, this Fairmont is already standing out. An Aviation along with a barrel-aged Rob Roy and Bijou sit next to the Seattle-inspired carbonated Corpse Reviver #2 and Sidecar, and the originals are consistent with most of the contributors in this series having a focus on the culinary approach to mixing drinks. The "Pacific Rim Sour," is a mandarin orange-infused pisco sour with a touch of hibiscus, for example, while the "Bali Hai" features pear and thyme-infused gin and a ginseng and goji berry tincture mixed with agave, lime, and coconut water. Osmanthus and jalapeno both make infusion appearances as well, as does a Hoegaarden beer cocktail with Wiser's whisky, lemon, and honey called the "Chronicle."
Likely the most interesting of the bunch, though, is the drink Grant has chosen to share today - "Seven Days in Havana." The most sophisticated of the bunch, and likely requiring more of an experienced palate than its menu neighbours, this sipper has some complex bitter character from all of Bittered Sling Peach and Pepper extract, Angostura, and Punt e mes. The unique aspect of the drink is the barrel-aged Cointreau, which sat in a 1.5L American oak barrel for ten weeks, which not only rounds and smooths the flavour, but also pairs very nicely both in flavour and intention with the aged Havana Club rum.
Grant explains his intentions: "I created the drink after returning from the Havana Club Grand Prix International Cocktail Competition in Havana, which I was fortunate enough to be sent to by Havana Club despite not competing. The name comes from the movie funded by the rum called "Seven Days in Havana," which is seven short stories done by seven different directors highlighting seven different days living in the city. I was in Havana for seven days myself, and using the seven-year-old rum all fits the name. The seven-year-old is the first sipping rum of their line and thus I created this sipping drink to accompany and emphasize the characteristics of an aged rum. The structure is based on that of the Vieux Carre, and each component and ingredient helps add further complexity and depth while maintaining the integrity of the rum.
Kale and Nori's Peach and Pepper bitters is the perfect addition, with the pepper playing on the spice element from the oak and the peach holding together the orange and honey notes from the Cointreau. A bouquet of flowers moves across the palate with an underlying subtle smoke and peat element carried through by the Laphroaig. The Punt e Mes maintains the body with its mild bitter being further emphasized by Angostura, and this quality is essential in balancing the mild sweetness from the Cointreau."
Seven Days in Havana
1.5 oz Havana Club 7 Year-Old Rum 0.5 oz Punt e Mes 0.33 oz barrel-aged Cointreau 2 drops Bittered Sling Peach & Pepper Extract 1 dash Angostura bitters Laphroaig Single Malt Scotch Rinse
Stir with ice in a mixing glass, strain over rocks in a Laphroaig rinsed glass. Garnish with a lemon twist.
If you're looking for somewhere new to try, or like me you're following a Bittered Sling treasure map throughout the city, make the Lobby Lounge in the Fairmont Pacific Rim your next stop.
For the next cocktail, I'm going to head south to San Francisco's Mission District for a first-time contributor. You might not have heard of it if you're more of a cocktail nerd, like me, and less of a food nerd, (and you don't live in San Francisco) but the more reading I did on the SF scene the more a name started to pop up as a 'surprisingly' good, and fairly new cocktail bar: Beretta. Known seemingly first and foremost for their food, being named consistently one of the best Italian restaurants in the city, if not one of the best overall, and getting impressive reviews in The New York Times, The San Francisco Chronicle, Gourmet and Details magazines, and the list goes on. It was even recently named by Food & Wine to be one of the top 50 bars in America. So why 'surprising' when it comes to drinks? I think mostly it's just that the food reputation was so high that people came to eat and then were surprised at how great the cocktails were. Either way, Beretta is being recognized for both, and that's great news.
The barstaff has all the good kinds of experience, coming from other big names like Bourbon & Branch and Slanted Door, the service is consistently reviewed as impeccable, and despite the buzz that's been heard around this place since it opened in 2008, the consensus is again and again that it lives up to the hype. Southern Italian cuisine is really what they do, in particular pizza, so make sure you go for a drink and a snack.
The menu is short and simple, which I always appreciate. Rifling through pages and pages of complicated concoctions, as creative or delicious as they may be, makes me want to ignore the menu altogether. It's supposed to be a good starting point, a few suggestions, and more importantly, a show of what the bar staff enjoy to make right now. That's how I feel anyway. Yes, yes, digression...
