The craft cocktail movement is a social movement spurred by the cocktail renaissance, a period of time in the 21st century characterized by a revival and re-prioritization of traditional recipes and methods in the bar industry, especially in the United States. [2] The renaissance spanned from 2004 into the late 2010s. By 2017, high-quality ingredients, techniques, and liquors began to be ubiquitous in bars across the United States, leading writers to declare the renaissance over.
The cocktail renaissance spanned from 2004 through 2019. It has no clear single origin, though it was largely influenced by three previous food-and-beverage movements: the Culinary Revolution of the 1970s and 1980s (a reaction to the processed foods of postwar America, which also influenced the wine and beer industries), the rise of the craft beer industry, and the rising popularity of the internet and social media. The movement took inspiration from the last golden age of cocktails. [2]
Among the movement's early pioneers was bartender Dale DeGroff, who in the 1980s began popularizing classic cocktails and creating new ones with premium ingredients and fresh-squeezed juice (long out of fashion at the time). DeGroff was working at The Rainbow Room for Joe Baum, who himself had pioneered in the culinary world in the 1950s and 1960s with the Four Seasons and the Fonda del Sol. [2] Baum told DeGroff to read Jerry Thomas's 1862 How to Mix Drinks, which had elements of bartending long forgotten in the U.S. by that time. [3]
Another pioneer, Sasha Petraske, began visiting the New York City bar Angel's Share (opened 1993), ordering its classics and learning the precision involved in Japanese bartending before opening his own influential bar, Milk & Honey, in 1999. [4]
Tales of the Cocktail, an annual industry event, was founded during the cocktail renaissance, in 2002. The event initially hoped to introduce cocktail book writers to their readers, though by 2017 it began to host about 20,000 attendees from across the world, and had its own international roadshow and membership program. [2]
In the 2000s, proteges of Dale DeGroff and Sasha Petraske opened bars in New York City, and a parallel movement took place on the U.S. West Coast, especially around San Francisco. By 2010, the industry ballooned, helped by new trends in the restaurant industry. New cocktail bars could often be traced back in style or origin to New York or San Francisco. [3]
Into the 2010s, bars across America began to diversify, attempting to stand out from the blueprint of the pioneering New York City cocktail bars. These diversified establishments included whiskey bars, gin bars, mezcal bars, tiki bars, bars focused on obscure drinks, and some focused on molecular gastronomy, notably including The Aviary in Chicago. [2] [3]
By the late 2010s, craft cocktails had become mainstream, changing the way nearly everybody drank at bars and at home. The number of microdistilleries and microbreweries reached a level not seen since before Prohibition. [2] By 2017, bars across America offered negronis and daiquiris, made with competent techniques, fresh juices, homemade syrups, refrigerated vermouth, and high-quality spirits. [3] "Craft cocktails" began being added into corporate restaurant chains menus, including Chili's, Denny's, and Ruby Tuesday. Focus in the bar world began to turn onto issues of equity, inclusion, sobriety, and work-life balance. During the COVID-19 pandemic, approximately 100,000 restaurants and bars permanently closed, which was also seen as part of an end to the cocktail renaissance. [2]
The craft cocktail movement is characterized by a return to traditions, a revival of old recipes, a reintroduction of forgotten spirits, and a revisiting of the culture of "sophisticated cocktail-sipping". A "craft cocktail" can be defined as a drink made from quality liquors consciously chosen by its creator, with fresh-squeezed juices and the like, and cold and dense ice. The term likely stems from the use of the term "craft beer", and from DeGroff's 2002 book The Craft of the Cocktail. [2]
The movement involved the repopularization of Manhattans, old fashioneds, and hand-shaken daiquiris, displacing mudslides, Long Island iced teas, Midori sours, Appletinis and slushie-machine daiquiris, which had displaced those drinks many decades earlier. [2] [5] Some bartenders desired simply a return to traditional cocktails, though others advocated for extra creativity, a culinary element that moved the bartending world more than a simple era of nostalgia would have. The internet helped play a role in the creation of better cocktails; before the internet, bartenders would look up unfamiliar recipes in a printed bartender's guide, such as the Mr. Boston Official Bartender's Guide , and not know anything beyond that recipe. In the modern day, bartenders can find a plethora of recipes, the drink's history, who is known for drinking it, and other details. Bartenders' ability to share recipes and techniques allowed for a global conversation about bartending. [2]
