The modern drink most bartenders know as Irish Coffee was invented in the '50's by a man named Stanton Delaplane at the Buena Vista bar in San Francisco. It was a mixture of sugar, coffee, and Irish whiskey, with a layer of aged heavy cream floated on top. Most bars today are ill-equipped to do the cream floating trick, so they use whipped cream instead and mix Bailey's Irish Cream into the drink. The most outlandish variation has green Crème de Menthe drizzled on top of the whipped cream. Now I'm not saying that such a concoction isn't tasty, but it isn't anything like the one done up by Delaplane, who was actually trying to reproduce the drink he was served in a bar at Shannon airport.
I have actually seen the ceremony the Buena Vista made out of preparing their signature drink, when I was stationed at Treasure Island in 1968, and later when I returned to the Bay area in the '70's to live for a time. The bartender would stand out a row of their special Irish Coffee glasses and then go up and down the row, tossing in the sugar cubes, then pouring the whiskey, then the coffee, going back to each glass for a stir, then finally floating the cream over the back of a spoon onto each serving. Quite impressive theater.
My reason for preferring my 'working man's' version is simple. I like the taste of coffee, and prefer it unadulterated with cream. And I think the whiskey is sweet enough and requires no sugar. I even have a version for hot weather, made with iced coffee, which I call a 'chilly Irishman'.
By the way, I have tried this with Scotch (the fancy version is known as a Highland Coffee) but it doesn't work as well for me; the marriage with the coffee doesn't seem to work as well.
On a final note, I remember that what my father liked to put in his coffee was Anisette. I don't know what Jackie Gleason put in his. Here's an excerpt from a review of his old show.
Much of the comedy on the Jackie Gleason show revolved around alcohol, as apparently did much of Gleason’s adult life. He once insisted to his biographer James Bacon, “I am not an alcoholic. I’m a drunkard”. a difference possibly only understood by heavy drinkers. The show often began with Gleason sitting on a chair and talking to the audience while drinking a cup of “coffee”, which, judging from his rolling eyes after he took a sip, was apparently a lot stronger than your average cup. More alcohol was featured in another comedy bit which featured Jackie as the outrageous showman and bon vivant Reginald Van Gleason. His always flamboyant and elaborate entrance on-stage came in top hat, tails and white gloves, with his hair slicked backwards. Despite his sartorial splendor, Reginald usually kept a bottle of liquor in his pocket, occasionally dropping the whole bottle into a water cooler. When he would then take a drink, Gleason would not only roll his eyes, but would be accompanied by a loud bang on a drum.
The most famous bit on the Jackie Gleason show took place in a bar itself, with Gleason playing Joe the bartender. After a few jokes, Joe would be joined by a character known as Crazy Guggenheim, played by Frank Fontaine. Guggenheim, usually just called “Craze” by Joe, was apparently inebriated himself, finishing most of his sentences with a whining laugh. But the segment in the bar would always end with Guggenheim singing.
Read the whole review here:
http://www.helium.com/items/2138513-tv-show-review-the-jackie-gleason-show
No comments:
Post a Comment