The majority of the drinks on the menu are very refreshing, like "Nuestra Paloma," using Tequila, elderflower, Cointreau, grapefruit, and bitters, or the "Lonsdale," using gin, apple, basil, and honey. Others are simple, like their "Anejo Sour," and they have a classic or two as well, including one of my go-to drinks at home, the "Monte Carlo," with American rye, Benedictine, and bitters.
The head of the cocktail program, Ryan Fitzgerald, sticks with this mentality for his Amaro April cocktail, keeping things very simple. We again see Tequila (those SF'ers sure love their agave, but they have copious amounts of good quality stuff, so it makes sense), pairing it with Averna, then using Cointreau and orange bitters to really pull the citrus out. Ryan prefers to use Pueblo Viejo Tequila, and Angostura Orange bitters (which you better grab fast because I hear they're being pulled off the market - in Canada, anyway), which is much more dense and spicy than any other orange bitters I've tried. Using these will really lengthen the taste of any cocktail, opposed to using one like Regan's, which - while excellent - is much drier and dies quicker on the palate. Averna has some subtle citrus character that will play well with the orange in the cocktail, and being quite thick and fairly sweet, will change the texture of the drink and balance everything out.
Without further adieu, here is "Sevilla," named after the bitter variety of orange, from Ryan Fitzgerald at Beretta in San Francisco.
Sevilla
2 oz Pueblo Viejo Añejo Tequila
0.5 oz Averna Amaro
0.5 oz Cointreau
2 dashes Angostura Orange Bitters
Stir over ice, then strain into a small old fashioned glass over ice. Squeeze an orange twistover top and add it to the drink.
[[ Photography by "Cooking With The Single Guy," and Beretta ]]
[[ See my post on amaro digestivos here ]]
[[ See my post on amaro aperivos here ]]
[[ See a buying guide for amaro here ]]
[[ See "The One Hit Wonder" from L'abattoir in Vancouver here ]]
[[ See "The Penny Farthing" from Pourhouse here ]]
[[ See an introduction to amaro here ]]
[[ See "The Imperial Eagle" from Bourbon & Branch here ]]
[[ See "Fallow Grave" from the Toronto Temperance Society here ]]
[[ See "The Black Prince" from Phil Ward here ]]
[[ See "Bad Apple" and "Jackson Ward" from Amor y Amargo here ]]
[[ See "The Four Horsemen" from Jay Jones at Shangri-La here ]]
[[ See Colin MacDougall from Blue Water Cafe here ]]
[[ See "Debbie Don't" from Dutch Kills here ]]
[[ See "Welcome to the Dark Side" from Cin Cin here ]]
[[ See "Foolish Games" from Russell Davis here ]]
[[ See "Intro To Aperol" from Audrey Saunders at Pegu Club here ]]
To top off the series of posts on tequila, here is one exclusively on the most famous of tequila drinks, and one of the most famous cocktails there is - The Margarita.
Unfortunately, there's no definitive birth of the drink, but I'll go through each of the supposed stories. Double unfortunately, this drink is often butchered by use of artificial sour and fruit mixes, and blenders, so below I'll give you the most traditional recipe we know of, as well as some fun variations if you want to try something new.
The History
There are several stories as to how, when, and where the drink was created. One such story is that Don Carlos Orozco at Hussong’s Cantina in Ensada, Mexico, invented it in 1941. Orozco was visited by Margarita Henkel, the daughter of a German ambassador, and offered his latest experiment to her before naming the drink after her. Carlos Herrera also possibly created the drink at the Rancho la Gloria Hotel near Tijuana, where he invented it for a dancer named Marjorie King, who was supposedly allergic to all alcohol except tequila, which she still refused to drink straight. The owner of La Plaza Hotel in San Diego brought the recipe from Mexico to the U.S. where it became popular after 1947.
Another story for which I can’t find much detail is that Santos Cruz created the drink for singer Peggy Lee at the Balinese Room in Galveston, Texas, in 1948.
There is also a story of a bartender in Juarez who was asked to make a Magnoliia cocktail, but couldn't remember any ingredients except Cointreau, so just made up something new and named it after a different flower - the Margarita.
