This week's post is a quick look at how everything old is new again. And by that we're talking the "speakeasy".
Most people know that a speakeasy was a place where alcoholic beverages were illegally sold in the USA during prohibition. From 1920 to 1933 there was a nationwide constitutional ban on the production, importation, transportation and sale of alcoholic beverages.
Speakeasies received their name as patrons were often told to “speak easy” about these secret bars in public and from the fact that police often had trouble locating the bars due to the fact that people tended to speak quietly while inside.
Speakeasies claimed to sell soft drinks and coffee, but served alcohol behind the scenes - some famously served in coffee cups. The speakeasy created an environment where gangsters, the wealthy and the lower classes could all drink and socialize together.
Modern day speakeasies no longer have to evade closure, arrest and prosecution. One of the biggest trends in nightlife and bars over the last decade is the rise of the "speakeasy" bar - cocktail bars that mimic the illicit, hidden bars that arose during the Prohibition era of the 1920's. Indeed, the allure of private drinking lounges, often hidden in back alleys or behind fake doors in nondescript storefronts or restaurants, remains a strong draw today.
Now, while we're very happy that laws outlawing alcohol sales in the USA were repealed long ago, we do owe a bit of a debt of thanks for a couple consequences of it having occurred. For example, prohibition made cocktails famous.
Most drinkers before the 1920s would drink their alcohol straight, either with an ice cube, a twist of lime, or a splash of water. But that was high quality alcohol, not the lower-quality stuff that became more common during the prohibition era.
Rum-runners and bootleggers often brought in poor quality liquors from Mexico, Cuba, and the Caribbean, so speakeasy owners began to mix in other ingredients to the alcoholic drinks to hide the poor flavors. As a result, dozens of cocktails were invented, and cocktails became the more popular choice of alcoholic beverage at bars and clubs.
A couple of the more famous cocktails that we're pretty certain Gatsby would have sipped on back in the day are:
Bee's Knees: gin, honey syrup & fresh lemon juice. People used the fresh lemon & honey to cover up the harsh taste of the bathtub gin. For that little extra "razzle dazzle" you can top it off with a float of dry champagne.
Boulevardier: rye whiskey, campari & dry vermouth. This variation on our beloved Negroni first appeared in 1927 at The New York Bar in Paris.
Hanky Panky: gin, sweet vermouth & Fernet Branca. Created in 1925 at the Savoy Hotel in London, this surprisingly well-balanced cocktail may ease you into liking the divisive Fernet.
Scofflaw: rye whiskey, dry vermouth & grenadine. Invented in 1924 at Harry's Bar in Paris as a nod to all the American drinkers who were surviving Prohibition, the Scofflaw is an unlikely cross between a Daiquiri and a Manhattan.
Brandy Alexander: cognac, dark creme de cacao & heavy cream. Brandy was introduced to the original gin-based cocktail in 1922 when it was served at the London wedding of Princess Mary and Viscount Lascelles.
Mimosa: champagne & orange juice. So delightfully simple and so wonderfully refreshing, the simple mixture was invented at the Ritz Hotel in Paris in 1925. Well, technically the mix of the two was already called a Buck's Fizz, but bartender Frank Meier tweaked the ratios to equal parts, forever revolutionizing our Sunday afternoons.
Finally, we raise a toast to a man of integrity who's name has become synonymous with quality. - Bill McCoy. Captain Bill McCoy was a rum-runner (a transporter of illegal rum, usually from Cuba or the Caribbean) known for his integrity.
Unlike other runners, he didn’t water down his liquors, but instead sold them at full strength. When people said the alcohol was “the real McCoy“, it meant that it hadn’t been watered down and thus was high quality alcohol. The phrase quickly caught on, and has persisted to this day. We know that anything called “the real McCoy” means “a product of high quality”.
If you're feeling knowledgable on the subject, here's a link to a fun Prohibition quiz from the Mob Museum in Las Vegas, Nevada that you can try your hand at:
We look forward to hearing about your favorite Prohibition-era cocktails and your favorite modern-day speakeasy's in our Fourm's. Here's a taste of one of our latest favorite speakeasy finds - No. 11 Jakarta (Eleven Jakarta), a Japanese style speakeasy bar in the heart of Jakarta.
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