1954 Practical Bar Management by Eddie Clarke

PRACTICAL BAR MANAGEMENT

type of drink derive its name. This is one of those questions which is made so difficult by the great number of potentially correct answers; however,since everyone is entitled to his views, here are mine. I give you two possible origins. My first is from Mexico: a king, wise in the ways of wine and men,showed this knowledge when negotiating with a visiting American general,and added to the smoothness ofthe discussions by getting his beautiful daughter, Coctel, to serve a potent mixture of local brews to his guest. On returning to his native land, the general remembered both the girl and the drink, so when he introduced the mixture to his compatriots he aptly named it"Coctel"after the lady in question. My second story is from the land of the silver dollar about the year 1780, where there lived a lady who owned a tavern. Her success as a tavern keeper was partly due to her skill in mixing liquors of those times into a secret concoction of her own. Now this good lady had been very unsuccessful in another direction— in attracting the attentions of a young local farmer, famed near and far for his breeding of fighting cocks. Revenge, therefore, became a necessity to the Lady of the Tavern, and so it came to pass that one dark night all the prize birds mysteriously dis appeared. A few evenings later the hostess sent invitations to many of her friends, including the young farmer,to be her guests at dinner. Needless to mention, a special item on the menu was roast chicken, and the hero unknowingly partook of his own cockerels. After the meal, much to the amusement of the party, bottles of the blended mixture, decorated with the tail feathers of the cocks, were brought in, and as the night wore on, hilarious cries for"another cocktail"were constantly echoing throughout the room. So please take your choice of these stories—either one sounds good. Bringing our history more up to date, we are told that the first "Cocktail Bar"was opened in London just before the turn of the century, both the bar and the bartender being imported from America. Be that as it may, we find that from about that date onwards, with ever-increasing popularity, the vogue of the cocktail developed, and with the coming of the American troops towards the end of the 1914-1918 war, most of the leading hotels