Lastly, and most likely, it appears to just be a variation on the very old and constantly evolving Daisy cocktail, which hails from the mid to late 1800’s and originally contained brandy and lemon with dashes of curacao, rum, gum syrup, and soda. In the early 20th century, this evolved into brandy and lemon with grenadine and sugar, or brandy and lemon with curacao (which eventually became The Sidecar), and then other spirits started to get used, leading to a Gin Daisy (which evolved into the Cosmopolitan with vodka), or even a Tequila Daisy in the 1940’s. Increase the amount of orange liqueur and switch the lemon to a lime and you have a Margarita - which actually means "daisy" in spanish. Such is the evolution and creation of almost any cocktail. There are hundreds of recipes that vary only slightly on different themes and ingredients, but they all basically break down to a handful of classic recipes - the Cocktail, the Crusta, the Daisy, etc.
Stories and decorated histories is part of what makes cocktails so much fun, but most of the time there are just a lot of bartenders everywhere at the same time doing simple variations on a theme and coming up with new ideas.
The Recipe
The traditional Margarita is just tequila, triple sec (Cointreau is best), and lime juice, served on the rocks (with a salt rim or not), and definitely not blended. Below are 3 separate recipes for you to try at home, starting with the most basic.
Traditional Margarita
There are countless recipes for this drink, so the best thing to do is experiment and find what you like. 3:2:1 or 4:2:1 (like the Sidecar) is always a good way to go for a sour, so let's do that! 2 oz tequila blanco or reposado
1 oz Cointreau (or other triple sec / curacao to taste)
1/2 oz fresh lime juice
Shake all ingredients with ice, and strain into a rocks glass filled with ice. Garnish with a lime wedge if you like, and salt the rim if you like (but I would suggest not if you have a really nice tequila).
How to salt a rim? Well I can't find a video anywhere at the moment that doesn't either do it in a rimmer tray by dunking the glass in, which is not only messy but also not nearly as classy as it should be, or one that does the rim really messily. I'll find good pictures or a video and do a whole post it on next time.
Margarita Especial
I got this one from Charlotte Voisey on her Small Screen Network show, The Proper Pour. It's a fun way to play with the agave flavour of tequila. If you can't find agave nectar, you can use agave syrup (which you can just buy in Safeway or just about anywhere), but you need to cut down the amount by half because it contains a lot of sugar. 2 oz tequila (reposado preferred)
1 oz agave nectar (or 1/2 oz agave syrup)
1 oz fresh lime juice
Shake all ingredients with ice and strain over a rocks glass filled with ice. Garnish with a lime wedge.
Now here's a really awesome one that my brother made me in San Francisco, but I'm not sure where he found the recipe. It's a totally different collection of flavours, but they all really compliment the tequila. It's definitely worth trying out if you have the ingredients and want something new! 3/4 oz Mezcal (or tequila reposado)
3/4 oz tequila blanco
1/2 oz Green Chartreuse
1/2 oz lime juice
1/2 oz grapefruit juice
1/2 oz simple syrup
Shake ingredients with ice and strain into a cocktail glass.
My brother tells me you're supposed to float a peaty Scotch over the top of the cocktail, which would really accent the smokiness of a Mezcal if you have it, but just the above by itself is fantastic. If you do want to experiment with smokey flavours, you can also try throwing a dash of Lap Sang Su Shong tea or infused syrup in there.
Experiment, switch some ingredients, throw dashes of new things in there (maraschino pairs with tequila in a cool way) and have fun!
The Culture California in the early 20th century was really a progressive and unionized state, and by WWII they had old-age assistance, unemployment compensation, workplace safety rules, and over 120,000 union members in many professions. Los Angeles became the centre of the universe in terms of film-making, San Francisco became an industry power-house, and San Diego became a hub for American military and defense.
California really acclimated itself to Mexican culture, particularly in San Diego (which was for a time actually part of Mexico), and Mexican food, film, music, and the Spanish language all became integrated into American life there.
The biggest musical influence of Mexican music was Mariachi, which had become prevalent in the mid-1800’s and really accepted into America in the 1940’s. Mariachi actually originated in the state of Jalisco, which is where tequila is made (see how I came full circle there).
Perhaps the most famous and prolific film and music stars in Mexico throught the 1930's to 1950's was Pedro Infante, who not only made over 60 films through the golden age of Mexican film, but also recorded more than 350 songs. Listening to his music you can really hear a Mexican tradition but also an American influence in the production and arrangements, which pairs very nicely with the Margarita which also has a blend of the two cultures.
Enjoy your Margarita of choice while enjoying this classic by Pedro Infante - Serenata Tapatia.
