60 Fun Facts About Bartender

What nickname did Jerry Thomas, the 19th-century father of American mixology, go by?

The Professor: Thomas earned the title as the great showman of the American bar, mixing drinks in diamond rings and cufflinks and juggling bottles as he worked.

Jerry Thomas published the Bar-Tender's Guide, America's first drinks book, during which war?

Civil War: the guide came out in 1862, setting down recipes from punches to sours that Thomas had gathered while tending bar across the country.

Jerry Thomas's signature flaming drink, poured between two mugs in an arc of fire, was called what?

Blue Blazer: Thomas's own guide admits the name is not 'very euphonious', but promises that the blazing Scotch-and-water toddy 'tastes better to the palate than it sounds to the ear'.

An 1806 newspaper's definition of 'cocktail', the first in print, joked that the drink was of great use to whom?

Political candidates: editor Harry Croswell of The Balance and Columbian Repository wrote that a person who had swallowed a glass of it 'is ready to swallow any thing else'.

Bartender Dale DeGroff suggests the word 'cocktail' comes from 'coquetier', the French word for what?

An eggcup: the tale has apothecary Antoine Peychaud serving a brandy drink in one, but dictionaries call the word's origin obscure, and no explanation has won general acceptance.

During US Prohibition, illegal bars serving cocktails were known as what?

Speakeasies were so called from the habit of speaking quietly about such a place, or inside it, so as not to alert the police or the neighbours; the word was in use by 1889, decades before Prohibition.

Which 1919 law set the rules for enforcing Prohibition across the United States?

The Volstead Act became law only after Congress overrode President Woodrow Wilson's veto, and it took its name from the Minnesota congressman who championed it in the House.

Which amendment to the US Constitution repealed Prohibition?

The Twenty-first Amendment was ratified by specially elected state conventions instead of legislatures, because many state lawmakers still feared the temperance lobby.

Which cocktail shaker is a two-piece set of a large metal tin and a smaller mixing glass?

The Boston shaker is the one most bartenders prefer; the cold makes the metal contract into a tight seal, so the two halves need a sharp tap to come apart.

Which style of shaking tin has three pieces: a base, a top with a built-in strainer, and a cap?

The Cobbler shaker is the classic choice for home bars because its built-in strainer means there is no separate tool to buy before you start mixing drinks.

What is the bartender's tool used like a pestle to crush fruit, herbs and sugar in the bottom of a glass?

A muddler is pressed only gently on mint, because tearing the leaves lets bitter chlorophyll leak into the drink.

Which US state makes bars pour spirits through meters that cap the main liquor in a drink at 1.5 ounces?

Utah also made many restaurants mix drinks behind a partition nicknamed the 'Zion Curtain', so that diners could not watch, until a 2017 law relaxed the rule.

UK law fixes pub measures of 25 ml or 35 ml for just four spirits: gin, rum, vodka and which other?

Whisky is covered, but the rule stops at those four spirits, so a British pub may legally pour brandy or tequila in whatever measure it likes.

If a customer orders a spirit 'neat', how should it be served?

Unmixed, unchilled, no ice or water: a neat pour goes from bottle to glass. Ask for it 'straight' instead and a careful bartender will check what you mean, because that word is used more than one way.

How is a cocktail ordered 'up' served?

Strained into a stemmed glass without ice, the drink has nothing left to keep it cold, so the stem is there to stop a warm hand heating the bowl.

What is a mixed drink made with the lower-cost spirits kept in a bar's speed rail called?

A well drink is what you get when you don't name a brand; ask for a Bacardi and Coke instead of a rum and Coke and it becomes a pricier 'call' drink.

What does '86' mean in bar slang?

It is out of stock, or the person is barred. The term is probably rhyming slang for 'nix', though a popular tale credits Chumley's bar at 86 Bedford Street in New York.

In which country is tipping a bartender seen as unnecessary and sometimes politely refused?

Japan treats good service as already included in the price, so a tip left on the bar can cause confusion and may be politely handed back.

Which restaurant chain held the first national flair bartending competition, the 'Bar Olympics', in 1986?

T.G.I. Friday's bartender John 'JB' Bandy won the contest, and a Hollywood studio then hired him to teach bottle-flipping to the stars of the 1988 film Cocktail.

Who plays bartender Brian Flanagan in the 1988 film 'Cocktail'?

Tom Cruise's film was named Worst Picture at the Razzies, yet its soundtrack single 'Kokomo' gave the Beach Boys their first number one in 22 years.

In the 1988 film 'Cocktail', Brian Flanagan ends up tending a beach bar on which island?

