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Also known as South Side Fizz, the South Side seems to have first been published by famous American bartender Harry Craddock in The Savoy Cocktail Book. His recipe called for dry gin, powdered sugar, the juice of half a lemon, and two sprigs of fresh mint, finished with a splash of siphon soda water. The birthplace is disputed among Jack & Charlie’s (now the 21 Club) in New York City, a forgotten speakeasy in the South Side of Chicago, and a Long Island country club in the late 1800s known as the South side Club. There is no controversy that the 21 Club has served more of these than anyone over the decades and they can lay claim to the South Side as their house cocktail. We’ve altered it a bit by replacing the powdered sugar with simple syrup and adding a splash of soda to the cocktail to “wake it up,” as some recipes dictate. We do not recommend double straining it; that would reduce the body and the ornamental presence of the shaken mint.

The Yellow Jacket cocktail was inspired by chance circumstances and a little harassment. For weeks, we had toyed with the idea of mixing together Partida Reposado tequila and St-Germain elderflower liqueur, but there was a piece of the puzzle missing. Then one evening, a bunch of obnoxious cocktail geeks came into Employees Only to stump the bartenders by ordering the Last Word cocktail. After being satisfied with that drink, they asked if we knew of another drink with Chartreuse. At that moment, Yellow Chartreuse became the ingredient needed to bind together the elderflower and tequila. So pretty and elegant, the rich yellow color grabs your attention. The true beauty of this drink, though, is the interplay of the ingredients. The light oak on the Partida Reposado tequila works so well with the St-Germain, and they in turn produce a perfect ground for Yellow Chartreuse to bring it all into balance. The orange bitters play a key role. This cocktail is similar in style to the Widow’s Kiss cocktail (page 141), as they both contain very sweet herbaceous ingredients balanced by high alcohol content. It’s named for the yellow jacket wasps that inhabit agave farms and tequila distilleries.

This cocktail is an Employees Only variation of the famous South Side cocktail (page 130), first served in the 1920s at the New York speakeasy Jack & Charlie’s—now known as the 21 Club. We replaced the gin with Meyer lemon–infused vodka to achieve a more balanced, subtler concoction. God only knows how many West Sides we have pushed over the bar in the last five years. It is by far the most popular cocktail served at Employees Only and lends itself naturally to being enjoyed in the sun. Why is this cocktail so popular? Even if we ignore the fact that it is a vodka cocktail and the fact that we are witnessing the end of the reign of vodka, the simplicity of a cocktail with just lemon and mint flavors makes it addictive and refreshing. It will definitely be a favorite at any cocktail party, served over ice or in pitchers.

Ah, Waterloo—the monarch of Employees Only long drinks. Seasonal to the core and perfect from mid-June until early September when watermelons are in their prime. This cocktail combines fresh, ripe watermelon; gin; and Campari in a taste explosion. The most important ingredient is the watermelon, as the flavor directly corresponds to the sweetness of the cocktail. Therefore we advise you to use organic watermelon with seeds rather than the genetically engineered seedless varietals. The seeds also provide a nice visual touch when the cocktail is served. This cocktail is also a great exercise in mixing and building flavors. You start with fresh fruit, add sugar to open up the natural flavors, then add sour to balance it out. Altogether, this mixture creates a pumped-up watermelon bomb with the body to stand up to even gin. The gin and Campari bring out the savoriness of the melon to make this cocktail a modern classic.

This is a cocktail that was composed by one of our bartenders, former U.S. Marine Steve Schneider. According to him, he got tired of mixing White Ladies and wanted something more exciting and powerful to offer as a gin cocktail. When asked to describe his intention, he simply said: “Alongside a beautiful lady should be a handsome man in a tux. By replacing Cointreau with a touch of simple syrup and orange bitters, you are getting an easy, yet stunning White Lady variation, which is more appealing to the modern palate.”

This Prohibition-era cocktail is not very ladylike on the surface. On paper, it looks like a Sidecar made with gin, but nothing could be farther from the truth. We tasted this cocktail at the Savoy in London where it was invented, according to Harry Craddock, author of The Savoy Cocktail Book, which was published in 1930. Three high-quality ingredients and a master technique make this cocktail a high point of everyone’s evening. We suggest you pack your freezer full of large ice cubes, squeeze a lot of fresh lemon juice, and get going. Play some slapstick movies while you drink it—it is said that this cocktail was the favorite of Laurel and Hardy.