Ok, so you picked up some cheap glassware, a shaker, some citrus fruits, some sort of measuring tool, and you made your simple syrup (you learned all this from Part 1). All you need is some alcohol to mix.
Here are the most basic and cheapest things to pick up so you can start making some drinks...
A Base Spirit
The cocktail "base" is the alcohol you're using most in a drink. Everything else you're adding to accentuate certain flavours in this spirit. Probably the most commonly used spirit in cocktails, especially traditional ones, is gin, so that's definitely the first thing you should pick up. I have a beginner's guide to gin Part 1 and Part 2 coming soon, but for now I'll simply tell you to go buy Tanqueray or Beefeaters. They're both cheap ($23-26 for a 750mL bottle) and versatile. Tanqueray is more interesting and more herbal, Beefeater is much simpler and a little citrusy.
The next most common and classic base spirit is probably whiskey. A lot of drinking novices cringe a little when you say whiskey, but there are not only some really tasty and easy-to-drink ones for cheap, there are also a lot of easy cocktails you'll probably like even if you don't like whiskey itself. My lady is a great example - we used to go out for drinks and she'd make faces when I'd order whiskey cocktails and even made faces after trying some of them. Then she tried a Red Hook... then a Bensonhurst... then a Manhattan and a Brooklyn and so on and so forth and now she loves whiskey.
If you're new to whiskey, I suggest getting bourbon. It's sweeter with a little spice, mixes really well, and is very sippable if you're not used to rye or scotch. Get a bottle of Jim Beam or Wild Turkey - they're the cheapest at $23-26 per 750mL bottle, but they're definitely fine in cocktails and easy to use. They're not great sippers, though, so I'd just use them for mixing.
Don't buy Canadian Whiskey. It sucks and it's boring (sure that's a generalization - but a pretty accurate one).
I would go with one of the above to start, but if you're past that or have a bunch of money to spend and want more, move on to rum or brandy. For rum, pick up Mount Gay Eclipse gold or silver rum. They're only $27 for 750mL bottle, they're delicious, they mix really well, and they're tasty enough to drink straight. I'm much, much less knowledgeable about brandy, and I honestly buy cheap, small bottles because I rarely make drinks with it and I never drink it straight. Couvoisier VS is a very decent one, but will cost you $56 for 750mL bottle (I'm finding any good brandies or Cognacs are very expensive). I just usually get St. Remy VSOP, which is only $12 for a small bottle, and I only really use it for mixing a couple drinks. There is a very dramatic taste difference between a cheap brandy like this and a decent Cognac, as I'm sure you would imagine, but if you're just mixing some new drinks, it's not necessary YET. (Soon I'm going to do a guide on brandy to build my own knowledge and guide collection)
A Vermouth
A long list of cocktails contain vermouth - a fortified wine with added herb botanicals - including a lot of the classics. You'll definitely need bottles around, one white (or dry or French - all the same thing), and one red (or sweet or Italian - all the same thing). I personally really dislike Martini & Rossi, but it is the cheapest way to go, and they're the only brand in Canada that offers small bottles for only $8 - which is great because vermouth will always go bad before you finish using it. If you want to go a little nicer, Noilly Prat dry vermouth is only $14, and Cinzano Rosso sweet vermouth is only $13. If you only want to buy one... look at some cocktail recipes you want and just choose. Sweet vermouth is used more often with whiskey, and dry more often with gin.
Keep your vermouth in the fridge!! You can only keep it for a month before it starts to smell and taste funky, so be prepared for that.
Bitters
The actual definition of a "cocktail" is a base spirit, water, bitters, and sugar. A lot of traditional cocktails will call for bitters, and there are a lot being produced nowadays that really change the complexity of a cocktail.
Unfortunately in Canada, the only bitters that's easy to find it Angostura, and our government liquor stores don't sell any at all. Fortunately, you can just pick it up in Safeway for $7-8, and one of those bottles lasts me about 6 months.
If you want to experiment in the future with other kinds, The Bitter Truth will ship to you, and they make a whole range of really interesting bitters, from chocolate to grapefruit to celery to traditional-style Creole bitters. Out of a store, the Gourmet Warehouse on Hastings near Commercial has some cool syrups and a huge range of bitters, and I also hear that there is a liquor store somewhere near 16th Street in North Vancouver that sells a lot of hard to find stuff... but the store itself is hard to find. I still can't find a listing for it, nor have I learned the name, but I've had more than one bartender tell me that this magical place exists. When I find out, I'll let you know.
