Old School

A STUDY IN THE CLASSICS

n recent years we've watched the nightlife world kneel at the altar of the mixologist. The modem mixologist had his own Twitter feeds. The I modem mixologist could make foam out of a cucumber. Today, however,

the trend is shifting from the newfangled back to the classics that fortified our heroes of yore, when a cucumber foam was a lady's soap and gentle­men spent their evenings courting danger while holding a rocks glass and wearing a tie. We think of Richard Burton, who filmed the most expensive movie ever made at the time [Cleopatra) half in the bag. He stole the show, not to mention its leading lady (Liz Taylor). F. Scott Fitzgerald, a gin drinker, was known to show up at society parties in his pajamas. The world fell at his feet. Dean Martin, Winston Churchill...as the saying goes, we'll have what they were having. Over the next two pages we'll examine a few pil­lars in the drinking canon. Top yours off and come along for the ride.

T

his gin gem caught on after Raymond Chandler mentioned it in The Long Good­bye. One of Hollywood's great booze stories: As a young man Chandler was a world-class elbow bender, but he later quit drinking. In 1 946 he was penning the script for The Blue Dahlia, starring Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake, and couldn't come up with an ending. Paramount execs flipped; they were weeks and many thousands of dollars into filming. Chandler admitted the only way he could fin­ish the script was if he relapsed completely. The studio arranged for six secretaries (i.e., barmaids), a doctor to give Chandler vitamin shots and limos to wait outside his house, ready to run pages. Sloshed to the gills, Chandler produced an Academy Award-nominated script, arguably his best. The gimlet, as Philip Marlowe liked it:

2 oz. gin

2 oz. Rose's lime juice

Shake gin and juice irith ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

MANHATTAN

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nyone can make good cocktails," David Embury wrote in The Fine Art of Mix­ing Drinks (1948). "The art of mixing drinks is no deep and jealously guarded secret." Embury's

book is one of the most time-honored bar­tender bibles. In it he lists six standards every man should have in his repertoire. While the Jack Rose has fallen out of favor, the martini, old fashioned, sidecar, daiquiri and manhat-tan have not. If the martini is the queen of cocktails, the manhattan is the benevolent but temperamental king. The drink is believed to have been invented at the Manhattan Club in the 1 870s. Embury lists four recipes —sweet, medium, dry and, our fave, deluxe:

/ i>arl Cinzano sireel vermouth

5 parts ry uhiskey

1 dash Angostura bitten

1 maraschino cherry

Stir rerinoiilh. whiskey and bitters irilh ice anil strain into a chilled cock­tail glass: garnish irith a cherry.

"God put me on

this earth to raise sheer hell.

RICHARD BURTON

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he square-jawed granddaddy of all bar drinks (and very likely tfie first cocktail), the old fashioned dates back nearly to the days of George Wash­ington, himself a prodigious whiskey distiller. It also exemplifies tfie basic idea of what a cocktail should be: a base spirit with added ingredients that create a balance of sweet and sour. The old fashioned reached the height of its fame as the standby at the Waldorf in Manhattan during its heyday, early in the 20th century. This recipe comes from Old Waldorf Bar Days by Albert Stevens Crockett—published, curiously, durinq Prohibition.

'/i lump sugar

2 bar spoons water

I dash Angostura bitters

I jigger whiskey (rye

rer o mm e n de d) I lemon peel

1 lump ice

Muddle sugar, traler and bitters in a rocks glass: add the remaining ingredients and stir. Let it lie doun, as Sinatra used to say. then serve.

SIDECAR

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ou could make an argument that the Ritz Hotel in Paris is the most romantic place to die. Coco Chanel took her

final breath there. So too did U.S. ambas­sador Pamela Churchill Harriman. Silent movie queen Olive Thomas OD'd at the Ritz. In Bret Easton Ellis's Glamorama a group of supermodel terrorists blows the place to rubble with TNT. Just be sure to drop by the Bar Hemingway before you make your exit. One of the most storied gin joints in the world, it gave birth to the bloody mary and this little number, the sidecar. Here's the original recipe from The Cocktails of the Ritz Paris: 5 parts brandy 3 parts Cointreau 2 parts fresh lemon juice Shake ingredients irith ire and strain into a chilled cocktail glass rimmed irith sugar crystals.

NEGRONI

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n every piazza in every town in Italy, at about three p.m. you'll find cafes filled with men sipping negronis, conduct­ing business or

sweet-talking the top off women half their age. The drink was invented in 1919 at the Caffe Casoni. A count named Negroni asked the bartender to stiffen his americano, so the bar­man added gin in place of soda. The negroni is easy to make at home, but for the ultimate experience, venture to the cafe where it was invented. Though it's now called Caffe Gia-cosa, it's still in the same place on Via della Spada in Firenze.

/ oz. gin

I oz. Campari

% 3. street Italian vermouth

Thin slice of orange

Pour the liquids over ice in a rocks glass. Stir and sip.

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his statuesque beauty is named after the 75-millimeter howit­zer that French gunners used in World War I. It has the kick of an automatic weapon, and if you drink too many you'll wake up feeling as though you've been shot with one. The cocktail was the signature drink of Manhattan's Stork Club, a scene as moneyed as it was ribald. Mobsters (Frank Costello, a.k.a. the prime minister of the underworld) rubbed elbows with celebs (Frank Sinatra, Marilyn Monroe) and politicians (the Kennedys). This recipe comes from The Stork Club Bar Book.

2 oz. gin

I Isp. pondered sugar Juice of half a lemon 111 ul champagne Cracked ice

Pour all ingredients except the nine into a flute. Top uith cham­pagne and serve.

RUM PUNCH

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ritish sailors in the 17th century had to make do with crude rum they called kill-devil (because it cured disease by killing the devil in you) or red-eye (because it gave you a nasty hang­over). One pirate, Captain

Low, liked to hand his prisoners a mug of rum and a pistol. They could either drink the mug or shoot themselves. To make the rum palatable, sailors made punch using whatever ingre­dients they could get their hands on. Here's a recipe adapted from the original rum punch created in 1 599 by Sir Edward Kennel, commander of the British navy, who would throw roar­ing parties for 6,000 sailors. He would make lakes of punch using 80 casks of liquor; ship's boys floated around in little boats to serve the stuff. Make a smaller batch and you've got a delicious summer party punch.

2 cups gold rum 2 cups dark rum 2 cups simple syrup 2 cups pineapple juice .'{ cups water Juice of I lime Juice of I lemon

'/> tsp. nutmeg

Mix all ingredients in a serving bowl with lots of ice cubes. (The nutmeg tfon'f dissolve, but that's okay.) (Garnish with slices of lemon and lime.