Call him “a living iPod of drink lore and recipes” (The New York Times) or “a crazy, bearded Civil War general” (Conan O’Brien), David Wondrich is the world’s foremost expert on the history of the American cocktail.
Whether writing and editing for The New York Times, Esquire, Saveur, Bon Appetit, Gourmet, or countless national publications, David has helped revive and propel cocktail culture to the forefront as a new American hobby. MADE met with David in Atlanta and spoke about drinks, life, and his new book “Imbibe! From Absinthe Cocktail to Whiskey Smash, a Salute in Stories and Drinks to Professor Jerry Thomas, Pioneer of the American Bar.”
Photo: Doron Gild
David, we’ve read your bio and the life you’ve led looks like something out of a movie. When did you discover your love for the cocktail? It could have been when I was about 8 or 9 and bought a plastic GI Joe-scale cocktail kit at a street market in Sicily (my father was half Sicilian and we used to spend time over there when I was a kid). I had my guys behind the bar with the shaker. Or it could have been later, when I was drinking in old-man bars in NYC because they were all I could afford. A gin martini was your best bang for the buck and didn’t get you dirty looks from the bartender.
Were you really a process server for a mob lawyer? I was indeed. Crazy job. They used to send me to the bank with tens of thousands of dollars. I was 20 or 21 then, and right next to the bank was the Airline Ticket Office, where all the airlines had counters. Very tempting, but then again, it was mob money.
In the cocktail world you’ve been dubbed “the godfather”. Who inspires you the most to continue in the field? Dale DeGroff has always set the example for me for how to do this – unfailingly pleasant and hospitable, with a permanent curiosity and, above all, a sense of humor.
When you are creating, do you do this in your office? Home? Or do you have a favorite bar? I don’t have a home bar, since my house is quite old and they didn’t do that sort of thing back then. I use the kitchen like everyone else.
For the novice cocktail enthusiast, what’s the most important part of the cocktail? Great liquor, mixers, following the recipe exactly?
I’m a firm believer in practicing the basic techniques until you’ve got an easy mastery before getting all creative. Learn to use a Boston shaker (the kind with the glass and the tin), to stir properly (much harder than it looks) and to measure everything accurately. Then master a few (5 or 10) bedrock classics. Everyone will be happy to have you at their parties.
Do you have a favorite spirit? Rye whiskey. And cognac. And rum. And mezcal. Can’t forget gin. Ok, no.
Have you ever made a cocktail for a person and you were completely star struck? If so, whom? I made a cocktail for Jacques Pepin once, the great French-American chef. It was the house cocktail from Le Pavillon, the French restaurant in New York where he got his American start in the 1950s. He hated it.
You’ve researched cocktails across the world. Is there a particular region that you find the most interesting? Cuba is fascinating, as is New Orleans and (for Punch) the UK. But to me no place is more fascinating for its drinking history than New York City, where I live. Very convenient.
We’re here in Montgomery – any great Alabama recipes we should know about? I don’t know any off the top of my head beyond the Alabama Slammer, with which I messed up my youth. This tells me I’m either getting forgetful or I’ve got to do more research. The Deep South is tough for old cocktail recipes because the newspapers weren’t so chatty about such things as the northern ones and there was much less of a publishing industry, so there were far fewer cocktail books.
What’s your favorite summertime cocktail? The Daiquiri, made the original Cuban way by stirring a barspoon of superfine sugar into the juice of half a lime, adding 2 ounces of flavorful, imported white rum, shaking it up viciously with lots of ice and straining it into a champagne coupe. Most refreshing thing ever.
Best spot or dish to eat in the whole world? Right now, I wish I had an arancino – a fried, stuffed rice ball – from Savia, in Catania, Sicily. I’d settle, though, for a plate of red beans and rice at the Napoleon House in New Orleans, as long as I had a Sazerac with it.