So hit up the Gourmet Warehouse if you want to try some new or interesting things, but to start, you only really need Angostura and an orange bitters.
Modifiers
Now, this is really up to you. A modifier is that special other ingredient that makes a drink different. Like I said, a cocktail is just bitters, sugar, and a spirit with water, but the evolution of drinking has brought in many other things. I can't tell you what to get unless you know what you want to make!
If you're past the point of basics, though, I can recommend a few things that really spiced up my bar early on:
Amari - Italian bitter liqueurs which are meant to be drunk straight, but there are lots of drinks you can make with them. Lots of bars are experimenting with amari nowadays, and they're all really delicious. Only a few are easy to find though, and Campari is a great way to start. It runs $26 for a 750mL bottle, and you only use small amounts so it will last a long time. It has a distinctive bright red colour, an interesting range of bitter herbal flavours, and is an important ingredient in some great, classic cocktails like the Lucien Gaudin, The Negroni, and The Americano. (The latter post there has some extra information on Campari as well).
Cointreau (which is the high-end triple sec, or orange liqueur) has a lot of uses, and you can pick up a small bottle for $18.
Green Chartreuse is a very, very cool thing to have around. It's an herbal liqueur from the 18th century made with over 130 different plants and herbs. One of my favourite drinks is The Last Word, which calls for Chartreuse, but there are actually quite a few other things you can make with it. It is expensive at $36 for a small bottle, so is a treat, but is so potent that you won't use a lot of it. And it's naturally green! In fact, the colour Chartreuse was named after it.
Last thing I definitely recommend getting at some point if you want to expand your horizons is Maraschino Liqueur. No, it's not a red, cherry-flavoured, sugar syrup. It's a very interestingly flavoured liqueur dating back to 16th century Croatia, and is used in a lot of very old cocktails, including the father of the Martini - the Martinez. You can't get this in the regular BC Liquor Store, but a lot of independent places have it, like Brewery Creek on Main Street, or the independent liquor store in the Park Royal South Village in West Vancouver.
I hope all this helps in getting you going and giving you some options as to where you'll start. I've had so much fun experimenting and mixing drinks and getting connected to periods of history I really enjoy, particularly Prohibition, which is when so much good art and music and style was happening. Be open-minded, use good ingredients when you can, always have ice handy, follow recipes closely, and be adventurous!
I also have to take a moment to plug the Pourhouse. It's my favourite bar in Vancouver, with probably the best bartenders in Vancouver, and they really insist upon giving you a good experience, good information, and classic cocktails. It's in gastown. If you're not really into this yet, one trip there will get you excited.
Today we're going to do a very delicious and refreshing cocktail hailing from 19th century England, but really gaining popularity in the cocktail age of the 1930's. The name is also Halloween-appropriate, even though I'm over a week late...
The History:
The Corpse Revivers are a family of cocktails intended to be hair of the dog, drunk in the morning to cure a hangover. They supposedly showed up in the 1860's, but no recipes were officially published until 1930 in Harry Craddock's seminal cocktail tome, "The Savoy Cocktail Book." Craddock was an American bartender who moved to London during Prohibition, joined the American Bar in the Savoy Hotel in London in 1920 and became one of the biggest names in the art of drink-mixing. He is definitely one of the most influential bartenders as most of us still follow his example and recipes today.
Only a couple kinds of Corpse Revivers survived, the most famous and memorable of which is definitely #2.
The Ingredients:
Should you be new to mixed drinks, here is some general information on the ingredients used in this cocktail:
Cointreau isn't cheap, but you use fairly little in most cocktails. A 375mL bottle, which costs about $18, will last me a few months. It's also comparably priced in B.C. versus most of the U.S., which is always exciting news for us up here.
Cointreau is a high-end triple sec, made by distilling a neutral spirit, infusing it with sweet and bitter orange peels, then bottling it at 80 proof with added sugar. People often use Grand Marnier when a recipe calls for triple sec, but it is actually a curaçao. This uses a brandy base, whereas a triple sec uses a neutral (un-aged) base. While the differences aren't dramatic in a cocktail, I find the taste of Grand Marnier too heavy for light and fruity drinks such as the Corpse Reviver #2, Margarita, or White Lady.