This cocktail was first made on a Tuesday with the namesake song from the Rolling Stones playing in the background. When the drink was strained into a cocktail glass and its vibrant ruby beauty came to life, we said in unison, “Ruby Tuesday.” This cocktail combines 101-proof straight rye whiskey, Benedictine, fresh black cherry purée, fresh lemon juice, and simple syrup. Rye whiskey is the native spirit of the northern United States, where rye grains grow in abundance. The spirit was traditionally matured in new American oak barrels and bottled at least 50 percent alcohol by volume (ABV) or 100-proof. Its raw nature, combined with slightly sweet overtones and the herbal infusion of Benedictine, give this cocktail a beautiful long, lingering finish. It is a perfect representative of such classy whiskey cocktails as the Frisco Sour.

Dark and Stormy was created specifically for Gosling’s Black Seal rum in much the same way that the Moscow Mule was created for Smirnoff. The original recipe called for Gosling’s, ginger beer, and a lime. This simple combination works very well to create an interesting highball, but to expand on its potential, many mixologists have reconstructed it, and its popularity has approached that of the mojito. Over the years, we have created many recipes for our Dark and Stormy, using varying ingredients such as fresh gingerroot, lime juice, and even walnut liqueur. Today, we have settled on using dark rum, homemade ginger beer, and lime juice with the addition of Velvet Falernum—a clove-almond-flavored liqueur that bridges the flavors of molasses and fiery ginger.

The Moscow Mule became the flagship drink for Smirnoff vodka in the 1950s and started the vodka craze in the United States. Previously, vodka was not widely known. But this cocktail saved a vodka distillery and a restaurant in West Hollywood from going bankrupt. The first American vodka distillery was started in Connecticut by John G. Martin, using a recipe he acquired in Paris from Pierre Smirnoff. For fifteen years, vodka sales were minuscule, and the Smirnoff vodka was known as “Martin’s Folly.” At the Cock ’n’ Bull restaurant on Hollywood’s Sunset Strip, Martin met the owner, Jack Morgan, who was sitting on a large quantity of ginger beer he had produced under his restaurant’s name. Coincidentally, Morgan was also about to lose his shirt. With both sitting on a large stock of unsold product, the myth is that they got drunk and decided to marry their miseries with a squeeze of lime. They named the concoction Moscow Mule because of the kick of the ginger. They served the new drink in a personally engraved copper mug to every movie star, and it became an overnight smash. Cold War controversy added to the appeal among the liberal Hollywood bons vivants. But it wasn’t long before vodka outshone the cocktail that had given it celebrity. Once Zsa Zsa Gabor declared that she only drank Martinis made with Smirnoff, vodka sales soared.

Pisco became popular on the West Coast, especially in San Francisco, during the days of the Gold Rush. Many ships would bring men from the East Coast around Cape Horn, through the Strait of Magellan and up the West Coast. One of the stops for provisions was the popular port town of Pisco. There they would load up on the eponymous brandy and bring whatever was left with them to Northern California. Soon the spirit became a commodity on the trade route of the western seaboard. (This would, of course, later decline with the creation of the Panama Canal cutting Peru out of the route.) The Pisco Punch was created during the late 1800s by a barkeep named Duncan Nicol at the Bank Exchange and Billiard Saloon in San Francisco. The exact recipe was never shared with anyone but was enjoyed by the likes of Mark Twain and Jack London. After Nicol’s passing, those who knew offered up their interpretations of the Pisco Punch.

The Pisco Sour is the official drink of Peru; there is even a National Pisco Sour Day, celebrated the first Saturday in February. Pisco brandy was first established by Spanish conquistadors, who planted grape vines as they traversed the mountainous terrains of Chile and Peru—and Chile also claims the Pisco as a national treasure. There is good reason for the debate, as Pisco was the first distilled spirit in the New World. The now-classic Pisco Sour was created in the 1920s by ex-pat American bartender Victor V. “Gringo” Morris at the Morris’ Bar in Lima, as a local variation on the Whiskey Sour. The cocktail became a favorite among the locals and quickly spread up the West Coast of America as far north as San Francisco, where it was popular by the late 1930s. This version contained pisco brandy, egg white, lime juice, simple syrup, and aromatic bitters served frothy and straight up. A specific kind of lime called Limon de Pica is the right ingredient for the Peruvian classic. Some places in Peru grate nutmeg or cinnamon on top of the cocktail to finish it; our version includes the nutmeg. The Peruvian Pisco Sour is the perfect brunch companion as a restorative drink: musky and clean, with a rich texture and alluring bitters.

