Cocktails of the Literary Greats

Let’s be frank. Our gala celebration is organized on a shoestring budget, and the club is responsible for a minimum of $500 in sales at the gala bar on October 18. So what better way to accentuate the afternoon than by sidling up to the Northridge Country Club bartender and ordering a cocktail historically enjoyed by some of our literary greats.

By Nadia Wozny

The Jack London “Glass in Hand”

Jack London’s legacy initially inspired me to create a gin cocktail. Yet, while he’s often associated with the wild landscapes of The Call of the Wild and White Fang, it’s his lesser-known autobiographical novel, John Barleycorn, that drew me in deeper.

In this work, London writes candidly about his lifelong struggle with alcohol. The most frequent drink mentioned is whiskey. I agree from my bartending and personal experience that whiskey is a leading choice toward quieting the soul’s unrest.

Much like Jack London’s own encounters with John Barleycorn, it’s not just a drink, but a companion in the fight against loneliness, despair, and life’s grinding machinery. People don’t always drink whiskey to celebrate; they drink it to forget, to endure, to feel something warm in a cold moment.

The Century Company published the novel John Barleycorn in 1913, the same year Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Whiskey won a gold medal at an international whiskey competition in Ghent, Belgium.

So, our gala’s tribute is Jack London’s cocktail, “Glass in Hand.” As quoted in his books, it is a whiskey cocktail. It mixes Jack Daniel’s, grapefruit juice, honey, and lime juice. Resembling a subtle, sweet celebratory drink with a sharp, sour edge of fresh grapefruit, it echos the bittersweet nature of London’s relationship with the bottle.

Ingredients:

1.5 ounce of whiskey (Jack Daniel’s recommended)
1 ounce of fresh grapefruit juice
1 ounce of fresh lime juice
1 ounce of honey simple syrup (premade syrup ensures honey mixes into the drink)

Instructions:

Add all ingredients to a shaker with ice.
Shake well until chilled.
Strain into a chilled coupe or rocks glass over fresh ice.
Garnish with a thin grapefruit slice or lime wheel (optional).

The Ina Coolbrith “Sweet Singer of California”

Her name is Josephine Donna Smith, and she is the niece of the Mormon prophet Joseph Smith. You know her as poet Ina Coolbrith. It’s ambiguous whether she drank any alcohol. Still, I find it thought-provoking to create an inspired cocktail for a member of California’s “Golden Trinity” and the niece of the Mormon prophet.

She was named California’s first Poet Laureate in 1915. She is also known as the “Sweet Singer of California,” which inspired the name for her cocktail.

“Sweet Singer of California” is a twist of a French 75, but California style.

Ingredients:

1 ounce of gin
1/2 ounce of lemon juice, freshly squeezed
1/2 ounce of simple syrup
3 ounces of California sparkling wine (or other sparkling wine)

Instructions:

Start by chilling a coupe or flute glass in the freezer or by filling it with ice water.
In a cocktail shaker filled with ice, combine the gin, lemon juice, and simple syrup.
Shake vigorously for about 10 to15 seconds.
Discard the ice from your chilled glass and fine-strain the mixture into the glass.
Gently top with 3 ounces of California sparkling wine.
Garnish with a lemon twist or edible flower for a California-inspired touch.

By Ted Witt, Pretty Road Press

The Raymond Chandler “Gimlet“

When Raymond Chandler was writing detective fiction in the 1930s, he was half a state away from the founders of the California Writers Club. His work reflected a countercurrent to the more romantic, wistful writing styles of CWC members. Chandler more comfortably aligned himself with the Black Magic magazine community of writers, pushing out detective stories for the pulp fiction community.

In his novel The Long Goodbye, he popularized his favorite drink, the lime gimlet. He is quoted as saying, “A real gimlet is half gin and half Rose’s lime juice and nothing else. It beats martinis hollow.” Our suggestion when ordering a Raymond Chandler gimlet at the CWC gala is to skip the Rose’s lime juice. Instead, ask for freshly squeezed lime. Sweeten the lime and gin with sugar or a packet of stevia. If you want an East Coast vibe, pull out an F. Scott Fitzgerald variation; add some club soda and turn the drink into a Gin Rickey.

A Ray Bradbury “Any Beer Will Do”

Famously, this California author once wrote his stories in a UCLA typing lab, vending his time on the typewriter keys with a pocket of dimes in his pocket. In between, science fiction writer Ray Bradbury liked beer.

Research does not tell us what brand or type, but he is quoted as saying, “Beer’s intellectual. What a shame so many idiots drink it.” So when you approach the bar, look smart. You may then pay silent tribute to the author of Fahrenheit 451 by dropping all your extra dimes into the tip jar.

The Ernest Hemingway “Papa Doble Daiquiri”

You can’t say Ernest “Papa” Hemingway had much affection for California. He visited Hollywood in the 1930s and 1940sto meet with screenwriters and movie executives about adapting his work for film, including conversations about To Have and Have Not and The Spanish Earth. He left with a sense of malaiseover Hollywood’s treatment of his writing. He called their work overly sentimental and distorted.

But Hemingway was a great writer in his own right—and a notorious, filter-busting drinker who favored whiskey early in life, and later, the daiquiri.

His signature drink was dubbed the “Papa Doble” or “Hemingway Daiquiri,” originating at the El Floridita bar in Havana, Cuba. A regular there, Hemingway requested a variation of the traditional daiquiri: no sugar, double the rum. He later customized it further with grapefruit juice and maraschino liqueur. This evolved into what is known today in the hospitality industry as the “Hemingway Special” or “Hemingway Daiquiri”— shaken cold, not frozen. A good thing, perhaps, since we cannot guarantee that the gala bartender will be equipped with a blender.

Sidenote: The daiquiri and El Floridita bar appear in Hemingway’s posthumously published novel Islands in the Stream. In one passage, the protagonist Thomas Hudson drinks “double frozen daiquiris” at the Floridita:

“He was drinking another of the frozen daiquiris with no sugar in it and as he lifted it, heavy and the glass frost-rimmed, he looked at the clear part below the frappéd top and it reminded him of the sea.”

The Jack Kerouac “Beatnik Margarita“

Jack Kerouac, (pronounced KERR-oo-ack), the tormented writer and poet, frequented North Beach in San Francisco as part of the Beat scene in the 1940s and 1950s, but once said, “I’m not a beatnik, I’m a Catholic.” His work reflected his spiritual struggles, fascination with Mexican Catholicism, frequent despair, and yearning for God. He traveled through Mexico and lodged at the Ciudadela neighborhood, a hangout for expat Bohemians. He drank tequila heavily as an escape, but still, his writing often enveloped aspects of beauty and a measure of joy, though fleeting. To pay tribute to Jack’s work, like Big Sur and On the Road, we recommend a California favorite, a margarita on the rocks.