The blog page for Smart Guy In A Tie. We explore topics from cocktail trends to creativity to branding, and everything in between.
The speak easy has been a mainstay of the American cocktail scene since Prohibition. When cocktails became fashionable again, the speak easy returned with the culture. Bourbon and Branch in San Francisco is housed in an old speak easy, and maintains its 1920's ambiance. The Agave Cocktail falls at the intersection of modern and classic.
Sex and The City made the Cosmopolitan a staple of the late 1990's and early 2000's bar scene. It was polished up by Dale DeGroff in the Rainbow Room and served to stars like Madonna, but it has its roots far before those luminaries put there hands on it. #100DaysOfCocktails ends the classic period with a very modern classic.
October is a month for scary things; what is scarier than an animated corpse? There are two versions of the Corpse Reviver. One is gin based, and very common on cocktail menus. The other is cognac based, and you are lucky to find it in the wild. Corpse Reviver #1 is the focus of today's #100DaysOfCocktails.
When it was apparent that the three mile international border was being used as a staging ground for drunken revelry during Prohibition, Congress pushed the border out to twelve miles. This discouraged small boats from smuggling, but encouraged Tommy Millard to create the Twelve Mile Limit cocktail.
The Flip is a style of cocktail that went from a warmed punch to a single serving, chilled cocktail. You can use any liquor you choose for it from cheap beer to the priciest port. #100DaysOfCocktails looks at this simple and versatile drink through the eyes of a 19th century imbiber, the Sherry Flip.
After being lost for eighty years, the Seelbach cocktail popped up when a manager at the hotel of the same name discovered it. It was dusted off and added to the menu, bringing back a bourbon and champagne concoction that is a delight all the way through. What #100DaysOfCocktails found shocking was the amount of bitters in it.
Is the gin and tonic a cocktail? Is is not? There can be a debate, but the fact remains that it was one of the first cocktails that carbonated water was the real star of the show. The soda water was flavored with herbs, had some lime, and contained a spirit. That is a cocktail, right? #100DaysOfCocktail looks into it.
