Charme de Paris Cocktail

Paris est une femme. Une femme fatale. A charming seductress who, once she has embraced you, will never let you go. She will beguile you with her cooking, her wine, her café culture.… Continue reading →

Embassy Jubilee Cocktail

Cocktails, like jazz and baseball, might be an American invention, but let us not forget those who carried the torch of the well-made cocktail while we, under the shadow of Prohibition, re-distilled industrial… Continue reading →

Harlem Cocktail

Based on the number of cocktail books published in 1933, they must have seen the writing on the wall. Prohibition was coming to an end, and about damn time, too. One little tome… Continue reading →

Devil May Care Cocktail

Def.: relaxed and without worry; easygoing and carefree. Get a couple of these under your belt and you won’t care if all the hair has fallen off your prized pekingese or if your… Continue reading →

Nude Eel Cocktail

When Franklin Delano Roosevelt took office in 1933, one quarter of the U.S. population was out of work, the stock market was a shambles, and farmers were talking of revolution. In the cities, middle-class… Continue reading →

Kir and Kir Royale

The Kir and, especially, the Kir Royale are, apparently, a bit passé at the moment. That’s a shame because they are really good drinks. A simple combination of white wine and Créme de… Continue reading →

Sir Walter Cocktail a.k.a. Swalter

The New York Bar with the address”Sank Roo Doe Noo” (5 rue Daunou) helpfully painted on the window, is located on Paris’s right bank near  l’Opera and has been in operation since 1911,… Continue reading →

Latin Quarter Cocktail and a Literary Landmark

The Latin Quarter, la Quartier Latin, home of the Sorbonne, Place St. Michel, and Shakespeare and Company, a bookstore at the center (literally) of the City of Light. Sylvia Beach, an expat from… Continue reading →

The Crazy Years Cocktail

Paris, 1925: Kiki de Montparnasse was dancing on tabletops and flashing her tits at cafe patrons for a few sou per gawk. Gertrude Stein presided over her salon like a Roman emperor, giving literary… Continue reading →

The Merry Widow Cocktail

What some might call a fancy martini is actually a bit more than the sum of its parts. This libation first appeared in Hugo Ensslin’s Recipes for Mixed Drinks from 1916. As with so… Continue reading →