Lillet is a French aperitif (fortified or aromatized wine or liqueur meant to be enjoyed before food to whet the appetite) consisting of an 85% blend of Bordeaux wines added to a 15% blend of citrus liqueurs. It is aged in oak casks and has a very light and sweet taste. It can can be enjoyed straight or on ice, and is an ingredient in some very delicious cocktails. It runs only about $17 here in B.C. and you can find it in probably any Canadian liquor store. Unfortunately in 1986 Lillet changed its recipe, and is now much sweeter and less bitter than it once was.
Kina Lillet, the original Lillet, which was more bitter ("kina" as in "quina" as in quinine, which was the original bittering agent), is what James Bond asks for by name in his original drink, "The Vesper," in the Casino Royale novel. Cocchi Americano is the best approximation of the original Kina Lillet recipe and is a great product. [2013 Update: fantastic news - Cocchi products are now available in Vancouver so get them while you can!] If you have the option, use Cocchi - it makes for a much more interesting, balanced, and historically accurate drink.
If you get yourself a bottle of Lillet, make sure you refrigerate it with the rest of your fortified wines and after a couple weeks it will start to taste a little funky, so drink up!
As for the absinthe, you can use a pastis or similar substitute. This will give you the anise flavour, but like any ingredient in any food or cocktail, the better quality the parts, the better quality the whole. Absinthe has much more depth, is a little bitter, more herbaceous, and much, much more interesting. Even a few drops make a real impression on the drink, much like a bitters. A very small dash will do the trick, though rinsing the glass or even spraying the glass or the finished drink with an atomizer are more controlled ways to get the anise involved.
Absinthe is not a liqueur, it's not hallucinogenic, and it's not illegal. For more information, should you be interested, I saved all the absinthe information for another post that you can read here.
Be warned, there are no cheap options. However, if you don't drink the absinthe by itself and only use it in cocktails, your bottle will probably last a couple years because you'll only be using dashes at a time. The kinds you can find in BC run about $55-70 per bottle, and if you are going to splurge and get some, I suggest Taboo - which is made right here in B.C. in the Okanagan Valley in the traditional style with wormwood. If you're in the U.S., you have many more options, of which St. George is an excellent one.
Lastly, always use fresh juice in your drinks! Using mixers or anything from concentrate will ruin your cocktail and waste your ingredients. Lemons are cheap and you can just squeeze them by hand if you don't have any kind of juicer.
The Corpse Reviver #2:
3/4oz London Dry gin 3/4oz Lillet Blanc (Cocchi Americano) 3/4oz Cointreau 3/4oz fresh lemon juice 1-2 dashes absinthe (or other pastis) Combine all ingredients in a cocktail shaker, fill with ice and shake, then strain into a cocktail glass (double strain to get rid of any pulp).
The Time:
I'm going to go with the first publication of the drink in 1930 rather than it's earliest incarnations in 1860's.
The 1930's were very much the start of modern life was we know it. The public transportation system was implemented in London, frozen foods became commercially available, sliced bread was sold for the first time, and electricity really took over from gas power and other forms of energy. Science was moving forward faster and faster, with Pluto discovered in 1930, the Chrysler Building built, the jet engine patented, sticky tape invented, and for the first time ever, a television drama was broadcast - "The Man With The Flower In His Mouth" was shown on BBC. Unfortunately, it was also a much more depressing (note my choice of word) decade. Unemployment in the UK reached 1 million and war with Nazi Germany became inevitable. The 30's were a dramatic contrast to the "roaring" and "rich" 1920's.
In music, Bing Crosby made his first solo recording, big band swing was just about to boom, and jazz in general was becoming much more popular across the western world and evolving faster and faster. Swing music was very popular amongst young people, and because of its exciting, sexy, and up-tempo rhythm, became synonymous with dance. Swing dancing involved gyrating all over the dance floor and throwing your partner around and *gasp* moving your hips, so swing music and dancing were banned in many dance halls in both England and the U.S.. Thanks to radio, bandleaders like Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, and Glenn Miller became house-hold names everywhere, not just dance-club-hold names in major cities.
