Gin Rickey Cocktail

Gin Rickey Cocktail Story

While legendary cocktails were being crafted at popular drinking holes throughout the Northeastern United States in the late 1800s, Washington D.C. quietly harbored a secret of its own: Shoomaker’s and its house specialty, the Rickey. The bar was less a civilized tavern than a boisterous marketplace of hooch and ideas all the same, frequented by all manner of lawmakers, military personnel, journalists, and traders. The star bartender in the establishment’s heyday was George A. Williamson, who credited the Rickey to the former Confederate colonel Joseph Kyle Rickey. Rickey’s order was actually just a bourbon on the rocks with soda, though patrons of Shoomaker’s soon became fond of adding lemons and limes to the drink. Joseph Rickey bought the bar in 1883 and began importing citrus as well, all while acting as a lobbyist on Capitol Hill. Several versions of his Joe Rickey made their way up to esteemed New York City bars such as the Waldorf Astoria. The most popular variation, the Gin Rickey, made with old tom gin, was first mentioned in Harry Johnson’s 1882 Bartender’s Manual.