The Deans of Drink: The Amazing Lives & Turbulent Times of Harry Johnson & Harry Craddock As Seen in a New Light

Anistatia R Miller, Jared Brown

Research output: Book/ReportAuthored book

Abstract

A non-academic work written for a general commercial readership, this book presents the biographies of two bartending pioneers Harry Johnson and Harry Craddock, whose personal and professional existences were sculpted by the extreme, world-changing events of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries as well as the shifts in public attitudes that accompanied them. Johnson wrote, in 1888, the expanded edition of his Bartenders' Manual the first cocktail book that documented both a Martini and a Marguerite recipe and was also the first to provide a detailed plan for opening, staffing, and operating a bar, which is as viable today as it was over 125 years ago. His career was shaped and flourished just as state liquor laws and suffragettes pushed the USA toward temperance and prohibition. His personal life was marked by the American public's anti-German prejudices during and after the First World War. Yet he provided the industry with all the wisdom he gained from decades of experience dedicating himself to "running a good place". Craddock turned London on its cocktail ears when he took his post as head bartender in 1923 at the Savoy Hotel's American Bar. Compiler of the famed 1930 Savoy Cocktail Book, Craddock chronicled what was served to royalty, film stars, theatrical and literary greats, politicians, and captains of industry at this posh establishment. As one of the founders of the United Kingdom Bartenders Guild, forerunner to the International Bartenders Association, Craddock helped establish standards for service and drinks-making that elevated the profession. This study was intended to dispel a number of long-held myths about these individuals and to contribute to the body of knowledge about the history of the bartending profession.
Original languageEnglish
Place of PublicationUnited Kingdom
PublisherMixellany Limited
Number of pages216
ISBN (Print)978-1907434389
Publication statusPublished - 21 Jan 2013

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