1938 Famous New Orleans Drinks and how to mix'em (3rd printing) by Stanley Clisby Arthur

ing emporium gave the mixture the long deliberate shak ing it received from the shaker boys behind the Ramos bar, and that was the secret of its lip-smacking goodness. Came prohibition, and the drink that made the name of Ramos famous disappeared. After the return of legal liquor the trade name of Ramos on a gin fizz was ac quired by the Hotel Roosevelt, and today that is its legal domicile. The gin fizz, and by that I mean the common or gar den variety, had its beginning way back yonder, but the Ramos concoction was not known to Orleanians until 1888 when Henry C. Ramos came to NewOrleans from Baton Rouge and purchased the Imperial Cabinet saloon from Emile Sunier. The Cabinet was located at the corner of Gravier and Carondelet streets (where a modern Sazerac saloon now holds forth) and above it, on the second story, was a famous restaurant of days gone by—The Old Hickory. Here it was that Henry Ramos served the gin fizz that departed so radically from the other frothy gin mixtures served in New Orleans saloons, and here he remained until 1907 when he pur chased Tom Anderson's Sta^r saloon opposite the Gravier street entrance to the St. Charles Hotel. The new place became a mecca for the thirsty and for those pioneers who would make a pilgrimage of any sort for a new drink. At times The Stag became so crowded that customers were forced to wait an hour or more (or so it seemed) tobe served. The corps ofbusy shaker boys behind the bar was one of the sights of the town during Carnival, and in the 1915 Mardi Gras, 35 shaker boys nearly shook their arms off, but were still unable to keep Up with the demand. Forty-five