Algonquin

Cocktail Story

The Algonquin, named for New York’s Algonquin Hotel, is less a celebrated classic cocktail of the golden age than a symbol of the namesake hotel’s fascinating contradictions. The hotel’s owner, Frank Case, was a supporter of the temperance movement and preemptively dried out the hotel before the Volstead Act even went into effect. Nonetheless, the hotel’s dining room became a beacon for a rotating social circle of high-minded literary figures and journalists who became known as the Algonquin Round Table. Frank Case openly hosted writers both famous and unknown, offering ample room and discounted meals. Despite the fact that cocktails were not served at the Round Table, it was perhaps inevitable that an eponymous drink would pop up elsewhere as a tribute to the storied club, which included the likes of Harpo Marx and Dorothy Parker. Presumably, the popularity of rye whiskey during Prohibition made this iteration of the Algonquin the one that prevailed. Like many drinks created during Prohibition, the Algonquin skewed sweet and bared little resemblance to any classic cocktails. This was the kind of tangible effect of hundreds of professionally trained bartenders fleeing the Prohibition-era United States for boozier pastures.