The dearth of content here at "Better Living Through Bitters" is hardly for a scarcity of new and vintage cocktails to try, or thoughtful and creative ways to reevaluate and reincorporate the ways and mores of the past into our modern lives but merely a lack of imagination and inspiration. In conjunction with the installation of our neo-vintage industrial basement bar, I feel that the time is now ripe to open up a new series, called "Mixology at Mid-Century", as I make my way through a copy of the 1945
Chicago Bartenders and Beverage Dispensers' Union, Local No. 278 Recipe book.
This little book is a totally fascinating look at what, I'm going to assume, is the state of the art of bar tending during a period of rapid economic and social acceleration. A casual flip through the manual would seem to indicate that after a world war, an ill-conceived and even worse-implemented attempt at compelling moralism, an economic meltdown and subsequent social upheaval, and
another world war -- all of which must have disrupted markets and altered drinking habits on an immense and, to my knowledge, completely under-studied level -- American cocktail culture seemed to have reached something of a nadir. However, the immense pride that members had in themselves, their union, their customers and their cocktails and their craft is obvious on a second glance, if not exactly the quality and quantity of the ingredients at their disposal. To more fully explore and understand this heretofore forgotten world, I'll be making my way through all 85 pages of this tome, making every cocktail, comparing every recipe to other classic sources and, if necessary, proposing subtle changes to update these libations to take advantage of modern ingredient availability and, probably, tastes.
I hope you'll enjoy this journey as much as I hope I'll enjoy taking it!
