Book Report: Vintage Cocktails, a Fresh Approach to Golden Oldies

By The Inside Source
April 5, 2010

Brian Van Flandern was an aspiring actor who bartended to make ends meet. He never considered it a career until he met chef and restaurateur Thomas Keller at Per Se in New York City, when he took one last restaurant job to get him through college. On the first day of training, he learned about salt. For three hours. He thought he was in the wrong seminar, being “just the bartender” and all, but it turns out, even the dishwasher was in attendance.

Over the course of the training, Van Flandern learned pretty much everything about everything, from olive oils and breads to pork and woodcocks. Trainees even had to take an 18th century dance class to learn to be more fluid in the dining room. It was then that he realized he could (and would) forge a fulfilling career out of what had become his life’s work.

“It was an eye-opening experience,” he says. “I started to recreate classic cocktails thinking like a chef—by balancing the acids and the sugars, by using the freshest possible locally sourced or exotic ingredients, and by using the highest quality (and I don’t mean the most expensive) spirits.” Choosing the perfect spirit for each cocktail required a lot of research. For instance, Van Flandern tells us, “Tanqueray 10 is high in citrus notes and therefore my go-to gin for a Gin Sour.”

Busy dabbling in Manhattans, Rob Roys, and Brandy Alexanders, he almost glossed over the gin and tonics, until he wondered, “What is tonic water anyhow?” In true Van Flandern style, he began learning about its history—it was discovered in the rainforests of Brazil by a Jesuit priest who brought it to British soldiers in north Africa and India to stave off malaria and, with the addition of lime, scurvy too. So, Van Flandern sourced fresh, raw quinine powder from Brazil in order to make his own artisanal tonic water. To it he added pure cane sugar, Tanqueray 10 gin, and a Welsh sparkling water (it has smaller bubbles), and fresh lime juice, and thus recreated the original gin and tonic, plus ice.

It was the drink that launched his career. Today, Van Flandern is president of Creative Cocktail Consultants. Although he’s based in New York City, he travels all over the world redesigning cocktails for corporate entities, offering spirits educations, and training bartenders. It’s his dream job. And, he says, “I’m way more famous a mixologist than I was an actor.” His new book, Vintage Cocktails, brings mixology to the masses. Featuring gorgeous photos and recipes for dozens of cocktails in a spiral bound hardcover format, it covers them all, from the classic, like the Gin Fizz and Brandy Alexander, to the crazy, like the Missouri Mule and Man O War.

Like any true research buff, Van Flandern has scored his share of treasures on eBay. His best find was a Venezuelan bitters bottle from 1824, which he recently donated to The Museum of the American Cocktail, along with other vintage and pre-Prohibition memorabilia.

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Brian Van Flandern
Vintage Cocktails
Gimlet
Pink Lady
Van Flandern's regular: Sidecar
Champagne Cocktail
Zombie
Van Flandern's favorite cocktail: Hemingway Daiquiri
Photos of cocktails taken at Bemelman's Bar in the Carlyle Hotel, New York. All photos: Laziz Hamani.Marni Elyse Katz is a Boston-based writer and editor who covers style, art and design for a variety of publications, including the Boston Globe Magazine, Boston Home and her own blog, Style Carrot.
Blue Hawaiian
Vintage Art Deco Coffin Bar Tool Figural Corkscrew (winning bid, $206.10)"This is just a fun little throwback to prohibition and a delightful conversation piece. I am always on the lookout for anything cocktail or liquor related from 1920-1933."
11 Old Bamboo Crystal Liquor Cocktail Glasses (winning bid, $5.50) "I'm interested any time a beautiful set of vintage crystal goes up for auction. This is particularly appealing because there are only eleven glasses, so most bargain hunters won't bid on them. But, in fact, they are gorgeous. All my sets at home are for eight glasses. I figure I'll have three extras in case they break!"
1942 Vintage Heubleins Club Cocktails Good Cheer Ad (buy it now price, $4.99)"This is a wonderful old-school ad that is a wonderful historical document loaded with information for cocktail historians like myself."
Prohibition In America Starts No Beer1920 Newspaper (starting bid, $45) "This is an article written the night before Prohibition went into effect. It's a wonderful piece to add to any collection of prohibition memorabilia."
1904 St. Louis Fair / Fernet-Branca Bitters Trade Card (buy it now price, $47.50) AND 1904 St. Louis ~Bitters trade card Fernet-Branca Eagle (buy it now price, $37.50) "Fernet Branca, an Italian brand of bitter, has recently come back into vogue amongst mixologists, making these prints relevant as well as stunningly beautiful. I would love to hang these pieces at home."