Greater Astoria Historial Society 35-20 Broadway, 4th Floor | L.I.C., NY 11106 718.278.0700 | www.astorialic.org Gallery Hours: Mondays & Wednesdays 2-5 PM Saturdays 12-5 PM Exhibits ~ Lectures ~ Documentaries ~ Books Walking Tours ~ Historical Research Unique & Creative Content For more information visit us on the web at www.astorialic.org This image adapted from an invitation to the Long Island City Athletics 33rd Annual Masque Ball, 1909. 32 SEPTEMBER 2016 i LIC COURIER i www.qns.com Legends The (Astoria?) Cocktail Has not food and drink always found a special place in Astoria? Our community has always, it seems, had a range of both dining and drinking opportunities that most other places could only dream. For example, Bohemian Hall and Beer Garden has been serving Pilsner Urquell, the first Pilsner on the face of the earth, for more than a century - even surviving Prohibition! This place still offers a simple recipe: a cold beer with good friends on a hot night. This treasure has shaped a new generation to both discover, and to enjoy, the leisure ways of a past generation. Who would guess that even earlier, when it was yet farmland, our community played a significant role in American agriculture? Gentlemen farmers, tinkering with genetics in the long gone hot houses and orchards of Ravenswood, were pivotal in the development of both the California wine and the Washington apple industries. But these are stories for another time. This Legends will tackle a rumor that circulates through the community from time to time: it is claimed that the ‘Manhattan cocktail’ was developed in Old Astoria Village. The story states that, as their vessels waited the tide’s turn at Hell Gate, farmers and tradesmen would while their time at a tavern that stood near the old ferry on Main Avenue in Old Astoria. The legend has the barkeep concocting a new drink for them. They dubbed it the ‘Manhattan Cocktail.’ Is this true? Various references are of little help. They state that the drink has ‘several stories behind its invention.’ Its Wikipedia entry examines a number of these theories. The most popular story states that the cocktail started with “a drink at New York’s Manhattan Club in the early 1870s … invented for a banquet hosted by Lady Randolph Churchill, (mother of Winston Churchill) to honor presidential candidate Samuel Tilden.” Wiki also sites references that go back further in time, including that of a bartender named Black who invented it at ‘a bar on Broadway near Houston Street’ in the 1860s. Despite its murky past, the drink has clearly remained popular over time. One recent mixologist described it as “the perfect drink for both a strong man and a smooth woman.” For boatmen, time was money, and they knew tide tables intimately. Their arrival at Hell Gate would have been timed to be within minutes of the good tides they wanted; the passage was quickly filled with ships ready to slip through at the change of tide. It was not a fleet wallowing at anchor, with everyone ashore drinking and their unguarded boats, full of goods, an easy mark for a thief. Besides, who would face the dangerous Hell Gate impaired by a beverage? Only a fool.
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