1931 Old Waldorf Bar Days by Albert Stevens Crockett

OldWaldorf Bar Days sized, does not mean dollars-simply small fruit usu– ally growing on vines or diminutive plants. "Mug," as employed, does not signify a face, or "to photograph," as commonly applied these days; but a container made of glass, crockery, or stone, with a handle, and used for dispensing ale, cider, or, infrequently, beer. A "lemon" was then not what you were handed in an approach to a confidence transaction, but a small yellow fruit; and "lemon peel," of course, was the rind. The word "Egg," as frequently used, should be taken in a literal and primitive sense. In the days with which we are dealing, the term "Pittsburgh Steel Millionaire" had not yet been synonymously superseded in Manhat– tanese by "Big Butter and Egg Man," and at the old Waldorf Bar "Good Egg" was synchronous and syn– onymous with "Fresh Egg." Whatever metaphorical or sinister sense either has come later to assume, each then meant simply a natural output of a female of the chicken species, and in fair condition. A "Nutmeg" was, and still is, the aromatic kernel of the fruit of a tree of the Myristica family. "Cock's Comb" as used, meant literally what it says, however incredible to those who think only of a cow or a goat when they turn to the barnyard for something to drink. As an elective concomitant, if not an ingredi– ent, of the Cfianticleer cocktail, a Cock's Comb was a ruddy, serrated, distinctive capital decoration peculiar to the mascul~ne chicken. It was pickled or bottled as a sweetmeat in France, often with other elemental com– ponents of departed roosters, particularly what are known to high-class grocers and certain gourmets as [ 230]