Jamaica is where Brian heads after a fight with his bartending partner Doug, and where he falls for Jordan, a New Yorker on holiday.

Which film grew out of a magazine memoir by 'Eat, Pray, Love' author Elizabeth Gilbert about her bartending days?

Coyote Ugly took its name from the New York saloon where she had worked, and after the film its owner Liliana Lovell turned the bar into a chain, starting in Las Vegas in 2001.

On 'Cheers', bar owner Sam Malone is a former relief pitcher for which team?

The Boston Red Sox past was a late change: Sam was first written as a former Patriots football player, until Ted Danson won the part and baseball suited his build better.

Which real bar, picked from a phone book, was the model for the one in 'Cheers'?

The Bull & Finch Pub let the show use its exterior for a fee of just one dollar, then drew so many tourists that in 2002 it was renamed Cheers.

Which actor joined 'Cheers' in season four as the naive young bartender who replaced Coach?

Woody Harrelson shares a first name with his character purely by chance: co-creator Glen Charles has said Woody Boyd was already named long before they met the actor.

In 'The Simpsons' episode 'Flaming Moe's', what secret ingredient makes Homer's drink a hit?

Cough medicine meant for the children got into Homer's mix by accident, and the drink only turned delicious when falling cigarette ash set it on fire.

A classic Negroni is equal parts gin, sweet vermouth and which bitter Italian liqueur?

Campari was already in the count's usual Americano; the story goes that in 1919 Camillo Negroni asked a Florence bartender to swap its soda water for gin.

Which brand of bitters comes in a bottle famous for its oversized label and yellow cap?

Angostura's label is too big by accident, the story goes: one of the founder's sons took charge of the bottles and another of the labels for a competition, and nobody checked the sizes.

German doctor Johann Siegert created his famous bitters in Venezuela while surgeon general of whose army?

Simón Bolívar's soldiers were suffering from stomach illnesses and fevers, and the doctor's herbal tonic was meant as a remedy for them long before anyone dashed it into a cocktail.

Which city in 2015 named the whiskey-and-bitters classic it claims to have invented as its official cocktail?

Louisville's claim rests on its Pendennis Club, but historians call that a myth: a Chicago newspaper was already writing about the drink in 1880, a year before the club was founded.

On 'Mad Men', which cocktail is Don Draper's drink of choice?

An Old Fashioned is what Don mixes himself in season three, hopping behind an unattended country-club bar to make two, one for a stranger who turns out to be hotel magnate Conrad Hilton.

A 'dirty' Martini adds a splash of what?

Olive brine found its most famous fan in Franklin D. Roosevelt, who drank his martinis this way in the White House and is sometimes wrongly credited with inventing the dirty version.

A dry Martini served with a pickled cocktail onion is called what?

The Gibson's onion came late: the earliest printed recipe, from 1908, has no onion at all, and what set the drink apart then was leaving out the bitters.

Ian Fleming's Vesper martini in 'Casino Royale' combines gin, vodka and which aperitif?

Kina Lillet is no longer made: its maker reworked the recipe in the mid-1980s with less bitter quinine, so bartenders now reach for substitutes such as Cocchi Americano.

A Manhattan made with Scotch instead of rye is called what?

The Rob Roy was named in 1894 for a Broadway operetta about the Scottish outlaw, which opened close to New York's Waldorf Astoria, the hotel credited with the drink.

The Bloody Mary is often credited to bartender Fernand Petiot in 1921 at which Paris bar?

Harry's New York Bar began as a real Manhattan bar: in 1911 jockey Tod Sloan had it dismantled, shipped across the Atlantic and rebuilt in Paris.

A Bloody Mary made with gin instead of vodka is best known by which name?

Red Snapper began as a polite alias: one story says the owner of New York's St. Regis hotel found the name Bloody Mary too vulgar for his bar in the 1930s and had it changed.

Which gin, vermouth and Fernet-Branca cocktail did pioneering London bartender Ada Coleman create?

The Hanky Panky was named by its first taster, by her own account: actor Charles Hawtrey asked for a drink with some punch, drained the glass and cried, 'By Jove! That is the real hanky-panky!'

Which 1930 recipe collection did Harry Craddock name after the London hotel whose American Bar he ran?

The Savoy Cocktail Book owes its existence to Prohibition: Craddock had learned his trade behind American bars, left for England when the country went dry and was quickly hired by the hotel.

The Sazerac became the official cocktail of which city in 2008?

New Orleans was the fallback: a 2008 bill to make the Sazerac the state cocktail of Louisiana was voted down, so lawmakers settled for naming it the city's official drink.