In the short term, the cocktail renaissance led to a greater number of bars and cocktail bar job creations, job security, and advancement. Over time, it increased investment throughout the bar and restaurant industry, revitalized the spirits industry, and increased tourism in the United States and throughout the world. The position of a bartender transformed from a blue collar job for those who could not handle office work, into a position of envy and prestige. Some of the senior bartenders became beverage managers, overseeing cocktail programs and creating detailed training programs to meet the higher standards of the clientele. [2]
The movement has predominantly spread in large cities, though it has influenced small-town and even rural bars. The Oxford Companion to Spirits & Cocktails stated that once a customer has a well-made cocktail, it becomes hard to go backward. [2]
Drinks to rise in popularity from the movement included Prohibition-era classics: bee's knees, last words, and negronis; pre-Prohibition drinks: Manhattans, old fashioneds, hand-shaken daiquiris, sazeracs, and clover clubs; as well as some newer drinks including Moscow mules. [2] [6] In contrast, the Ramos gin fizz had survived the "dark ages of mixology" as a decadent drink for Sunday brunches. Amid the cocktail renaissance, it became more important for bartenders to know how to make and the techniques involved in making them. [2] : 574
The movement also led to a revival of the speakeasy, through speakeasy-style bars. The trend was led by Angel's Share (opened 1993) and Milk & Honey (opened 1999), both in New York City. Other bars took on retro trends more successfully, without any secret doors, including the Flatiron Lounge (opened 2003) and the Pegu Club (opened 2005). Later notable speakeasies included Bourbon & Branch in San Francisco (opened 2006) and PDT (opened 2007). Also in 2007, Toby Maloney helped found the Violet Hour in Chicago. These bars taught its bartenders, who then spread the art of craft cocktails across America; the process also occurred around the world. [2]
Difford's Guide lists many cocktails as contemporary classics, cocktails created or popularized during the cocktail renaissance. These include: [7]
Some of these drinks were early to the cocktail renaissance and may seem simple or dated by modern standards. The breakfast martini and porn star martini are among them; they capitalized on the name-recognition of fruity "-tini" drinks, though the breakfast martini was one of the first cocktails to use jam as an ingredient, and the porn star martini gains body and flavor from passionfruit purée. [5]
The movement led to more craft distilling and distribution. As classic cocktails called for ingredients that were not distributed in certain areas (American rye was hard to find in Europe, like crème de violette was not available in the United States), some ingredients were no longer in production, e.g. Old Tom gin hadn't been made since World War II. Craft distilleries began to open worldwide, reversing the 20th-century consolidation of the industry and its product ranges. Operational distilleries rose from 24 in the United States in 2000 to more than 200 by 2010, which rose to over 2,000 by 2020. [2]
Spirits companies began to hire brand ambassadors, traveling from bar to bar, or sometimes globally, to convince bars and patrons to feature their brands in cocktails. [2]
Notable bars that led the movement have included: [8]
Notable bartenders involved in leading the cocktail renaissance have included: [2] [3]
A cocktail is an alcoholic mixed drink. Most commonly, cocktails are either a single spirit or a combination of spirits, mixed with other ingredients such as juices, flavored syrups, tonic water, shrubs, and bitters. Cocktails vary widely across regions of the world, and many websites publish both original recipes and their own interpretations of older and more famous cocktails.
The old fashioned is a cocktail made by muddling sugar with bitters and water, adding whiskey, and garnishing with an orange slice or zest and a cocktail cherry. It is traditionally served with ice in an old fashioned glass.
The sidecar is any cocktail traditionally made with cognac, orange liqueur, plus lemon juice. In its ingredients, the drink is perhaps most closely related to the older brandy crusta, which differs both in presentation and in proportions of its components.
