Description

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Meet the hostesses who have shaped cocktail history, and learn how to make the drinks they loved.

Throughout American history, women have helped propel what we know as classic cocktails—the Martini, the Manhattan, the Old-Fashioned, and more—into popular culture. But, often excluded from private clubs, women exercised this influence from the home, in their cocktail parlors. In The Cocktail Parlor, Dr. Nicola Nice, sociologist and spirits entrepreneur, gives women their long-overdue spotlight in cocktail history and shows how they still impact cocktail culture today.

Journeying through the decades, this book profiles a diverse array of influential hostesses. With each historic era comes iconic recipes, featuring a total of 40 main cocktails and more than 100 variations that readers can make at home. Whether its happy hour punch à la Martha Washington or a Harlem Renaissance–inspired Green Skirt, readers will find that many of the ingredients and drinks they’re familiar with today wouldn’t be here without the hostesses who served them first.

About the Author

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Dr. Nicola Nice is a sociologist, brand strategist, and founder of the Pomp & Whimsy gin company. Nicola has worked in spirits innovation for over a decade. She has been featured in the New York Times, Forbes, and more. She lives in Westchester County, New York.

Praise For…

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What’s profound about this book is the realization of how quietly women of the last century influenced the way we imbibe today. In the past, entertaining at home was a greater part of the social fabric than it is now with our easy access to bars and restaurants of any sort to choose from. So it should come as no surprise that homemakers, the unsung hostesses of the world, had such outsized influence over the way we consume alcohol. Nicola looked beyond the male-dominated cocktail books of history and found a treasure chest of information regarding drinks and drink culture between the covers of the very popular entertaining and hosting books of the last century, revealing the outsized influence women had on how we imbibe today. It’s just what the Dr. ordered.
— Sother Teague, author of I’m Just Here for the Drinks

 Dr. Nicola Nice shines a spotlight on an incredibly important yet often overlooked part of drinks history and culture: female home bartenders. Thanks to The Cocktail Parlor, the voices of these women and their significant contributions will no longer be forgotten.
— Noah Rothbaum, author of The Art of American Whiskey, The Business of Spirits, and the forthcoming Whiskey Bible

 Dr. Nice’s groundbreaking work is as elegant as it is informative. Mixography—the art of writing about mixed drinks—has never received a proper history. When it does, I have no doubt that The Cocktail Parlor will serve as one of its cornerstones.
— Dr. David Wondrich, editor in chief, The Oxford Companion to Spirits and Cocktails

Gift this book to every woman you know, because this book is about more than just cocktail history: it’s about women’s history, just told through the lens of the cocktail glass. Through meticulous research and accessible—but never dumbed-down—narrative, Dr. Nicola Nice shines a light on how women shepherded the cocktail movement in America and elsewhere. From the Lady Hostess of the 1880s serving Claret Cups after lawn tennis to the fierce female entrepreneurs of the aughts who broke glass ceilings—and plenty of coupe glasses—as bar owners, Nice doesn’t gloss over the frustrations that generations of women have faced, or their fight for economic and social independence. But she brings to light their contributions to the realms of home entertaining and beyond, giving voice and dignity to women, with a cocktail glass in hand.
— Kara Newman, author, Shake. Stir. Sip. and Nightcap

 At last, a celebration of women’s roles in the invention and evolution of the cocktail! In The Cocktail Parlor, Nicola Nice looks beyond the male-dominated cocktail cannon to find the women who were there all along, brewing cordials and filling punch bowls. She uncovers a treasure trove of inventive and witty cocktail writing and recipes, by women whose names deserve to be much better known. The Cocktail Parlor is an essential contribution to the history of mixology, and a lively and entertaining conversation-starter.

— Amy Stewart, author of The Drunken Botanist

The Cocktail Parlor is an absolute must-buy for every cocktail enthusiast, from the curious novice to the seasoned hostess. Come for the recipes, stay for the essential women's history. As delightful and restoring as a freshly mixed spritz.

— Mallory O’Meara, James Beard Award–winning author of Girly Drinks

The Cocktail Parlor is a literature review of women-authored books in which there are mixed drink recipes, and an analysis of what those drinks reveal about the changing role of women in society. [Along the way,] Dr. Nice cites so many fascinating authors that I kept one browser window open to search for more information about them and another to add their books to my reading list. Rarely has a drink book so enthralled me yet left me thirsty for more.

— Camper English, author of Doctors and Distillers: The Remarkable Medicinal History of Beer, Wine, Spirits, and Cocktails

Cheers to Dr. Nicola Nice for correcting the historic record on women and cocktail making! The Cocktail Parlor takes readers on a spirited journey from the 1800s to today, revealing women’s integral roles in the creation and acceptance of cocktails through every drinking and hostessing era, with delicious recipes that both professionals and novices will enjoy.

— Jeanette Hurt, author of Drink Like a Woman and Wisconsin Cocktails

Bring on the women in alcohol books! To introduce a subject ignored for far too long, Nicola Nice’s The Cocktail Parlor expertly weaves together three main elements to illuminate women’s fundamental-yet-overlooked impact on the evolution of the cocktail: the accomplishments of the key players, the historical context in which they worked, and the recipes they helped popularize. Nicola’s research provides joyous aha moments for anyone interested in beverages and/or women’s herstory, and her writing connects people, places, and perspectives in ways that clearly show how intricately women and the beverages they make, serve, and enjoy both shape and are shaped by the sociological ecosystem they inhabit. Nicola’s sharp observations and skilled ability to unearth little-known facts help readers better understand the cocktail as it truly is: a drink that’s ever so much more than just a drink.

— Tara Nurin, author of A Woman’s Place Is in the Brewhouse: A Forgotten History of Alewives, Brewsters, Witches, and CEOs

While the true story of the cocktail has never been limited to sepia-toned reels of burly, mustachioed men who were part-barman, part-showman, its history—largely written by such men—was. Now, through her book, The Cocktail Parlor, Dr. Nice insightfully chronicles history’s most influential hostesses, firmly placing these extraordinary women in their rightful position at the forefront of the dawn of the cocktail tradition.

— Frank Caiafa, author of The Waldorf Astoria Bar Book

Historians are just starting to discover that women were equals in the development of drink culture, brewing, and distilling. Nicola Nice has filled in the gaps in the history of women’s integral involvement in cocktail making—a key contribution that has long been missing. And it is a great read.
— Anistatia Miller, drinks historian and coauthor of Spirituous Journey: A History of Drink, Vols. 1 and 2

Leave it to Dr. Nicola Nice to beautifully highlight women’s influence on cocktail history as she makes her own impact on cocktail culture for generations to come.
— Jules Aron, author of The Low-Proof Happy Hour