To a lesser extent than America, jazz was happening in London too. Probably the most famous names were composer/bandleader Ray Noble, who was the His Master's Voice studio bandleader, and Al Bowlly, his regular vocalist. The latter had a very unique voice, and released over 1000 recordings from the 1920's until his untimely death during the Blitz in 1941. He was born in Mozambique, but grew up in South Africa before coming to Europe to pursue his musical ambitions, where he was asked to join Fred Elizalde's band at the Savoy Hotel. Yes, this is the very same Savoy Hotel where Harry Craddock created and served some of the most famous cocktails we know today and wrote his "Savoy Cocktail Book." Bowlly was a very important influence on vocalists, often credited with being the first "crooner," and even the first "pop star." Famous names in music were either instrumentalists, composers, or bandleaders, and Bowlly was one of the first, if not the first singer to release jazz /pop records under only his name (rather than the bandleader's name and featuring a vocalist). He was also the first singer to have his own solo spot on BBC radio.
So, for the Corpse Reviver #2, (which I suggest starting your evening with rather than your day) here is the original crooner himself, Al Bowlly - the "Big Swoon" - with Fred Elizalde's Savoy Hotel band, the way it would have been if you were enjoying yourself at the actual Savoy Hotel in late 1920's London.
So the first cocktail we're going to try is the Sidecar. Like a lot of older drinks, its origin is not completely confirmed. Like some other older drinks, neither is its recipe.
We're going to look at where the Sidecar came from (probably), when it came from, and then really get into the experience by learning about the culture of its time and place of origin as well.
The Sidecar
The history of the cocktail:
The myth of the Side Car is that it was invented in the 1920's in Paris for a decorated war veteran who arrived at a bar in a sidecar and asked for a drink to cure
his current case of 'feeling under the weather.'
The more likely truth is that there are two separate accounts in 1922 that give credit for the recipe to Pat MacGarry, who was the main bartender at Buck's Club in London, which opened in 1918.
So, it's likely a British-made drink, but possibly a French-made drink. Nonetheless, it is made with French ingredients, and became famous mostly in Paris at one particular bar, so we will stick with the French side of things for our theme today.
The very practical side of this drink's creation is a natural evolution from older cocktails (as is often the case), namely the Crusta - a style of libation first published in 1862 by Jerry Thomas, the grandfather of mixology himself. It includes brandy, lemon juice, curacao, simple syrup, and bitters. Cocktails containing orange liqueur, a spirit, and citrus evolved into many different cocktails we know today (see my post on The Margarita and its evolution from the Daisy Cocktail).
The bar that made The Sidecar drink famous was around for a long time in Paris, and was bought by an American in 1911, who renamed it the "New York Bar," and hired, and later sold the bar to Harry MacElhone in 1923. At this time, many American tourists, artists, musicians, and authors were moving to Paris (thanks
to Prohibition among other things), and the bar was intended to be a place where expatriates from America could feel at home.
After MacElhone took over, the bar became arguably one of the more famous in the world. George Gershwin composed "American In Paris" here, and it claims fame to creating some of the more famous classic cocktails, including the Bloody Mary, the French 75, the Monkey Gland, and, as we are discussing today, the Side Car.
The Recipe:
The earliest printed recipe has all parts equal (known as the "French" or "Paris School"), but the most famous recipe is in Harry Craddock's Savoy Cocktail book, which lists cognac to lemon juice and Cointreau at 2:1:1 (this is the "English" or "London School"). Like any other classic cocktail, the ratios are different depending on the bartender and, of course, how you like your drink. Embury, from "The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks" even lists the ratio 8:2:1, cognac to lime to sugar syrup (a Daquiri with brandy instead of rum).
I generally prefer my cocktails spirit-heavy, and a little on the sour side when using juice. Using a nicer cognac, rather than a cheap brandy (as is often the case unfortunately), I suggest a 4:1:1, maybe with an extra dash or two of juice.
In cocktail books in the 1930's, the recipe also included a sugar rim for glass, like a Crusta (the Cocktail's forgotten brother). If you're making the drink very strong or very sour, this can be a nice addition, but overall I quite dislike very sweet drinks and feel it's unnecessary.
Sugar rims can also be quite annoying when the condensation of the glass turns the sugar into a syrup that inevitably gives your fingers a sticky bath. Cointreau is sweet enough, and if you're using Cognac (as you should be) you don't want to mask the flavour with so much sugar! (Down with overly sweet drinks! That's another topic for another day...)
The Ingredients: Cognac (which should be used) is a brandy made in the Cognac region of France from a grape wine (with other very strict production rules, from location and grape-type, to the double-distillation technique, to the wood from which the barrels are made in which the brandy is aged).
