One of the best bar guides we raided for Beachbum Berry’s Grog Log was a phone book-sized tome published in 1977. Jones’ Complete Bar Guide featured a whopping 4,000 recipes, but even more impressive were the photos on the back cover. These featured author Stan Jones (above) posed with various liquor industry reps, whose Montgomery [...]
If it weren’t for Prohibition, Tikiphiles might all be drinking gin-based concoctions. Don The Beachcomber, who in 1934 single-handedly invented both the Tiki drink and the Tiki bar at his eponymous Hollywood watering hole, found his initial creative inspiration in a gin drink: the storied Singapore Sling. He gravitated toward rum drinks largely because rum [...]
Gore Vidal once described the conservative columnist William F. Buckley as “a charming visitor from the 18th century.” That phrase came to mind — minus the ironic malice — the first time we met Ted “Doctor Cocktail” Haigh, who struck us as a charming visitor from the 1930s. We made the Doctor’s acquaintance around 1992, [...]
It’s a good thing same-sex marriage is legal in Massachusetts. Because if Mrs. Bum ever leaves us for greener pastures (and let’s face it, just about any pasture is greener than ours), we want to marry Old Mr. Boston. We’ve had a man-crush on the pleasingly plump, suavely smiling, top-hatted toff since the late 1980s, [...]
The dean of American bartenders — who have nicknamed their mentor “King Cocktail” — Dale DeGroff is widely credited with bringing mixed drinks out of the dark ages of the 1980s (when wine spritzers and chemical Margarita mix ruled the day) with new twists on classic recipes, made with fresh ingredients. The King is also [...]