Cooking Lesson #615: The Untouchable Al Capone Cocktail

How to Drink Like a Gangster Series ...from the Perspectives’ Happy Hour Bar

How you doin’? One of my favorite restaurants in New York City is Rao’s… not so much for the food but for the experience. There are just a handful of tables that are reserved for the same guests, on the same days of the week, at the same time. In other words, you could own the same table on Tuesdays at 8 o’clock every Tuesday. If you are a “no show” you pay for it anyway or lose it.
 
The night I was there Mayor Rudy Giuliani was there at his table; John Gotti, the “Teflon Don,” was the heir apparent to Al Capone as America’s top mob boss was there with his party and Frank Sinatra with his entourage was at his table. And I, a guest of Frankie from Wakefern was there with a handful of associates. The amazing thing was everyone was so civilized to one another especially after dinner when everyone was singing old Italian or Sinatra songs.
 
Gotti was as extravagant as he was charismatic, with a larger-than-life persona. Giuliani was the non-stop talker. Sinatra was kinda shy and retiring. And then there was me with his eyes wide open trying to take it all in.
 
The tie between booze and gangsters has been around since the early 1900s, when mobsters started using dark and dingy bars to plot their crimes and hang out with fellow underworld characters. But it was Prohibition that really cemented the relationship. In the 1920s, gangsters became the main suppliers of illicit booze—whiskey and scotch from Canada and Europe, rum from Cuba and homemade moonshine form rural operations across the country. Prohibition gave the underworld the financial clout to extend their influence into politics and coalesce into a national criminal syndicate.
 
Post-Prohibition, many mobsters who made their fortune with bootleg liquor plied their ill-gotten funds into liquor distributorships, stores, breweries, and state beverage commissions to control liquor licenses. Most of all, they bought bars—lots of them. In those days “Wise Guys” looked for attention. A good mob bar is where they have a hook for everybody. Bars also served a useful cash-laundering purpose.
 
Among gangsters, scotch and whiskey were always popular choices, particularly the whiskey brand Cutty Sark. And they had their own way of ordering, as recounted by undercover FBI agent Jack Garcia: “Mobsters always order drinks by a brand. Never just a scotch and water, it would be a Cutty and water. And no one ever drank out of a straw. That was a big no-no. Mobsters would always get free drinks, but loved to tip extravagantly, so the drinks would end up costing more just because of their big tips. But for a Wise Guy it didn’t matter. To them the best drink is the one you get for free.”
 
For all the time the mob spent in bars, and for the decades of their ties to the industry, it was inevitable that cocktails would bear their name. Over the next couple of weeks our Happy Hours will be dominated by some of the major gangsters in American history and the cocktails named after them.
 
Al Capone 
Few gangsters loom larger in history and American pop culture, than Al Capone. Though he was the boss over the Chicago underworld for only seven years, from 1925 to 1932, he managed to turn his swagger and media savvy into gangland celebrity, hobnobbing and bribing politicians, judges, movie stars, singers, stage actors and baseball players. During Prohibition, liquor made the gangster empire and Capone’s fortune. Not paying taxes on ill-gotten money made Capone the target of law enforcement and one of the first mob bosses to catch the attention of the federal government and IRS.
 
Capone was reported to prefer Manhattans; whiskey was a popular bootleg alcohol in Chicago and New York. He would have his drinks and loved listening to the top jazz acts of the day at The Green Mill, a historic Chicago lounge. There’s a booth, facing the stage on the right side, that the bar’s staff calls the Capone booth still to this day. Whenever he was there, no one could come in or leave the Mill.

                                                  The Al Capone Cocktail
 
Saveur magazine printed this recipe, from Brooklyn bartender John Bush. The Al Capone Cocktail is a close cousin to the Boulevardier.
 
Ingredients 
3 ounces rye whiskey
1-1/2 ounces vermouth
1/2 ounce Campari
Orange zest, to garnish
 
Directions

1. In a cocktail shaker filled with ice, shake the whiskey, vermouth, and Campari.
2. Strain the mixture into two tumblers
3. Garnish each with an orange twist.

 
ChefSecret:  Never show fear.
 
Quip of the Day:  What did Al Capone say to his capos after going out on a 1st date with an undercover cop?  She is a very good listener.
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To you and everyone dear to you, be strong, be positive, stay well, stay safe and be kind. Take a breath and count your blessings, and if you have a little extra to share with others, please consider donating to Feeding America and/or American Red Cross.
 
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