A brandy is wine that has been distilled, and then usually aged in wooden casks. (You can use any brandy in this cocktail, but of course, Cognac is best) Cointreau is the original type of triple sec.
A triple sec is a liqueur made from a typically neutral (flavourless) spirit, then flavoured with orange peels.
A liqueur is a spirit that has been flavoured and then bottled with added sugar.
Cognac is unfortunately not cheap, and a 750mL bottle will run you about $55 in BC.
If you just want to try the drink with a cheap brandy, you can get a 750mL bottle for about $23, though be warned - the drink will not be as smooth. If you're not used to the taste of brandy, I suggest going French or English school with the recipe to start so you don't get turned off.
Cointreau runs about $35 per 750mL bottle, but with the amount you will use, definitely just pick up a 375mL bottle, which runs $18. I go through one of these small bottles every couple months, and that's saying a lot because I drink a LOT ;)
You can save almost 50% by getting a cheap triple sec, but these tend to be overly sweet and kind of gross. Cointreau has a much more subtle and orange-y flavour that really does make a difference to your cocktails.
As for the lemon juice - use real lemons!! Never use a sour mix or bottled lemon juice in cocktails. You will ruin your drink and waste your other ingredients.
Getting a hand-held juice is easy and cheap (I got mine for $6), or if you just want to jump right in... half of an average lemon is about 1oz of lemon juice. Measuring properly always gives more balanced drinks though!
Art and culture at the time:
Paris was an epicentre of art and literature in the 20th century, and in the 20's Art Deco was beginning, Dadaism was leading to Surrealism, and many famous artists and writers made the city their home, such as Salvador Dali, Pablo Picasso, Ernest Hemmingway, James Joyce, and Gertude Stein. Art was in a revolutionary period at this point, and people were really started to think outside the box, so to speak.
Prohibition had taken hold of the US, which had a hand in increasing the number of Americans travelling to France. Racism was not nearly as much of an issue in Europe as America, which allowed talented writers and performers to really become successful in France when they could not do so in the US (people like James Baldwin and Josephine Baker).
Music:
At the time when the Side Car would have just started to boom in popularity in Paris - about 1923 - jazz was just starting to become popular in Europe. Most notably, James Reese Europe and his Hellfighters were touring Europe during and just after WWI and planting the seeds of early jazz. This music was militaristic in nature and instrumentation, but swung. It was an evolution of ragtime, and was the beginnings of big band swing to come in the following decades. Europeans had never heard anything like it before, as jazz was a completely American music. Jazz in its entirety wasn't really accepted into European culture until the 1930's, and several French jazz musicians live on in infamy today, such as Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli (both of whom you might have heard playing in bars and cafes in Paris in the 30's while you were sipping your Side Car).
Throughout the 1920s, many American musicians, artists, and writers moved to Paris. One such musician/performer was Josephine Baker, who was one of most famous performers of the 20's, despite being black (and that was a big deal back then). She was the first 'person of colour' to star in a motion picture, first to integrate a music hall, and one of the first famous black performers ever. She was an important figure in civil rights issues to come as well. Never really apprecated in America as she was in France, in part because she wasn't white, she still to this day remains a solid influence on American singers and performers. Her stage shows, which of course played upon her ethnicity, contributed to the birth of the term "jungle music," which also described at the time such artists as Duke Ellington, and was more of a racial slur than a description of the music itself.
So, to go along with your Side Car from Harry's Bar in Paris, with French Cognac or Brandy and French Cointreau, is one of the more famous performers in France at the time - despite not being French herself - Josephine Baker, performing a piece in 1927 by the American composer of the same period, Irving Berlin, entitled "Blue Skies."
Every
hotel, bar, or restaurant used to have a signature drink. In fact, for a
few hundred years from the peak of punch through the heyday of plain
and fancy drinks in the mid 19th century, all alcoholic beverages were
named after either their ingredients or the establishment that created
them. Some famous examples include the Manhattan, Brooklyn, Clover Club,
Pegu Club, and Sazerac. One of the many sad consequences of U.S.
Prohibition was that any business relying on selling alcohol had to be
shut down, and often with it went an interesting history and a signature
drink.
Once the 18th Amendment was passed, the bars inside were
closed and The Rathskeller became simply an extended dining room. Part
of this space was even leased to Walgreen Drugs. The Seelbach Cocktail,
now illegal, was forgotten.