A Moscow Mule is vodka, lime and ginger beer, traditionally served in what?

A copper mug was part of the sales pitch: the drink was devised in 1941 to shift vodka, then a hard sell in America, along with surplus ginger beer, and the eye-catching mug helped bars push it.

Which cocktail is Ngiam Tong Boon said to have created at the Long Bar of the Raffles Hotel?

The Singapore Sling was coloured pink on purpose, the story goes: women were not expected to drink alcohol in public, and this one could pass for fruit juice.

Which Caribbean island proclaimed the piña colada its official drink in 1978?

Puerto Rico has two rival birthplaces for it: the Caribe Hilton credits its bartender Ramón 'Monchito' Marrero in 1954, while Barrachina, a San Juan restaurant, has a plaque claiming 1963.

Which tiki cocktail did Trader Vic say he first mixed in 1944 at his restaurant in Oakland, California?

The Mai Tai got its name, by his account, when a friend visiting from Tahiti took a sip and said 'mai tai roa ae', which he translated as 'out of this world, the best'.

Which cocktail does bartender Robert 'Rosebud' Butt say he invented in 1972 for a triple sec contest?

The Long Island iced tea has a rival birthplace: Kingsport, Tennessee, says a bootlegger known as Old Man Bishop mixed the first one in the 1920s on a river island there that is also called Long Island.

Which rum, lime and sugar cocktail shares its name with a beach and an iron mine near Santiago de Cuba?

The Daiquiri is credited to Jennings Cox, an American engineer at those mines, who is said to have run out of gin while entertaining guests and reached for the local rum instead.

Which TV character's regular order helped turn the Cosmopolitan into the must-have cocktail of the late 1990s?

Carrie Bradshaw had a head start: bartender Dale DeGroff put the drink on the Rainbow Room menu in 1996 and Madonna was seen sipping one, two years before the show began.

London bartender Dick Bradsell is credited with inventing which caffeinated cocktail in the 1980s?

The espresso martini was his answer, he said, to a model who asked for something to wake her up, and the bar's coffee machine happened to stand right beside his station.

Which spritz favorite did the Barbieri brothers launch at a trade fair in Padua in 1919?

Aperol stayed a north Italian habit for decades; its spritz went global only after a bigger Italian drinks group bought the brand in 2003 and began marketing it abroad.

The pressure inside a Champagne bottle is two to three times that inside which everyday object?

A car tire holds about a third of the 90 psi inside the bottle, which is why Champagne glass is so thick and why the cork has to be held down by a wire cage.

What is the name for opening a Champagne bottle by striking the neck with a sword?

Sabrage works because the blade strikes where the bottle's seam meets its lip, the weakest point in the glass, and the pressure inside carries cork and collar away together.

Which Champagne bottle size holds 1.5 litres, the same as two standard bottles?

A magnum is prized for ageing: it has the same small pocket of air under the cork as a standard bottle but twice the wine, so the wine oxidises more slowly.

What does a bartender do in a 'dry shake'?

Shakes it without any ice: the first shake lets egg white whip into a silky foam, and only then does ice go in for a second shake that chills the drink.

How do you customarily tip a bartender in a British pub?

Tell them to 'have one for yourself' and the bartender may pour a drink later or, more often, add the price of one to your bill and keep it as a cash tip.

What brought the cocktail shaker's 1930s heyday to a sudden end?

Metal was diverted to the war effort when America entered the Second World War, and the firms that had been turning out cocktail shakers switched to making artillery shells.

In 1981, Shatbhi Basu became the first woman bartender in which country?

India's first woman bartender never planned it: she was a restaurant supervisor in Mumbai when the bar was handed to her as an extra duty, and she later ran her own bartending academy.

Which cocktail shares its name with the imaginary man at the centre of a hoax that swept American cities in 1874?

Tom Collins never existed: pranksters told a victim that a man of that name was insulting him in a bar around the corner, then watched him storm off to find the slanderer.

What did Jerry Thomas famously carry with him when he toured Europe?

A set of solid-silver bar tools matched the act: he turned mixing drinks into a stage show, juggling bottles and cups as he worked, and became the most famous bartender in America.

Despite its cherry-red color, grenadine syrup was traditionally made from which fruit?

Pomegranate is 'grenade' in French, which gave the syrup its name, yet many mass-market bottles are now just corn syrup and red dye with no pomegranate in them.

Which David Wondrich book about Jerry Thomas won a James Beard Award in 2008?

Imbibe! tells Thomas's life story and updates the recipes from his guide so they can be mixed today, with substitutes for ingredients that are no longer made.