1931 Old Waldorf Bar Days by Albert Stevens Crockett

Facuity and Proctors One of Solon's specialties was a Mint Julep-a Julep whose praises inspired grateful paeans during many years and has caused many a memory to thirst in arid areas and in dry times. It was a drink in which the time element played an important part. The customer who knew would give his order al)d wait. Preferably, he would go somewhere'else and sit down and do something to make the minutes pass, or else just enjoy thrills of anticipation as to what that julep would be like when he got it. Not until thirty minutes by the clock had elapsed would he reapp~ar at the bar-side to claim his drink. And it would come to him with frost almost half an inch thick about the rim, icy cold, of course, and with a mingling of scents, odors and tastes that com– bined the perfumes of Araby with the nectar of Olym– pus. But that Mint Julep was not, after all, Johnnie Solon's greatest invention. An ungrateful-or possibly ignorant-army of drink– ers, past and present, has failed to do- honor to a man whose crowning achievement has been at times on mil– lions of lips, its name pronounced in all foreign parts wherever hewho runs may read the sign, "American Bar." It is my privilege to announce a fact which heretofore only a privileged few have known. THE BRONX IS BORN Johnnie Solon is the inventor of the original Bronx Cock– tail! Other claimants may have arisen to the title. Publi– cists and propagandists may have endeavored to shove forward the name of some other favorite barman as the