Pimm’s is as British as cricket or a cup of tea and has gained in recognition with the general rebirth of the classic cocktail. The original recipe for the Pimm’s Cup is a very simple affair of Pimm’s No. 1 and lemon-lime soda served over ice with slices of cucumber. The Brits refer to this simply as Pimm’s and Lemonade (“lemonade” being the UK term for lemon-lime soda). What is fantastic about this recipe is the simplicity of ingredients. Add some cucumber and even a little mint and you have already elevated the cocktail. Try substituting champagne in the cocktail or even adding seasonal fruits to the mix, and you are light years beyond a simple highball.

We have served this variation of the Pisco Sour ever since we first learned about the drink in the mid-1990s. There weren’t many Pisco choices available back then, so we worked with what we had. One brand we used was Pisco Capel Reservado from Chile, a blend of 30 percent Muscat and 70 percent Pedro Jimenez and Torontel grapes, which give the spirit a nice sweet full flavor, as it’s aged in wood for up to 6 months. Because of the slight oak, it combines beautifully with fresh lemon juice, so our variation was a gringo-styled sour, tall over ice. Little did we know that the true Peruvian Pisco Sour (page 115) was created by a gringo as well.

Have you ever heard the slang term “the bee’s knees”? It was used in the 1920s during the Noble Experiment to describe something really cool and hip. The cocktail itself appeared sometime during Prohibition. The recipe appears in cocktail books printed after 1936, which helps back this theory. It is fairly easy to make—the trick is to use honey syrup instead of honey itself, as honey will not dissolve when shaken with ice in a cocktail. We suggest Cadenhead’s Old Raj saffron-infused gin, at 55 percent alcohol by volume. Some authorities claim this cocktail can also be made with rum. If you’re game, we suggest the Flor de Caña four-year-old clear rum, which adds the perfect amount of grassiness and earthiness to the overall flavor profile.

Pimm’s is a proprietary cocktail in a bottle created by James Pimm in 1820 for his London oyster bar. His first blend, Pimm’s No. 1 Cup, was a gin-based liqueur infused with quinine, fruit extracts, and a secret blend of herbs. The word “cup” in this case refers to a punch made with spirits, wine, and soda or sparkling wine. Pimm started commercially offering Pimm’s No. 1 Cup around 1859, and by the end of World War II five more bottled blends had been developed: Pimm’s No. 2 Cup, based on Scotch whisky; No. 3, on brandy; No. 4, on rum; No. 5, on rye whiskey; and finally, No. 6, on vodka. Originally, most cups were garnished with cucumber or cucumber peel. Employees Only pays tribute to this forgotten trend in our Pimm’s Cup cocktail, which can be made as a long drink or in large batches or pitchers for parties. We build the base of the cocktail with Cointreau and fresh lime juice to add more alcohol and firm up the body. Fresh mint and delicious thinly sliced cucumbers are lightly bruised in the shake to release aroma, and we top it off with ginger ale, which adds to and opens up the bright flavors of the cocktail.

The Sidecar is another famous cocktail that came out of Paris in the Twenties, thanks to Prohibition driving the best bartenders out of the country. It is said to have been invented at the Ritz Hotel by American ex-pat Frank Meyer, the head bartender. It was a favorite of Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Henry Miller. The Sidecar is also an ideal after-dinner option or even a nightcap because of its “candied” nature. Cognac is rarely mixed with juices, as the subtle qualities in fine brandy are easily lost in cocktails. The Sidecar is one exception—it blends cognac and Cointreau beautifully and balances them out with fresh lemon juice. The key to this cocktail is its sugar rim on the glass. This dissolves on the tongue and mixes with the rest of the drink to create the perfect balance, leaving room for the brandy. For a simple variation on the Sidecar, add a splash of Benedictine and lose the sugar rim to create the Honeymoon.

