Tag Archives: Bill Stott

Architecture of the Cocktail: Happy Thanksgiving! by Bill Stott

Pilgrims landing on Plymouth Rock  “We could not now take time for further search or consideration, our victuals being much spent, especially our beere.” – from the diary of William Bradford  The story of the Pilgrims and the first Thanksgiving is an interesting one. Black and white clad Puritans sitting down with half naked natives and sharing a meal to celebrate the thankfulness of the harvest. It is a tale fabricated sometime in …

Architecture of the Cocktail: Time to Celebrate, the History of Champagne, by Bill Stott

As we turn the corner from Fall to Winter, the Holiday season rushes toward us. Whether you are celebrating Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s Eve, the Election, a wedding, the Super Bowl, or even the launching a new battleship, one spirit fits the bill. Champagne. Sipped from a crystal coupe glass or sprayed all over your World Series teammates, the sparkling wine …

Architecture of the Cocktail: National Breast Cancer Awareness Month – The Sexy History of the Coupe Glass, by Bill Stott

Ancient Greek Mastos cup, ca. 500 BCE  In October of 2008, my wife finished chemotherapy for Breast Cancer. She was diagnosed in April and started radiation therapy in June, finishing the Friday before the October Race for the Cure in Omaha. She was determined to walk the one-mile route to poke her finger in cancer’s eye, and I decided that if she could walk the mile, I could …

Architecture of the Cocktail: Happy National Vodka Day (yesterday) by Bill Stott

 White Russian – recipe below  When I was a senior in college, I spent my last semester studying architecture in London, and happen to have lucked into joining a group of fellow students from Fresno State in a week-long trip to the Soviet Union. Not Russia – this was an actual behind the iron curtain trip in 1985. We spent the first four days in Moscow, and one night we smuggled a group of Soviet kids our age into the International Hotel we were staying in. Citizens were not …

Architecture of the Cocktail: The Real Johnny Appleseed, by Bill Stott

Photo of John Chapman, aka Johnny Appleseed   The temperatures at night are falling, this week we see the transition to Fall, and here in Nebraska it is time for the annual Applejack Festival in Nebraska City. As all you arborists out there know, Nebraska City is the home to Arbor Day, the brainchild of J. Sterling Morton, one of Nebraska’s most famous citizens. But the season – …

Architecture of the Cocktail: Horses and Cocktails – The Mint Julep, by Bill Stott

The Mint Julep – recipe below.  Horse racing and drinking have had a symbiotic relationship – likely since someone was drunk enough to try to jump on the back of a wild horse. There is some irony in this, considering the term cocktail (cock-tail) comes from the 17th and 18th century (illegal) practice of shoving a peeled ginger root up an …

Architecture of the Cocktail: Shaken, not stirred – when to shake a cocktail, by Bill Stott

There are very few rules in the bartending world. Since the cocktail was invented in 1803, bartenders and drinkers have been on a 200-year search for the best cocktail. Men and women have been mixing alcohol with virtually everything (there is an entire series of drinks that mix alcohol with beef broth!) and experimenting with any crazy technique they can think …

Architecture of the Cocktail: Yo, ho, ho, and a Bottle of Rum – Part II, by Bill Stott

Pearl Diver – recipe below.  During the early 1970s I lived in Salt Lake City for several years in my late grade school/junior high years. As a gentile living in the land of LDS, we would occasionally visit an iconic restaurant in SLC called Johnny Quong’s The Hawaiian. The crazy Polynesian themed Tiki restaurant had lightning storms every 20 minutes where lights would flash, thunder would …

Architecture of the Cocktail: Where does the term cocktail come from? by Bill Stott

There is a long and somewhat intellectual debate as to who (which country) gets to lay claim the title of creator of the cocktail (hint: its America). The British play a large part in the effort, but from the beginning it was considered an American creation and recent research seems to place it squarely in the front yard of the upstarts across the pond …

Architecture of the Cocktail: What makes a cocktail, a cocktail? by Bill Stott

I have been doing cocktail research for over a year now for a book I am writing – which is probably the lie that many drinkers tell themselves. As an architect, and not a bartender, I have always been fascinated with the making of the drink – ingredients, glassware, history, etc. The stuff you don’t necessarily think about when sipping a cold one, but affects the overall experience …