Women in Whiskey History

IN PROHIBITION, LADIES RAN THE SHOW

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“Women bootleggers ranged from the pretty faces to the shot callers. They included one-time bootleggers looking to make quick cash and rich women financing ships hauling $100,000 worth of smuggled whiskey. Women were so good that, at one point, agents believed female bootleggers outsold the men five sales to one.”

WHISKEY WAS ONCE THE AMERICAN EPIDURAL

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“Much like aqua vitae was used for treatments from the 1500s to 1700s in Europe, whiskey was the chosen remedy for coughs, runny noses, rashes, chills, fevers, and just about everything else. American pregnant women dosed up on whiskey to ease the pain of childbirth and to relax after labor.”

For more about the secret history of the fairer sex and your favorite drink, check out  6 Ways Women Made Whiskey What It Is, on Esquire. 

What Prohibition Repeal Looked Like

Read more on Gothamist.

Celebrating the Repeal of Prohibition at Clover Club

"American Spirits" at the National Constitution Center

Jessica Kourkounis for The New York Times

Prohibition is fascinating. 

From the birth of secret speakeasies to rise of gangsters against the backdrop of flappers and jazz, it's an era that we tend to romanticize. 

"Yet that movement altered the Constitution in a radical fashion, extending its reach to matters once considered personal and restricting freedoms rather than expanding them. In effect from 1920 to 1933, Prohibition drastically altered the legal system of every state, and overturned ordinary citizens’ behaviors and expectations. While claiming high virtue and utopian prospects, it inspired spectacular violations and grotesque criminal violence.

We tend to think of Prohibition now as some kind of crazed moral paroxysm, reflecting the worst in the American character. Or it inspires facile parallels with contemporary political movements while producing some fine folk tales about Eliot Ness, Al Capone, pious preachers, flappers, bootleggers, the Charleston and the speakeasy.

And those elements are all on display at the new exhibition at the National Constitution Center here, “American Spirits: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition.” But the show also asks, “How did we get here?” And with its 120 artifacts, gallery stage sets, videos, games and diversions, it doesn’t just round up the usual suspects."  For more information, read more in this NYTimes article. 

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WHEN AND WHERE Friday through April 28. National Constitution Center, 525 Arch Street, Philadelphia. The show then travels to other cities.

INFORMATION (215) 409-6600,constitutioncenter.org.

WHERE TO DRINK Tip a few at one of these Philadelphia speakeasies: the Farmers’ Cabinet, 1113 Walnut Street, (215) 923-1113,thefarmerscabinet.com; Franklin Mortgage and Investment Company, 112 South 18th Street, (267) 467-3277,thefranklinbar.com; Hop Sing Laundromat, 1029 Race Street (which has a dress code: no flip-flops, no sandals, no sneakers, no shorts and no hats), hopsinglaundromat.com.

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Stay tuned for information about an upcoming Women Who Whiskey field trip! 

Little Branch

Our second Women Who Whiskey outing was at Little Branch, also in the West Village.

Little Branch is a delightful little secret, with an unnoticeable door, on a tiny side street, and unless you know where you're going, it's very hard to find. Once you find the door, you go down a long, mysterious staircase and through a curtain before finally entering into the bar. It's very speakeasy-esque, which makes going there even more precious, because it doesn't feel like it's been cheapened by the New York nightlife masses.


LB is very old school. It's dimly lit, there's live jazz Sunday through Thursday at 10pm, and the decor is impeccably from a past era. And the bartenders aren't fucking around.

They wear suspenders, are the requisite paradoxical combination of dismissive and therapeutic, and they know their cocktails. Especially Prohibition Era cocktails.

Little Branch is famous for the Bartender's Choice, a tailor-made-to-you cocktail, based on a liquor and some flavor notes of your choosing. Depending on what you ask for, the bartenders whip up a cocktail that could be completely new, or an old classic, but that fits your specifications completely.

I've never been disappointed by it.

I got my usual Manhattan, choosing the classic of the three or four different Manhattan they offer. It's a bit smaller than the norm, but the quality of the ingredients and the care of the mixing more than make up for the size.

I'm a Whiskey Woman myself, but Paige ordered a gin-based Bartender's Choice with cucumber and elderberry that was absolutely delicious.

Someone got a gin fizz (a based of gin, soda, citrus and egg whites), which was also amazing. Fizzes are actually one of Little Branch's most well-known specialties, as well as its Mojitos.

One of my favorite things about LB is that they cut up solid blocks of ice into cubes or long rectangular pieces, so that they have less surface area in the beverage, and thus melting more slowly, dilute the cocktail more slowly. They also bring a bowl of yummy complimentary mixed nuts.

Little Branch is one of my favorite New York secrets, not to mention one of the most authentic Prohibition Era bars in New York. I highly recommend it, if you can find it...

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Little Branch

22 7th Ave

(Between Carmine and Leroy)

212.929.4360

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Employees Only

Our inaugural Women Who Whiskey outing was to Employees Only.

Employees Only is where I began my search for the best Manhattan in Manhattan (although I look forward to expanding my search to Brooklyn), and has since become one of my favorite speakeasy style whiskey bars in the city.

Made with a little more Vermouth than usual, citrus bitters, and a generous sliver of orange peel, and served in very generous larger-than-average stemware, the Manhattan at Employees Only has yet to be beat.

If you don't know exactly where it is, the first time you go Employees Only is hard to find. The only thing on the sign is their enigmatic EO logo, which on its side looks more like stylized Arabic scrips than English. But you can recognize the place by the red light of the palm reader in the entrance.

When we showed up at 6:30 on a Sunday evening, we expected to find a table, since there weren't very many of us. Fortunately (although we didn't think so at the time) there weren't any open tables, so we were forced to stand at the bar. This was a blessing in disguise because it meant that we got to chat with the not-too-busy bartenders, and have them explain everything that was going into our cocktails. All of which were delicious, including the fruity ones!

It was then that we realized that every bartender's wet dream is having a group of beautiful, charming women show up at the bar in the form of a women's whiskey club, and start making connoisseur inquiries about the whiskey selection.

The bartenders at Employees Only take their work very seriously, a number of them rocking identical Prohibition era waxed mustaches and tattoos of the EO logo.

Our bartender certainly took the time to make sure all of our questions were answered. He even gave us a very generous (free) sample of delicious Templeton Rye, which Paige and I promptly ordered a glass of, neat.

It was like warm liquid nutmeg-spiked eggnog, and one of my favorite rye whiskeys to date.

As our first Women Who Whiskey event, it was a success (in spite of all of the women who couldn't make it), and I look forward to our outing to Employees Only.

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Employees Only

510 Hudson St
(between 10th and Christopher)

212.242.3021

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