Bars, restaurants encourage patrons to cast votes with political cocktails

Nation's Restaurant News, August 30, 2004 by Gary Regan

You might think that drinks and politics don't mix, but if you take a look at the history of some drinks and look at what's going on in some bars today, it's possible that you'll change your mind.

Even the very word "cocktail" might have some political overtones.

One of the most popular tales told about the first drinks known as cocktails concerns a tavern keeper during the Revolutionary War by the name of Betsy Flanagan. She is said to have served French soldiers drinks that were garnished with feathers that she had plucked from a neighbor's roosters--the neighbor being a supporter of the crown. The soldiers toasted her by shouting, "Vive le cocktail."

In "Straight Up or On the Rocks: A Cultural History of American Drink," however, William Grimes points out that Flanagan was a fictional character who appeared in "The Spy," by James Fenimore Cooper. He also notes that the book "relied on oral testimony of Revolutionary War veterans," so it's possible that the tale has some merit.

And, of course, politicians of the past were known to buy drinks for the house, hoping to sway the vote a little by keeping the throats of the voters well lubricated.

In "The Barbary Coast: An Informal History of the San Francisco Underworld," Herbert Asbury wrote about John Denny's, a bar in San Francisco in the late 1800s, "which was also a noted political rendezvous. In the alley behind Denny's hung a large bell, which was rung by a push button under the bar. Whenever a politician entered, particularly one who was running for office, Denny pressed the button, the bell rang and everyone within hearing rushed into the saloon to drink to the politician's health--at the politician's expense."

It's doubtful that we'll see either President George W. Bush or Sen. John Kerry buying drinks for voters this year, but some enterprising bartenders and restaurateurs have been busy keeping current by creating cocktails to be sipped during the political conventions.

At Mistral in Boston, for instance, general manager Mark D'Alessandro created two drinks--the Democratic Donkey cocktail and the Republican Grand Old Party cocktail--so that his customers could show their support for either party. Democrats got to sip cranberry iced tea spiked with peach-flavored vodka, whereas Republicans apparently were enamored of WET, a pear-flavored gin, mixed with a pear liqueur and topped off with a little champagne.

I was unable to reach either Bush or Kerry for comments on those drinks.

The Rise bar at New York's Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Battery Park features incredible views of the Statue of Liberty. In 2003 the New York Post touted it as being the best bar in New York from which to watch the sunset. The bar's contribution to the election this year is a drink called the Compassionate Conservative, a mixture of orange-flavored vodka, passion fruit puree and champagne.

In Washington, D.C., the bartenders at the Town & Country Lounge in the Renaissance Mayflower Hotel are playing it sale by offering a Red, White and Blue Martini. That way nobody has a clue whether they are compassionate conservatives or kindhearted liberals. The drink is made by floating a frozen blend of vodka, pineapple juice, cream of coconut and half-and-half on top of a half-tablespoon of pink creme de noyau. Blue curacao then is floated on top of the drink to complete the trio of colors.

According to "Ask Me Anything About the Presidents," by Louis Phillips, Andrew Jackson reportedly was drunk when he took his oath of office, but apparently that was due to his trying to alleviate the pain he was suffering brought on by typhoid fever, so he was excused.

First Lady Sarah Polk, the wife of President James Polk, was a devout Presbyterian who apparently banned all alcohol from the White House, and so did President Rutherford B. Hayes' wife, Lucy, who became known to one and all as Lemonade Lucy.

It seems that drinks and politics sometimes mix but not always.

You can write to Gary Regan at gary@ardentspirits.com.