Historical Watering Holes
New York hotels and their contributions to cocktail culture
Step into the bar of any New York hotel these days, and you'll be sure to be impressed with the range and variety of diverse and designer cocktails available. There's something for him, something for her, something for the first date, something for a special occasion, and something for an after-work drink with colleagues and friends.
Yet this wasn't always the case, and cocktail culture is an art form that's been a long time in the making, and has its origins as far-flung as London, Paris, and Venice hotels, including the famed Bellini, invented in the mid-twentieth century by Giuseppe Cipriani, founder of Harry's Bar in Venice, Italy. Harry's Bar, a favorite haunt of Ernest Hemingway, Orson Welles, and Truman Capote, is still inextricably associated with the sparkling wine (Prosecco) and peach purée cocktail, and any trip to the city isn't complete without at least a sample.
But let's turn our attentions to the United States and the cocktails that have become international staples. Indeed, most of the basic drinks identified in the classic cocktail book The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks by David A. Embury, first published in 1948 and reprinted numerous times in the subsequent years, are American in origin. While there's some debate as the origins of the Martini, credited to the goldfields of San Francisco, or the Old Fashioned, they still owe their success and widespread recognition to hotel bars in New York. The Waldorf-Astoria Hotel bar in New York City is one of the mythic contributors to cocktail culture; and with the invention of the Manhattan, the reputation of the Manhattan Club was assured amongst those of New York Hotels. Sometimes the origins of the drinks are a little hazy, but that's to be expected in the historical records of barflies! It seems with every variation of the drink, there's a new history, a different origin, but that's all part of the fun of following in the historical footsteps of cocktails and other culinary creations.
Did you know: While San Francisco hotels may not have a prime reputation for cocktail creation, one of the city's renowned bartenders certainly did. Operating for years from San Francisco's Palace Hotel, William T. "Cocktail Bill" Boothby (died 1930) was one of the early twentieth century's greatest cocktail experts and author of bar manuals from 1891 onwards, and eventually The World's Drinks And How To Mix Them in 1906. The 1934 version, reprinted under his name, contained 172 pages of cocktails. |