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Food & Drink

Mid-Century Cocktails

The drinks that were poured at every cocktail party, with how to make them.

The Daiquiri

  • 2 oz light rum
  • 1 oz fresh lime juice
  • ¾ oz simple syrup

Shake hard with ice and strain into a chilled coupe. Not frozen, not strawberry.

The Gibson

  • 2½ oz gin
  • ½ oz dry vermouth
  • Cocktail onions

Stir with ice until very cold, strain into a chilled coupe, garnish with two cocktail onions. The three-martini lunch, one onion at a time.

The Grasshopper

  • 1 oz crème de menthe (green)
  • 1 oz crème de cacao (white)
  • 1 oz heavy cream

Shake hard with ice and strain into a chilled coupe. The after-dinner drink of every 1950s supper club.

The Mai Tai, the 1944 way

  • 2 oz aged Jamaican rum
  • ¾ oz fresh lime juice
  • ½ oz orange curaçao
  • ½ oz orgeat
  • ¼ oz rich simple syrup
  • Spent lime shell, mint sprig

Shake hard with crushed ice, pour unstrained into a double old-fashioned, garnish with the lime shell and mint. No pineapple juice. Trader Vic would have words.

The Manhattan

  • 2 oz rye whiskey
  • 1 oz sweet vermouth
  • 2 dashes Angostura bitters
  • Brandied cherry

Stir with ice, strain into a chilled coupe, drop in a cherry.

The Moscow Mule

  • 2 oz vodka
  • ½ oz fresh lime juice
  • 4 oz spicy ginger beer
  • Lime wedge

Build over ice in a copper mug, lime first, then vodka, then ginger beer. The 1941 Hollywood invention that taught America to drink vodka.

The Old Fashioned

  • 2 oz bourbon or rye
  • 1 sugar cube or ¼ oz simple syrup
  • 2 dashes Angostura bitters
  • Orange peel

Muddle sugar and bitters with a splash of water, add whiskey and one large ice cube, stir, and express an orange peel over the top.

The Rusty Nail

  • 2 oz blended Scotch
  • ¾ oz Drambuie
  • Lemon twist

Stir with ice in a rocks glass over one large cube, finish with a lemon twist.

The Tom Collins

  • 2 oz gin
  • 1 oz fresh lemon juice
  • ½ oz simple syrup
  • Club soda

Shake gin, lemon and syrup with ice, strain into an ice-filled Collins glass, top with soda, garnish with lemon and a cherry. Patio drink of the ranch house era.

The Whiskey Sour

  • 2 oz bourbon
  • ¾ oz fresh lemon juice
  • ¾ oz simple syrup
  • 1 egg white (optional)

Dry-shake if using egg white, then shake again with ice. Strain into a rocks glass over ice, garnish with a cherry and orange slice.