Hats off to Jerry - Currents

Cheers, April, 2003

"Professor" Jerry Thomas, that is, hero to all cocktail historians, aspiring bar stars and other assorted "cocktailians" (a term coined, as far as we know, by spirit and cocktail writer Gary Regan.) Thomas, considered by many to be the father of the cocktail, and his heritage was the spark for a recent SlowFood NYC tribute to the purely American form of drinking, held at the classic NYC Oak Room in the Plaza Hotel.

Led by Esquire spirits writer David Wondrich, the event gathered some of the best-known traditionalists when it comes to the art of the bar. Wondrich, "King" Dale DeGroff, Ted Haigh (AKA Dr. Cocktail), Drinkboy.com's Robert Hess, the Oak Room's George Papadakis, London and New York bar owner Sasha Petraske, Regan, and Audrey Saunders of the famed Carlyle Hotel's Bemelman's Bar shook up Blue Blazers, Brandy Crustas, Gin Daisys and Tom & Jerrys, among other VERY old-fashioned concoctions, with the support of the Distilled Spirits Council and Hennessy.