If I could be transported back in time to anywhere in the world, it would be 1920s Paris. The City of Light was the epicenter of the cultural, literary, and artistic worlds during the Roaring Twenties, drawing everyone from Picasso and Dalí to Zelda and F. Scott Fitzgerald to its boulevards. (Besides, my favorite actress — Audrey Hepburn — once remarked, “Paris is always a good idea,” and I’m inclined to believe her.)
I may not have a magical car-turned-time machine to get there à la Owen Wilson in “Midnight in Paris,” but I have found the next best thing: Philip Greene’s newest book, “A Drinkable Feast: A Cocktail Companion to 1920s Paris,” released on October 16. Here’s why it needs to be on your bookshelf, whether you’re a Hemingway scholar or a home bartender.
Author Philip Greene knows his cocktails inside and out.
If anyone’s an expert on 1920s Paris and its cocktails, it’s cocktail historian Philip Greene. He literally wrote the book on Ernest Hemingway and cocktails: “To Have and Have Another: A Hemingway Cocktail Companion,” which came out in 2012, is a veritable bartender’s manual for Hemingway fans.
Greene is also one of the founders of the Museum of the American Cocktail in New Orleans — what I’d call a Holy Grail for cocktail aficionados like me — and pens a cocktail column for The Daily Beast. Restaurants and institutions across the world consult him for his mixology expertise, and he’s devoted an entire book to the Manhattan cocktail.
Oh, and did I mention he’s a distant cousin of Antoine Peychaud of Peychaud’s Bitters fame? Yeah, he’s legit (and I’m also geeking out a bit over here)!
Photo credit: TarcherPerigee, an imprint of Penguin Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC.
The cocktails you’ll read about in “A Drinkable Feast” were featured in literary classics like “The Great Gatsby” and “The Sun Also Rises.”
What I loved the most about “A Drinkable Feast” was my slow but sure realization regarding how many of these cocktails show up in famous novels of the era.
Sure, I’d read F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby” for my high school English lit class, but back then the most offensive thing I drank was soda, so I breezed past any references to alcohol. (What? I was a goody two-shoes 16-year-old.) While reading Greene’s book, I discovered that Tom Buchanan served Gin Rickeys to Gatsby and Daisy in a scene from “The Great Gatsby” — a drink I had recently in New York. Mind blown.
As I combed through “A Drinkable Feast” — the title itself, of course, a reference to “A Moveable Feast,” Hemingway’s memoir about his time in 1920s Paris — I grew more ecstatic with each new cocktail and literary connection I uncovered.
While I won’t spoil everything, I will tell you that the Jack Rose cocktail appears twice in Hemingway’s 1926 novel, “The Sun Also Rises,” while whiskey and soda is featured in his 1929 classic, “A Farewell to Arms.” I can’t wait to re-read these novels as an adult through this different, booze-soaked lens.
The Jack Rose cocktail, seen here in the background, makes appearances in Hemingway’s “The Sun Also Rises.”
“A Drinkable Feast” is jam-packed with tales of 1920s Paris bars, their cocktails, the bartenders that made them, and the (in)famous customers who drank them.
In addition to fictional characters, “A Drinkable Feast” is chock full of boozy tales of the real-life denizens of 1920s Paris and the places they frequented.
While readers will likely be familiar with big names like James Joyce and Ernest Hemingway, they’ll have a chance to learn about others who may not be as well known, but were certainly an essential part of 1920s Paris.
For example, Greene uses The Bailey cocktail — made with gin, grapefruit juice, lime juice, simple syrup, and mint — to introduce us to Gerald and Sara Murphy, a wealthy American couple who moved to Paris in 1921 and had a profound influence on the world of literature and art. Case in point: Gerald encouraged none other than Cole Porter to write songs for school plays at Yale while Porter was a student (prior to becoming a famous composer).
Perhaps my favorite anecdote in the book concerns the legendary Harry’s New York Bar, located in Paris’ 2nd arrondissement. Apparently the bar had its own kind of “drinking fraternity” called the I.B.F., or “International Bar Flies.” What got me laughing uproariously was their crazy list of rules. Rule 4? “Those who come to the Trap [chapter] at 5 A.M. and are able to play a ukulele without a rehearsal are eligible for life membership.” Better get started on my late-night ukulele skills, then.
So many incredible tales of 1920s Paris in “A Drinkable Feast.”
