1935 Old Waldorf-Astoria Bar Book

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OLD WALDORF-ASTORIA BAR BOOK

the recipe for a "Dacqueri"-presumably intended for "Dai– quiri," but whose formula would not be recognized as such anywhere in Cuba, where the rum it contains is the national drink. Not long ago, I made an examination of one volume which, judging from the quantity of names dis– played, offered a tremendous number of cocktail recipes of startling variety. I found fewer than seventy whose names and formulas were known to me. Out of that sev– enty, the recipes for not as many as ten agreed with the formulas of pre-war times that were in my possession. They brought up Pickwickian memories. "It depends, my lord," said Mr. Weller, during the trial of Bardell vs. Pickwick, "upon the taste and fancy of the speller." Back in softer-boiled days and for more than twenty years, New York boasted many well run and well known bars, and one in particular that was famous all over the world. Everybody from everywhere who wanted the best of drinks, made according to the best traditions. of the American School, found his way to it when he reached New York and carried away memories ·of it. In far-off Shanghai, in Peking, in Singapore, in Melbourne, in Cape– town, in Johannesburg, in Aden, in Calcutta, an Amer– ican traveler was sure to find in a local club or hotel somebody who would boast of having had such-and-such a cocktail in the Old Waldorf-Astoria Bar. If the new ac– quainta11ce was a Scot, he was apt to lick reminiscent chops over the generous free lunch there dispensed. The barmen in that historic dispensary-an even dozen of them when good times made good business-had to know what was what when it came to mixing and serv– ing drinks. As at most first class bars of the period, all