Bartending is one of those jobs that feels timeless, but the version you see at a modern cocktail bar, with measured pours, fresh citrus and a printed menu of classics, has a surprisingly specific history. A lot of what we take for granted traces back to a handful of people and books from the last 160-odd years.
This is a short tour of that history, from the first American bartender’s guide to today’s craft cocktail bars. We have stuck to what the historical record supports and linked our sources, because bar history is full of tall tales. If you enjoy the recipes along the way, remember that alcohol is for adults 21 and over, and every classic here can inspire a zero-proof version, too.
Before the bartender’s guide
People have served drinks in inns, taverns and public houses for centuries, and the person behind the counter was often the owner, a family member or a hired hand rather than a specialist. Recipes were passed along by word of mouth and varied from town to town. A “bartender” as a skilled, recognized trade, with shared recipes and techniques, really took shape in nineteenth-century America.
Jerry Thomas and the first American bar book
The key figure is Jerry Thomas (1830-1885), a bartender who owned and worked in saloons in New York and worked in California during the Gold Rush, as well as in St. Louis, Chicago, Charleston and New Orleans. In 1862 he published what the Smithsonian Libraries describe as the first recipe book for mixed drinks published in the United States, titled How to Mix Drinks, or The Bon-Vivant’s Companion (it is also known as The Bar-Tender’s Guide).
According to the New York Public Library, which holds a first edition, the book contained more than 500 recipes, including Thomas’s showpiece, the flaming Blue Blazer. Its real importance was that it wrote down knowledge that had been passed orally from bartender to bartender. Later editions added the first written recipes for the Tom Collins and a drink that evolved into the martini. Thomas is often called the “father of American mixology,” and most cocktail manuals since then owe something to his.
Punches, sours and fizzes
The drinks of Thomas’s era were organized into families: punches, sours, fizzes, flips, cobblers, juleps and more. That idea of drink families is still the easiest way to learn. Once you understand a sour (spirit, citrus and sugar), you can make dozens of drinks. Our guide to classic cocktails every home bartender should know uses the same approach.
Prohibition sends bartenders abroad
The 18th Amendment was ratified on January 16, 1919, and banned the manufacture, sale and transport of “intoxicating liquors” starting one year later. The 21st Amendment repealed it on December 5, 1933, according to the National Constitution Center (see also its page on the 18th Amendment).
Prohibition put many American bartenders out of legal work, and some took their skills overseas. One of the best known is Harry Craddock, who had worked at the Hollenden Hotel in Cleveland and the Knickerbocker in New York. As the CSUN University Library explains, he returned to England and joined the American Bar at London’s Savoy Hotel in 1920. In 1930 he published The Savoy Cocktail Book, with recipes for more than 700 drinks, including his Corpse Reviver No. 2.
Women behind the bar
The old version of this post said bartending was “considered a man’s job.” The real history is more interesting. According to the Oxford Companion to Spirits & Cocktails, the Savoy’s American Bar was first run by two women, Ruth “Kitty” Burgess and Ada “Coley” Coleman, who joined in 1903. Coleman was so well known that customers assumed she was the head bartender. The hotel retired both women at the end of 1925, reportedly to suit American guests who felt women shouldn’t work behind a bar, and Craddock took over. Today, of course, people of every gender run bars around the world.
After repeal: the recipe books return
When Prohibition ended, bars reopened and needed recipes again. Distillers and publishers responded with guides for bartenders and home hosts. One of the best known is the Old Mr. Boston bartender’s guide, first published in 1935. In the decades that followed, many busy bars leaned on convenience products such as bottled sour mix and sweet premixes.
The craft cocktail revival
Over the past few decades, many bartenders went back to the old books. Fresh citrus, house-made syrups, careful measuring and good ice returned, and so did forgotten classics. Writers such as Gary Regan, whose The Joy of Mixology first appeared in 2003, helped home bartenders understand drinks as families with simple formulas. Zero-proof drinks are part of this revival, too; many bars now treat non-alcoholic cocktails with the same care as their spirit-forward ones. If you’d like to learn how the craft side of the job differs from everyday bartending, see bartending vs. mixology.
Myths we corrected from the old version
- Thomas Jefferson was not a famous bartender. The old post probably confused him with Jerry Thomas.
- Bartenders were not among the highest-paid workers of the Middle Ages. We found no support for this.
- No evidence the soda gun was a Prohibition invention. Legal bars were closed during Prohibition, and we found nothing to support the claim.
- Tiki didn’t take off in the 1920s. The Smithsonian dates the first tiki bar, Don the Beachcomber in Hollywood, to 1933.
Our picks for history buffs
A guide from just after repeal
The Old Mr. Boston Deluxe Official Bartender’s Guide is a full facsimile reprint of the 1935 first edition, so you can see exactly what bartenders were mixing right after Prohibition ended.
A modern classic on the craft
The Joy of Mixology (Revised and Updated) by Gary Regan is the updated edition of his 2003 book, with more recipes and background on how drinks are built and where they came from.
A bartender’s-eye view
Twenty Years Behind Bars by Jeff Burkhart is a working bartender’s take on the job, its guests and its drinks, a good counterpoint to the recipe books.
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FAQ
Who is considered the father of American bartending?
Jerry Thomas, whose 1862 guide was the first mixed-drink recipe book published in the United States.
When did Prohibition start and end?
National Prohibition took effect in January 1920, one year after the 18th Amendment was ratified, and ended when the 21st Amendment was ratified on December 5, 1933.
Where can I learn more about bar history?
Old cocktail books are a great place to start; see our list of bartending books for beginners. If you’re thinking about the job itself, our guide to becoming a bartender without experience covers training and first jobs.