SPEC's THEMES

Upcoming Theme....

T.B.A.

Past Themes....

Fifth meeting, August 23rd, 2008

The Age of Camelot

The Age of Camelot in America (circa 1960) is the theme for the upcoming SPEC event.  It was an era marked by hard drinking and chain smoking, when jazz was turning cool, Motown was getting hot, but crooners were still on the Top 40.  Color replaced black & white, the first family was gorgeous, the US was in between two major wars.  Women wore gloves, men wore ties, collars were always starched.  It was a time when cocktails were a part of everyday life -- and they were enjoyed in every part of the day.

Fourth meeting, May 10, 2008

The Belle Époque

The Belle Époque was a golden age of Western culture -- one known for the Aesthetic movement, for art nouveau, and for its technological advances such as the automobile, the phonograph, and the telephone.  The Belle Époque was largely manifest on the streets of European capitals, in cafés, in cabarets, art galleries, and salons.

It was also an era when Baudelaire coined the term Flâneur to describe the lifestyle of the Modern man -- one who strolls to pass the time that his wealth affords him, wandering through arcades and stopping in cafes.

Guests were asked to match quotes they were given to others in room; all quotes were about cocktails & drinking, and many were uttered originally by people of the Belle Époque.  Some of our favorites include:

• “Work is the curse of the drinking classes." --Oscar Wilde

• “An alcoholic is anyone you don't like who drinks more than you do."  --Dylan Thomas

• “Do not allow children to mix drinks.  It is unseemly and they use too much vermouth."  --Steve Allen

• “Reminds me of my safari in Africa.  Somebody forgot the corkscrew, and for several days we had to live on nothing but food and water." --W. C. Fields

Pictures from the fourth meeting are here.  Drink recipes from all of our meetings so far are here.

Third meeting, March 28, 2008

The Jazz Age

The Jazz Age describes the period from 1918-1929, the years between the end of WWI and the start of the Roaring Twenties, concluding with the rise of the Great Depression.  Traditional values were in great decline during this period while the stock market soared.  The age takes its name from jazz music, which saw a tremendous surge in popularity among many segments of society.  Among the prominent concerns and trends of the period are the public embrace of technological developments, as well as new Modernist trends in social behavior, the arts, and culture.  Central developments included Art Deco design and architecture.

French 75 was originally concocted by the Franco-American WWI flying ace Raoul Lufbery.  Legend has it that he liked champagne, but wanted something with more of a kick to it, so he mixed it with cognac which was readily available.  The combination was said to have such a kick that it felt like being shelled with the powerful French 75mm howitzer artillery piece, also called a "French 75."  The French 75 was popularized in America at the Stork Club, in New York City.

The Mint Mayfair, an original drink of the old bar on the 19th floor of Philadelphia's own Bellevue Hotel, is made with the amazing Hendricks gin.

Pictures from the third meeting are here. (New photos from Philly Weekly just added.  Check 'em out!)  Drink recipes from all of our meetings are here.

Second meeting, February 2, 2008

An Evening with Peychaud's Bitters

Before Sazerac was was a company, it was a was a drink.  Antoine Peychaud, a Creole immigrant, operated a pharmacy on the French Quarter's Royal Street in the 1830s.  With his background as an apothecary, he was a natural mixologist.  His friends would gather for late-night revelry at his pharmacy.  Peychaud would mix brandy, absinthe and a dash of his secret bitters for his guests. Later this quaff would come to be known as the Sazerac, which is considered by some to be the first American cocktail.

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At a monthly dinner club in Philadelphia (called the Clover Club, which is also the name of a cocktail with Peychaud's bitters), the toast went something like this:

Pictures from the second meeting are here.  Drink recipes are here.

SPEC's first meeting, November 30, 2007

Literary Drinks:  the Vicious Circle & the Vesper

From a conflicted and unhappy childhood, Dorothy Parker rose to acclaim, both for her literary output in such venues as The New Yorker magazine and as a founding member of the Algonquin Round Table, or Vicious Circle (picture above). The Round Table numbered among its members Robert Benchley, Robert Sherwood, Franklin Pierce Adams and Alexander Woollcott.  "Resume" (below) is one of our favorite poems of hers:

Razors pain you;

Rivers are damp;

Acids stain you;

And drugs cause cramp.

Guns aren't lawful;

Nooses give;

Gas smells awful;

You might as well live.

--Dorothy Parker, "Resmue"

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"Three measures of Gordon's, one of vodka, half a measure of Kina Lillet. Shake it very well until it's ice-cold, then add a large thin slice of lemon peel. Got it?" [James Bond said.]

"Certainly, monsieur." The barman seemed pleased with the idea.

"Gosh, that's certainly a drink," said Leiter.

Bond laughed. "When I'm...er...concentrating," he explained, "I never have more than one drink before dinner. But I do like that one to be large and very strong and very cold and very well-made.  I hate small portions of anything, particularly when they taste bad.  This drink's my own invention.  I'm going to patent it when I can think of a good name."

--Ian Fleming, Casino Royale, from a passage about the drink that would later be named the Vesper.

Pictures from the first meeting in November are here.  Drink recipes are here.