Tom Bullock
Tom Bullock (1872–1964) was an American bartender in the pre-Prohibition era. He was an African-American person.
He was born in Louisville, Kentucky, on October 18, 1872,[1] one of at least three children of Thomas Bullock, his father, a former slave who fought for the Union Army, according to US Census records.[1]
Bullock was a bartender at the Pendennis Club, the Kenton Club, on a railway car bar,[2] and most notably the St. Louis Country Club, and is the first known African-American author to publish a cocktail manual, The Ideal Bartender.[3][4] His book is notable as one of the last cocktail manuals published before Prohibition, providing a rare view onto pre-Prohibition cocktail recipes and drinking culture in America. Some writers believe that he appears to have ceased bartending with the onset of Prohibition;[5] others believe that he continued to tend bar at the St. Louis Country Club or other private settings despite the legal prohibition.[6]
Bullock was known to be a bartender and friend to George Herbert Walker, who wrote an introduction to his cocktail manual, writing "It is a genuine privilege to be permitted to testify to his qualifications for such a work."[7] In 1913, he was involved in a libel case when ex-President Theodore Roosevelt sued for alleged libel regarding his drinking habits, and asserted he had only had a few sips of a mint julep cocktail made by Bullock. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch disputed Roosevelt's claim, asserting that no one could fail to finish one of Bullock's cocktails.[8]
Bullock died in 1964.[9]
Cocktail historian David Wondrich believes that Bullock may have been one of the first bartenders to create a variant of the gimlet,[3] the Stone Sour.[10]
References[edit]
- ^ a b "With a twist: Louisville's famous bartender Thomas Bullock". LEO Weekly. 2017-01-18. Retrieved 2020-06-14.
- ^ "The Life and Legacy of Tom Bullock : GoToLouisville.com Official Travel Source". www.gotolouisville.com. Retrieved 2023-07-06.
- ^ a b Simonson, Robert (2015-02-17). "Tom Bullock's 'The Ideal Bartender' Offers Words of Advice". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-06-14.
- ^ "The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Ideal Bartender, by Tom Bullock". www.gutenberg.org. Retrieved 2020-06-14.
- ^ Wondrich, David (2020-03-07). "The Lost African-American Bartenders who Created the Cocktail". The Daily Beast. Retrieved 2021-12-28.
- ^ "The Life and Legacy of Tom Bullock : GoToLouisville.com Official Travel Source". www.gotolouisville.com. Retrieved 2023-07-06.
- ^ "A History of Black Bartenders". THE BITTER SOUTHERNER. Retrieved 2022-01-04.
- ^ Brown, Derek (29 October 2018). Spirits sugar water bitters : how the cocktail conquered the world. Yule, Robert. New York. ISBN 978-0-8478-6146-0. OCLC 1044555122.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ "Tom Bullock (1872 - 1964)". Cocktail Times. Retrieved June 15, 2020.
- ^ Wondrich, David (2020-03-07). "The Lost African-American Bartenders who Created the Cocktail". The Daily Beast. Retrieved 2021-12-28.
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