In 1917, Tom
Bullock, the celebrity bartender at the St. Louis Country Club, published his definitive
work on how to mix drinks, The Ideal
Bartender. Just after the end of the
First World War, the U.S. economy was booming, and things American – including the
cocktail – were all the rage in Europe. What
Bullock probably would not have predicted was that Prohibition was enacted only
three years later, cutting short the cocktail craze and putting bartenders out
of a job.
Fast-forward to
2016. Brian and Anne know a lot about
cocktails, but want to know a lot more.
We don’t find much out there that is our
brand of nerdy: Anne is a historian.
Brian has years of experience in the specialty beverage industry. Both are compulsive researchers and
do-it-yourselfers. Also, we don’t
discover that anybody has done the kind of in-depth drink-through of The Ideal Bartender that we want to
do. While we don’t claim to be ideal bartenders, we decide to write
about it.
A first impression
of Bullock’s book: Many of what our favorite “retro” cocktails
are absent. The Martini, the Negroni, the Manhattan – in fact, they hadn't been
invented yet. Also, many terms and
ingredients are unheard-of, obscure, or altogether unavailable. Research is
needed! On a related note, The Ideal Bartender contains many drinks
that sound delicious, and also some that sound awfully unusual, or just plain
awful. We will probably try them all
ourselves, but we won’t insist that you do.
If we find that changes or substitutions must be made – either because
of nonexistent ingredients or because the modern palate demands it – you’ll
hear about it. (Although really, the modern
palate should expect to get next to some authenticity.)
Things we expect to
write about: cocktail recipes; historical notes; investigations of obscure
ingredients; how-to and DIY features; occasional features of places to drink
cocktails and buy paraphernalia in Saint Louis, the hometown we and Tom Bullock
share. If you think this is
a good idea, stay tuned.