Good news, boozehounds: You probably have most of the ingredients for these cocktails on your shelf already.
“A Drinkable Feast” features over 50 recipes, but thankfully, you won’t have to go out and buy esoteric ingredients like Cynar or Becherovka. Most of the recipes call for standard liquors and mixers, like gin and orange juice (in fact, that’s the “Orange Blossom” cocktail and it’s Zelda Fitzgerald’s “cocktail of choice”).
In this day and age where bartenders seemingly try to outdo each other with ever more complex cocktails (think Death & Co in NYC and Canon in Seattle), it’s refreshing to see recipes requiring 2-4 ingredients. After all, there’s a reason many of these are classics!
You can drink some of the cocktails all of the time and all of the cocktails some of the time, but–think it over, Judy. – F. Scott Fitzgerald (“A Drinkable Feast,” p. 243)
And Now It’s Your Turn to Mix Some 1920s Paris Cocktails!
Thirsty yet? Here are two très magnifique cocktails from Greene’s book to whet your appetite.
Champagne Cocktail
If you love champagne, you’re in good company: Greene tells us that the Champagne Cocktail was a favorite of Cole Porter and a “mark of sophistication” for Zelda Fitzgerald!
Despite its initial simplicity, it’s actually a chameleon of a cocktail: just change up the bitters you use for new variations on the Champagne Cocktail. Start with Angostura, but feel free to branch out to Peychaud’s Bitters or something from Hella Cocktail Co.
Feelin’ fancy with a Champagne Cocktail (we were so excited that we took photos before adding the lemon peel for garnish)!
Champagne Cocktail Recipe
1 sugar cube
2-3 drops Angostura aromatic bitters
Lemon peel, for garnish
4-5 ounces chilled Champagne or sparkling wine
Place a sugar cube at the bottom of a Champagne flute. Add a few drops of Angostura bitters to saturate the cube. Add one ice cube and a slice of lemon peel. Slowly fill the flute with Champagne. Stir and serve.
Jack Rose Cocktail
In addition to this recipe and its story in “A Drinkable Feast,” Greene has written an excellent piece on the Jack Rose cocktail over at The Daily Beast. Today, the cocktail is made with only three ingredients — apple brandy, lemon or lime juice, and grenadine — but it turns out that the 1920s Paris version has some extra goodies that kick it up a notch.
Jack Rose cocktail
Jack Rose Cocktail Recipe
1 1/2 ounces applejack or Calvados
3/4 ounce gin
3/4 ounce fresh orange juice
3/4 ounce fresh lemon or lime juice
1/3 ounce dry vermouth
1/3 ounce sweet vermouth
“Grenadine to colour” (about 1/3 ounce)
Lime or lemon peel, for garnish
Shake well with ice, then strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with twist of lime or lemon peel.
Final Impressions
Philip Greene’s “A Drinkable Feast” will take its rightful place on my bookshelf alongside my Hemingway novels and our beloved Death & Co cocktail recipe book.
The work is a true labor of love and thorough research (no joke — the full list of sources is available at ADrinkableFeast.com, and it clocks in at 60 pages!), and his vivid depictions of the denizens and bars of 1920s Paris made it come alive for me. As a history and cocktail nerd, “A Drinkable Feast” was the perfect balance between colorful historical anecdotes and drink descriptions.
On a final note, John Hemingway, Ernest Hemingway’s grandson, wrote an excellent foreward praising Greene’s “memorable book.” Something tells me that Papa would’ve given his blessing, too.
⇒ Interested in buying the book? You can buy it here! ⇐
Inspired to take your own trip to Paris to try these cocktails? Here’s some essential info:
Where should you stay if you’re visiting Paris? Check out options here.
Want a guidebook for Paris? I use Rick Steves.
What camera did I use for this post? I used our Olympus EM5 Mark II camera with this lens and this lens.
Have questions for me? Hit me up on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or Pinterest!
Don’t Forget to Stock Up on Cocktail Gear!
Ready to go and make these cocktails? Check out these items that every home bartender needs.
Reprinted with permission from “A DRINKABLE FEAST: A Cocktail Companion to 1920s Paris” by Philip Greene, published by TarcherPerigee, an imprint of Penguin Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC. Copyright © 2018 by Philip Greene.
I received an advanced hardcover copy of “A Drinkable Feast” in exchange for an honest review. As always, all opinions are my own; not even a perfectly made Jack Rose cocktail can change that.