Before corporate America overwhelmed New York City with its massive amounts of money, shallowness, and brainwashing, the Big Apple was a very lively and dangerous place. Historically, no other city housed such a menagerie of characters, lowlifes, gangsters, and crooks, whose activities gained them a healthy prominence and romantic fame. One of those guys was Jacob “Jack” Rosenzweig, aka Jack Rose. Born in Poland, this famous gambler of the day grew up in the late 1800s in Connecticut and later moved to New York City, where he opened a gambling den, Second Avenue. Although he was not of the caliber of Lucky Luciano or Meyer Lansky, he became very popular when he turned state’s evidence against Lieutenant Charles Becker, a crooked cop linked to bookies and gambling houses around town. Due to Jack Rose’s testimony, Becker was convicted and received the death sentence. Jack in turn became a hero for the common man. The Jack Rose cocktail was created in his honor in 1912 or 1913, using applejack as the dominant ingredient. It remained a crowd-pleaser throughout the Prohibition era because apple brandy was easy to bootleg and was considered one of the safest spirits of the day. We love the version with our homemade grenadine and believe that it makes a fantastic contribution to this Prohibition-era classic.

The Mai Tai cocktail is Elvis with a guitar singing in the sunset in Hawaii. It was invented in 1944 by Victor “Trader Vic” Bergeron, who mixed Jamaican rum, lime juice, a few dashes of orange Curaçao, French almond syrup, and rock candy syrup. According to Trader Vic history, it was served to some friends from Tahiti, who promptly proclaimed “Mai tai, roa ae!”—which in Tahitian means “Out of this world, the best!” When this drink is made right, it is really, really super tasty. By default this cocktail is in the Tiki cocktail family, which became popular after World War II when soldiers from the South Pacific returned home in the 1940s and ’50s. This trend began in Hawaii and on the West Coast and, then traveled across the nation. Unfortunately, like most cocktails of that era, the recipe was artificialized and cheapened over several decades and even now in Hawaii it is still made with commercial Mai Tai mixers and artificial flavors. At Employees Only, we make our tribute to this Tiki classic with twelve-year-old Flor de Caña Nicaraguan rum, the best French orange Curaçao, Lebanese almond syrup, and fresh lime juice. The traditional rock candy syrup was left out to keep the cocktail balanced, not just sweet.

The British Royal Navy, like every armed force, loves rules and discipline. So in 1740, they issued a rule that every sailor be supplied with a daily ration of grog, which he had to consume. No exceptions! By 1795, the recipe for grog called for rum, water, lime or lemon juice, and sugar. What a splendid idea! You’ve got to love the British; with that act, not only did they cure and prevent scurvy, but they also ensured that the crews had something to look forward to every day on long voyages. It was so popular that it quickly spread across the whole Caribbean and South America. The origins of the Daiquiri itself are somewhat vague, but most clues lead to a bar in Santiago, Cuba, called Venus. Near that bar there is a beach called Daiquiri—hence the name. The drink itself was supposedly invented by an American engineer, Jennings Cox, general manager of the Spanish American Iron Company who while stationed in Cuba ran out of gin and turned to rum to entertain his guests. The original recipe is simply beautiful, relying on the freshness of the limes and the quality of the rum. It is an exercise in balancing sweet and sour while letting the light, grassy, earthy rum flavor carry through.

There is an old tale about a creature that dwells in the Pine Barrens of southern New Jersey. The Jersey Devil is three and a half feet tall, with hoofed hind legs, claws on its front legs, a horse-like head, and bat wings. Rumored to be born of a witch and Satan himself, the Jersey Devil has been blamed for odd sightings, missing people, and stolen livestock since colonial days. Around the same time the legend was born, the Laird family began distilling apple cider. Perfecting the family recipe for applejack, the Laird & Company Distillery became the first commercial distillery in America and is still in business today. They even weathered Prohibition, selling sweet cider and applesauce until they received a special license to produce “medicinal brandy.” Their two main products are Laird’s Apple Brandy and Laird’s AppleJack. The brandy is a 100-proof spirit distilled solely from apples; the AppleJack is a blended spirit of 35 percent apple brandy and 65 percent whiskey. Our Jersey Devil cocktail artistically uses the 100-percent apple brandy and blends it with a unique ingredient—the English Bishop, which calls for roasting a clove-studded orange in a fire and infusing it with port wine. This drink was one of the first to fall into our “fancy cocktail” category because of the detail in the ingredients. It’s also a killer drink and can be successfully used to bait and tranquilize a Jersey Devil.