"savoy cocktail book" news and stories

You'd think standard bar glass sizes exist to keep our lives simple. The reality is that every vessel from the wine glass to the shot glass ranges in capacity. You'd think a shot glass is a shot glass, but you might find a standard squat shot glass holding one and a half ounces and a tall skinny one holding more than two ounces. Apparently all shots are not equal unless you use a jigger to fill the glass.

The marketing of wine glasses by Austrian crystal company Riedel (pronounced to rhyme with needle) taught us that rolled edges on the lip of a glass make the liquid fall into the mouth in a clunky way. Taste tests show over and over that many folks prefer the flavor of a beverage from a smooth, polished edge. For some reason, this makes drinking anything a more pleasant experience from the softer feel on the lips to the better taste on the tongue.

Even with a fine wine glass company like Riedel, a red wine glass is not a red wine glass. You can purchase a stemless glass holding 20 ounces all the way up to the Sommeliers Burgundy Grand Cru stem, the world's largest wine glass, at 37 ounces capacity. In 1960 this fish bowl of a glass was placed in the permanent design collection of New York City's Museum of Modern Art.

An occasional column on drinks made from the legendary 1930 "Savoy Cocktail Book."

Please forgive the prolonged absence. Orange bitters, or rather, a lack of it, waylaid this column longer than expected.

When we last met, I had finally achieved a childhood goal: obtaining an original "Savoy Cocktail Book" and making my first "Savoy" cocktail -- the Hanky Panky (on the advice of mixologist Gary Regan).

A few days after that column appeared, I bumped into James Beard Award-winning mixologist Dale DeGroff at World Cocktail Day. When I asked him what I should try making, he didn't hesitate: "Satan's Whiskers."

This is the first in an occasional column on drinks made from the legendary 1930 "Savoy Cocktail Book."

I touched a first edition of "The Savoy Cocktail Book" once in the late '80s. I was a teenager and found it on a dusty shelf at John K. King Books in downtown Detroit. I fell in love with its foil cover and colorful Art Deco designs. And then I noticed the price: $45. Too much for a sober middle school student from southeastern Michigan. I put it back. But I never quite got over that first electrifying encounter.

We all have foodie passions; one of mine happens to be old cocktail books. And so almost two decades since I fell for the "Savoy," I have finally gotten my hands on a beat-up first edition and I want to bring you Slashfoodies along for the ride.

I asked a few mixologists what should be the maiden cocktail voyage for me and Savoy. It was Gary Regan who came up with the winner: The Hanky Panky.