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New York City bars are serv ing potent cocktailsfrom, or fitting for, the 'Great Gatsby' eraAs the film of Fitzgerald's novel arrives, mixologists at spots like Gemma, Mulberry Project and thePlaza have concocted throwback drinks that pack a Prohibition punch

BYMOLLY FRIEDMAN / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

WEDNESDAY, MAY 8, 2013, 7:25 PM

COURTESY OF WARNER BROS. PICTURES

Amitabh Bachchan, Tobey Maguire and Leonardo DiCaprio imbibe in a speakeasy in the new movieversion of 'The Great Gatsby.'

“I was on my way to get roaring drunk,” says Nick Carraway, the first time he encounters one of Jay

Gatsby’s epic parties in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s 1925 novel, “The Great Gatsby.” And we’ll see Tobey

Maguire, Leonardo DiCaprio and Carey Mulligan doing exactly that when Baz Luhrmann’s long-

awaited film version opens Friday.

Most of the scenes in the “The Great Gatsby” are drenched in liquor, from lawn parties where

“champagne was served in glasses bigger than f inger-bowls,” to smoke-filled speakeasies in

Manhattan, where Gatsby met with shady mobsters.

“You would have a highball in the day, then maybe a sherry in the afternoon, cocktails after dinner,

and then champagne,” says Frank Caiafa, bar manager of The Vault at Pfaff’s in NoHo. “They

rolled pretty good back then.”

But the flappers and barflies frequenting speakeasies in the 1920s had to do so in secret, thanks

to Prohibition. And the ban on alcohol led to the concoction known as bathtub gin.

“There weren’t real distilleries,” says Walter Easterbrook, the bartender at the Bowery Hotel.

“Everything was shut down and people were just learning from friends. If you couldn’t get it from a

bootlegger, you would try to make it yourself.”

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Bartender Walter Easterbrook serves a Corpse Reviver 2 (which is in a glass washed out withabsinthe) at Gemma at the Bowery Hotel.

So how did gin made in someone’s bathtub taste? As Easterbrook puts it, “It was probably

something that they shouldn’t have been putting in their bodies.” Since liquor wasn’t made enmasse back then, drinks were stronger, denser and more saturated with alcohol than modern-day

cocktails.

“Alcohol came in much higher proof,” says head mixologist at the Project Group, Scott Fitzgerald

(no relation to the author). “Proofs were up to 140, or even 150 proof in some ryes and

moonshines.” To put it bluntly, people were gett ing drunker, faster.

These days, there’s no need to drink out of brown paper bags or stash absinthe bottles in your 

garter belts. But that doesn’t mean you can’t drink like Daisy Buchanan did. You can still find a

strong, stiff cocktail in this town worthy of the hard-partying “Gatsby” crowd.

 

Corpse Revive r 2, Gemma.  At the Bowery Hotel, 335 Bowery, (212) 505-7300 

The Southside Rickey, at Raines Law Room, is made with gin, fresh mint, lime juice, simple syrupand club soda.

Since drinking was typically an all-day activity in the ’20s, downing a quick highball first thing in the

morning wasn’t unusual. That’s where Gemma bartender Walter Easterbrook’s Corpse Reviver 2

comes in. “It’s supposed to be something that wakes you up. It’s predominantly all booze,” he says.

Made with gin, lemon roulet (an Italian aperitif), orange liqueur, and served in a glass washed outwith absinthe, this drink will have you on your feet in no time. Good luck staying upright for long,

though!

Turf, The Vault at Pfaff’s . 643 Broadway, at Bleecker St., downstairs, (212) 253-5421

“It was a rougher product,” says The Vault at Pfaff’s bar manager Frank Caiafa of the alcohol

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You’ve heard of Michael’s,but probably not becauseof the food.

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served during the ’20s. “ ‘Smooth’ probably didn’t come to mind if you took a swig.” Luckily, the Turf 

will elicit no such complaints. Using gin, Geneva and vermouth, Caiafa’s take on the gin martini is

simplistic and easy to replicate on your own.

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