Jerry Thomas (bartender)

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Jerry Thomas
The Blue Blazer
Born(1830-10-30)October 30, 1830
Sackets Harbor, New York, U.S.
DiedDecember 15, 1885(1885-12-15) (aged 55)
New York City, U.S.
OccupationBartender

Jeremiah P. Thomas (October 30, 1830 – December 15, 1885) was an American bartender who owned and operated saloons in New York City. Because of his pioneering work in popularizing cocktails across the United States as well, he is considered "the father of American mixology".[1] In addition to writing the seminal work on cocktails, Bar-Tender's Guide, Thomas displayed creativity and showmanship while preparing drinks and established the image of the bartender as a creative professional.[2] As such, he was often nicknamed "Professor" Jerry Thomas.

Early life, education and work

Thomas was born about 1830 in

gold prospector and minstrel show manager.[2] According to his 1885 obituary, he was left some money by his father, which helped in these travels.[3]

Saloon keeper and bartender

Thomas moved back to the East Coast in 1851, settling in

New Orleans, Louisiana. At one point he toured Europe, carrying along a set of solid-silver bar tools.[4] He was well known for his showmanship as a bartender: he developed elaborate and flashy techniques of mixing cocktails, sometimes while juggling bottles, cups and mixers. He often wore flashy jewelry and had his bar tools and cups embellished with precious stones and metals. At the Occidental Hotel in San Francisco, Thomas was earning $100 a week—more than the Vice President of the United States.[2]

Bar-Tender's Guide

In 1862, Thomas finished Bar-Tender's Guide (alternately titled How to Mix Drinks or The Bon-Vivant's Companion), the first drink book ever published in the United States. The book collected and codified what was then an oral tradition of recipes from the early days of cocktails, including some of his own creations; the guide laid down the principles for formulating mixed drinks of all categories. He would update it several times in his lifetime to include new drinks that he discovered or created.

Brandy Daisy
.

Virginia City, Nevada

From "IMBIBE !" by David Wondrich:

The fortunes of Thomas' book were likely affected by the Professor's next move: rather than stay at the Occidental (SF), where he could have passed the volume along to the steady stream of clay-moistening literati who stopped in at his bar, he pulled up stakes yet again and headed east to witness the vast and vulgar spectacle that was unfolding 200 miles away in Virginia City, Nevada where a city of 30,000 had sprung up overnight on top of the massive mountain of silver known as the Comstock Lode. By 1864, Thomas was there, either (as local legend has it) at the famous Delta Saloon or at the Spalding Saloon on C Street, where the city directory found him- or, of course, at both.[9]

Sign located to the right of entrance doors of the Delta Saloon in Virginia City, Nevada

Nunc Est Bibendum

Head Bartender at the Delta Saloon in 1863 was Prof. Jerry Thomas, most celebrated barman in American history. Coming to Virginia City, according to the Territorial Enterprise** of that year, from the Occidental in San Francisco, he did much to elevate the tastes and drinking habits of the then uncouth Comstock.

** Territorial Enterprise newspaper (Samuel Clemens, aka Mark Twain, reporter)

San Francisco and the Blue Blazer

Thomas developed his signature drink, the

Tom and Jerry and did much to popularize it in the United States; however, the history of the drink predated him.[3]

In New York City

Upon returning to New York City, he became head bartender at the Metropolitan hotel. In 1866 he opened his own bar again, on

Restoration Hardware store.[2]

Thomas was an active man about town, a flashy dresser who was fond of kid gloves and his gold Parisian watch. He enjoyed going to

gourds; at one point in the late 1870s, Thomas served as president of The Gourd Club after producing the largest specimen.[11]

Later years and death

Toward the end of his life, Thomas tried

Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx
, New York City.

Sites today

Bibliography

Thomas is known to have authored two books: How to Mix Drinks, or The Bon-Vivant's Companion (originally published in 1862, with new and updated editions in 1876, and again posthumously in 1887) and Portrait Gallery of Distinguished Bar-Keepers (originally published in 1867 and considered a lost book).

The titles of the books are organized by their outside cover titles / inside cover titles.

  • How to Mix Drinks / How to Mix Drinks, or The Bon-Vivant's Companion (Dick & Fitzgerald Publishers, 1862)
  • Portrait Gallery of Distinguished Bar-Keepers (1867)
  • How to Mix Drinks (1876)
  • Jerry Thomas' Bar-Tenders Guide / The Bar-Tender's Guide, or How to Mix All Kinds of Plain and Fancy Drinks - An Entirely New and Enlarged Edition (Fitzgerald Publishing Corporation, 1887)

Legacy and honors

  • March 2003, a tribute was held for Jerry Thomas at the Oak Room at the Plaza Hotel in New York City, where bartenders gathered to make the many cocktails published in his books. The event was organized by David Wondrich, author of Esquire Drinks and a later biography of Thomas, and Slow Food, the organization devoted to traditional preparations of food.
  • Thomas is featured in the exhibits of the
    Museum of the American Cocktail, founded in 2004.[14]
  • Cocktail writer David Wondrich wrote Imbibe! about Jerry Thomas and his cocktail recipes. In 2008, it became the first cocktail book to win a James Beard Award.[15]
  • The Jerry Thomas Speakeasy opened in Rome, Italy, is named for the bartender.[16]
  • Bitter Truth bottles and sells Jerry Thomas' Own Decanter Bitters using the bartender's original recipe.[17]

References

  1. ^ Pete Wells, Frost on the Sun: Summertime Cocktails, New York Times, June 21, 2006.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j William Grimes, The Bartender Who Started It All, New York Times, October 31, 2007.
  3. ^ a b c d e f IN AND ABOUT THE CITY; "A NOTED SALOON KEEPER DEAD.", New York Times, 16 December 1885. Note: The obituary says that he was born in 1832 and was later left money by his father.
  4. ^ a b c d William Grimes, CRITIC'S NOTEBOOK; "Shaken, Stirred or Mixed, The Gilded Age Lives Again", New York Times, March 26, 2003.
  5. ^ John Hodgman, All Shaken Up, New York Times, October 17, 2004.
  6. ^
    ISBN 978-0-9556276-0-6
    . Retrieved November 25, 2008.
  7. ^ a b Sinclair, George (March 26, 2007). "The Great Tom Collins Hoax". Scribd. Archived from the original on December 2, 2008. Retrieved November 25, 2008.
  8. ^ Walsh, William S. (1892). Handy-Book of Literary Curiosities. p. 450. Retrieved November 25, 2008. Have you seen Tom Collins.
  9. ^ "IMBIBE!", David Wondrich, Penguin Group, 2007, 2015
  10. ^ Recipe: "Blue Blazer", New York Times, October 31, 2007.
  11. ^ The Gourd Club, New York Times, May 10, 1878.
  12. ^ "The Occidental Cigar Club".
  13. ^ "Jerry Thomas Speakeasy".
  14. ^ "The Museum of the American Cocktail". July 18, 2018.
  15. ^ "2008 JBF Award Winners". James Beard Foundation. Archived from the original on September 15, 2008. Retrieved September 15, 2008.
  16. ^ "Home".
  17. ^ The Bitter Truth https://the-bitter-truth.com/bitters/jerry-thomas/

Further reading

  • David Wondrich, Imbibe! (Perigee Books, 2007; Penguin Group, 2015), a biography of Jerry Thomas and annotated recipe book of his drinks, by the drink correspondent for Esquire.

External links

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