Happy New Year to one and all! Hope that 2004 is a better year for every one. On December 8th, our traditional Christmas Holiday Luncheon was held at "The Riviera At The Fireside" in Westminster. It was another great event. We have been going to "The Riviera" when the location was at the South Coast Plaza Mall, in Costa Mesa. I am taking a conservative guess, we have been going to the "Fireside" for at least 15 years, maybe more. Lyle Gordon, our former Finical Secretary and longtime member, could correct me on this.
We had a special guest, Jim Roumeliotis, formerly from Southern Wine and Spirits, who now works independently. One of his great products is "Ultimate Vodka", and everyone present received samples, plus he donated crystal martini and shot glasses for our raffle. Thanks Jim for your support and I hope you keep active with the United States Bartender's Guild. I thank everyone for being there, for bringing in toys for underprivileged children.
On Monday, January 12th, we will have our Election Luncheon Meeting at Mr. B's Restaurant in Los Alamitos, at 11 am.
Just a reminder that our annual membership dues will be collected at the meeting, or you can mail them in A.S.A.P.
Congratulations are in order, thank you, John C. Burton, Northern California Region, Vice President, for a job well done.
Let us not forget the hard work and dedication from Jose Ruiseco, U.S.B.G. National President, and Jose Ancona. I.B.A. Vice President, North America and all the other members that have made this possible. We now have a "Bay Area Chapter" in San Francisco.
In the mean time, start working on your cocktail recipes, and I wish everyone the very best of luck and a Happy New Year.
Thanking You, Vince Cisneros, California Chapter President
As 2003 comes to an end we can all proudly look back at what we have accomplished in a short period of time in the Bay Area. We have put together a great backbone of passionate individuals who want to make a difference in this fine profession. We have had two great cocktail competitions. I would like to thank everyone for participating and thank the liquor companies for helping us arrange these events and showing their support. There was a great turnout for both events and incredible, original and creative libations where made by all.
I would like to thank everyone in the U.S.B.G. from Southern California & Nevada for all their support and advice. Cheers to those in Nevada who continue to "RAISE THE BAR" for us to reach.
As we look forward we still have allot to accomplish from establishing an entrance exam and forming an educational structure for future Barman hungry for knowledge. We must also get our group together and prepared to help out at the I.C.C. in Las Vegas next year.
I know we are all busy in our everyday work and lives but I hope we can all take more time to work on the U.S.B.G. as only good can come to our profession from this.
Also, I have spoken to the staff at Southern Wine & Spirits regarding Pitu. They will get us samples and information of this wonderful product.
So Salute' to what we have accomplished and to what lies ahead of us! Happy Holidays to all!
Jacques
With the busy holiday season having just passed, it was difficult for any of us up here in Northern California to take the time for a general meeting. Sorry not much to report except to say that on January 12th we have a Dewar's White Label Cocktail Competition hosted by Dana Dabov. I would assume that there may be many unique cocktails featuring Dewar's with Bacardi products and that new magical product, Sylk. Should you ever want to impress your customers, pour Sylk instead of Baileys in cocktails
JB
Brian Rea sent this article about Cocktail Bill Boothby from the December 6, 1934 edition of THE RECORDER, a business newspaper printed in San Francisco.
Browsing in our favorite bookshop a familiar name caught the eye, Boothby! There it lay in its traditional paper covers of yellow and red "Cocktail Bill Boothby's World Drinks and How To Mix Them." A new edition, twice as thick as the last pre-prohibition issue, but breathing the flavor of alcohol and mint.
No wonder we mused: "The good that Bill did lives after him; the evil (only we never heard of any) was interred with his bones." The Honorable William T. ("Cocktail Bill") Boothby has gone to where all good bartenders go. We pour a libation to his memory.
We knew Bill Boothby. Before coming to San Francisco he had mixed'em and set'em up "in the best houses" of New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, New Orleans, and Kansas City. He officiated behind the bar at Byron Hot Springs, and was "presiding deity" (his own phrase) at the club house of Hotel Rafael in the gay days when Baron von Schroeder was making history over there. He was at the Silver Palace here.
One addition of his book is dedicated "To the liquor dealers of San Francisco who unanimously assisted in my election to the Legislature by an unprecedented majority." Bill was in the Assembly in 1895, and there was no adverse liquor legislation that year, you may be sure. After that interruption to his real career Bill was placed behind the famous bar of the Palace Hotel by the discriminating Colonel Kirkpatrick. They were all aces behind that mahogany, and Bill was the ace of aces. To see him rotating three cocktail glass between the fingers of his left hand while measuring a jigger of gin or vermouth with the right was to witness a masterpiece of art in the making. Alas! Prohibition came, and Maxfield Parrish's "Pied Piper" looked down upon no more cocktail and highball devotees. Bill went to the Olympic Club to superintend a bar transformed to a soft drink counter. O, what a fall was there! It was the last position he held.
Any collector of Californiana will tell you about the various editions of Bill's book. The first was published in 1891. It is a scarce item for collectors. The work was immediately popular. It went through three editions, and all around the world. Before our fire of 1906 destroyed the plates fifty thousand copies had been sold.
We must quote a paragraph from Bill's introduction to the first edition: "Many pamphlets heretofore written upon the theme of mixology are absolutely worthless, owing to the fact that they have been gotten up in the interest of some cheap publishing house which has paid some celebrated mixologist a royalty for the use of his name only, while some inexperienced, unprincipled individual is the real author. These so-called guides contain recipes for the mixing of beverages which no practical bartender on earth ever had the occasion to serve. The only redeeming features of these decoctions are their high-sounding names, which scheming, imaginative penny-a-liners have given them in order to make large volumes out of little material." Bill, you see, was an artist, and jealous of his milieu.
After the fire Bill brought out a new addition which sold steadily until the "noble experiment" came like the crack of doom. The venue being then changed from the bar room to the home, there was an extraordinary demand for the book among amateur mixologists, and another edition was exhausted by 1903. So here is still another , available at all bookstores.
To show how times have change: there were just twenty cocktails in the 1891 edition; there are 172 pages of cocktails in the edition of 1934! The cobblers, the crustas, the daisies, the fixes, the slings, and the smashes are either gone or extant under new-fangled names.
Bill, thou were kindly, but mordant too, philosophical, humorous, deeply versed in the strengths and weaknesses of human nature. Thy hand so skilled in mixology was also a helping hand to the down-and-outer. How we wish that it were possible today to step into the old Palace Hotel bar and get your view as a legislator, an author and a man of the world on the latest liquor ruling by Attorney-General Webb!
Just to add a note to the above article by The Recorder. Can you imagine if Cocktail Bill Boothby, Professor Jerry Thomas, Harry Johnson, "The Only" William Schmidt, Oscar of the "Old Waldorf", Frank Meier, O.H. Byron, John Applegreen, Jack Grohusko and Jacob Straub were to drop into a lounge in California today. Can you imagine their surprise!
JB
Remember that Jose Ancona and Livio Lauro will be hosting free bartending lessons at Mr. Jose Ruiseco's, La Conga Restaurant this January. More information at the January 12th Election Meeting. Maybe Jose A. and Livio Can travel further north up here to "God's Country" and work with us. I'm sure we can find a time and place.
JB