The martini is a cocktail made with gin and vermouth, and garnished with an olive or a lemon twist. Over the years, the martini has become one of the best-known mixed alcoholic beverages. A popular variation, the vodka martini, uses vodka instead of gin for the cocktail's base spirit.
A cosmopolitan, or, informally, a cosmo, is a cocktail made with vodka, Cointreau, cranberry juice, and freshly squeezed or sweetened lime juice.
A bartender is a person who formulates and serves alcoholic or soft drink beverages behind the bar, usually in a licensed establishment as well as in restaurants and nightclubs, but also occasionally at private parties. Bartenders also usually maintain the supplies and inventory for the bar. As well as serving beer and wine, a bartender can generally also mix classic cocktails such as a Cosmopolitan, Manhattan, Old Fashioned, and Mojito.
A Negroni is an Italian cocktail, made of one part gin, one part vermouth rosso and one part Campari, garnished with orange peel. It is considered an apéritif.
A cocktail glass is a stemmed glass with an inverted cone bowl, mainly used to serve straight-up cocktails. The term cocktail glass is often used interchangeably with martini glass, despite their differing slightly. Today, the glass is used to serve a variety of cocktails, such as the martini and its variations, Manhattan, Brandy Alexander, pisco sour, Negroni, cosmopolitan, gimlet, and the grasshopper.
A sour is a traditional family of mixed drinks. Sours belong to one of the old families of original cocktails and are described by Jerry Thomas in his 1862 book How to Mix Drinks.
A shooter, or shot, is a small serving of spirits or a mixed drink, typically consumed quickly, often in a single gulp. It is common to serve a shooter as a "side" to a larger drink.
The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks is a book about cocktails by David A. Embury, first published in 1948. The book is noteworthy for its witty, highly opinionated and conversational tone, as well as its categorization of cocktails into two main types: aromatic and sour; its categorization of ingredients into three categories: the base, modifying agents, and special flavorings and coloring agents; and its 1:2:8 ratio for sour type cocktails.
Cocktail garnishes are decorative ornaments that add character or style to a mixed drink, most notably to cocktails.
A bijou is a mixed alcoholic drink composed of gin, vermouth, and chartreuse. This cocktail was invented by Harry Johnson, "the father of professional bartending", who called it bijou because it combined the colors of three jewels: gin for diamond, vermouth for ruby, and chartreuse for emerald. An original-style bijou is made stirred with ice as Johnson's 1900 New and Improved Bartender Manual states "mix well with a spoon and serve." This recipe is also one of the oldest in the manual, dating back to the 1890s.
Dale DeGroff, also known as "the King of Cocktails" or "King Cocktail", is an American bartender and author. The New York Times in 2015 called DeGroff "one of the world's foremost cocktail experts", and wrote that his book The Craft of the Cocktail is considered an essential bartending reference. From 1987 to 1999 DeGroff rose to prominence as the original chief bartender in the Rainbow Room at Rockefeller Center in New York City, where his then-unusual emphasis on classic cocktail recipes and high-quality ingredients led to substantial acclaim and emulation by many other bars in New York City and beyond, and helped influence the creation of the craft cocktail movement.
A Signature drink is any unique or original drink that expresses the nature of the person or establishment creating it.
Sasha Nathan Petraske was the founder of the New York City cocktail bar Milk & Honey, as well as a partner and creative force behind many of the world's most highly regarded bars. During his lifetime he was credited with inventing modern cocktail culture.
Audrey Saunders is an American bartender, considered one of the world's most famous bartenders. She is most well known as the operating partner and creative lead of Pegu Club, a bar in New York City from 2005 to 2020. The bar was one of the most influential in the United States. Since its closure, Saunders and her husband have been developing a retreat for beverage industry members in rural Washington state.
Pegu Club was a craft cocktail bar in New York City, operating from 2005 to 2020. It was located on the border of SoHo and Greenwich Village in Manhattan. The bar was named after and loosely inspired by the Pegu Club, a club in a British colonial outpost in Myanmar, as well as its signature cocktail with the same name.
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