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Cocktail Noir: From Gangsters and Gin Joints to Gumshoes and Gimlets
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About Cocktail Noir: From Gangsters And Gin Joints To
Product Description Catering to lovers of the well-written word and the well-mixed drink, Cocktail Noir is a lively look at the intertwining of alcohol and the underworld?represented by authors of crime both true and fictional and their glamorously disreputable characters, as well as by real life gangsters who built Prohibition-era empires on bootlegged booze. It celebrates the potent potables they imbibed and the watering holes they frequented, including some bars that continue to provide a second home for crime writers. Highlighting the favorite drinks of Noir scribes, the book includes recipes for cocktails such as the Gimlet described in Raymond Chandler’s The Long Goodbye, the Mojito Mulatta T.J. English drank while writing Havana Nocturne and the Dirty Martini favored by mob chronicler Christian Cippolini. Cocktail Noir also lets us in on the drinking habits of notorious organized crime figures, revealing Al Capone’s taste for Templeton Rye, Meyer Lansky’s preference for Dewar’s Scotch and Gambino family hit man Charles Carneglia’s habit of guzzling Cutty Sark. With black and white illustrations throughout, Cocktail Noir is as stylish and irreverent as the drinks, often larger-than-life figures and culture it explores. Authors Quoted Extensively: Dennis Lehane Patrick Downey T.J. English Scott Burnstein Christian Cippolini Chriss Lyon Gavin Schmitt Authors Discussed: Mario Puzo Gay Talese Peter Maas Raymond Chandler Dashiel Hammet Authors Honorably Mentioned: F. Scott Fitzgerald Dorothy Parker Stephen King Truman Capote Review "You can take the writer out of the barroom, but you can’t take the glass out of his hand. Or so says Deitche, a writer whose specialty is organized crime, in “Cocktail Noir,” a companionable pub crawl through the changing locales and evolving tastes of the nation’s booze suppliers and their best customers, mainly criminals and the authors and movie directors who immortalize them. Like their fictional counterparts, real-life gangsters enjoy a good cocktail. But “noir characters order martinis, gimlets and brown liquor served straight,” Deitche tells us, and the potent Twelve Mile Limit, a smuggled-rum-based concoction popular during Prohibition, is a far cry from the appletini. Although the party drags when the narrative veers into dull testimonials from contemporary crime writers about their favorite wine or the brand of vodka they keep in the freezer, the fictional detectives step up to rescue them. In “The Wrong Case,” James Crumley’s dedicated boozehound, Milo Milodragovitch, delivers a memorable oration that begins: “Son, never trust a man who doesn’t drink.” And Walter Mosley’s Los Angeles private eye, Easy Rawlins, offers this poetic image in “Black Betty”: “Whiskey is solace that holds you tighter than most lovers can.” Nor are the photos of authors and descriptions of their favorite hangouts as captivating as the mug shots of actual mob bosses, the profiles of their long-gone haunts and the recipes for strong drinks concocted in their memory." New York Times Review of Books Greetings Crimeziners, it is time once again to uncork the office bottle and enjoy the enchanted thrall of the shimmering golden optics, as we throw back a five-fingered helping of Scott Deitche’s boozetastic quaffing companion Cocktail Noir. Connoisseurs of crime will undoubtedly know Scott from his marvelously named column Libation Lounge, a regular feature in Cigar City Magazine and his books such as The Silent Don a study of Floridian crime capo Santo Trafficante Jr. It was with great pleasure therefore that Crimezine cocktail wrangler Consuela served up Mr. Deitche’s delightful tome along with our customary glass of smooth sipping breakfast Cognac. This is an ambitious book and fast with it. We are treated to a mixocological methodology of every noirish cocktail you can imagine. If Bogart drank it, it’s in. If Chandler drank it, it is in. In fact, this book contains the recipe of every bad-assed beverage
