This week, 129 years ago, Jerry Thomas died. Why does this matter? Because the “Professor,” as he was known, is considered by many to be the father of modern bartending, primarily due to his 1862 book,
How to Mix Drinks, which put many cocktail recipes of the time on paper.
So, when you’re sitting at a cocktail bar wondering why it’s taking so long to get a drink, you can curse the Professor, but when you take a sip of that drink and taste how good it is, you can also thank him. Thomas could also be considered the father of
flair bartending, you know, that thing Tom Cruise did in the
movie Cocktail.
His fingers were often decorated with eye-catching jewelry, he had silver and diamond encrusted bartending equipment, and when mixing, would juggle bottles and cups. He was a showman, as evidenced by his signature Blue Blazer cocktail in which he poured a flaming stream of alcohol between two mugs to mix a drink, and as the story goes, it was a drink he developed while working in San Francisco.
