Here’s more historic menu goodness from the Roosevelt hotel, with the official drink list full of classics that will, we hope, return to the Roosevelt this year along with their 21st Century concoctions. I don’t have an exact date for this menu, but presumably it predates the move of the Sazerac Bar to the Roosevelt Hotel in 1949, as you’ll note the conspicuous absence of the Sazerac Cocktail on the menu, as well as mentions of the bar.

I love the beginning … ‘Correct drinking is an art, which is gradually coming back in America, after sixteen years of Prohibition.’ It is indeed, and is once again a lost art for so many. Perhaps we need this menu introduction again, in an age where on weekend nights people stand eight deep at the bar to order vodka tonics or vodka and Red Bull.

While we see no Sazerac here, the Ramos Gin Fizz is, of course, front and center. Many classics here, with the interesting specification in many of J. & W. Bitters (made by Jung and Wolff) rather than Peychaud’s Bitters, as there were some rights issues at one point. (I’ve become hazy on the details, but Ted ‘Dr. Cocktail’ Haigh has done much research into this subject, and can perhaps enlighten us in the comments!)

There are also some odd versions here … The ‘Casino’ shown here with rum, anisette and pineapple juice bears no resemblance to what one would normally expect a Casino to be, with gin, maraschino, lemon juice and orange bitters.

Sadly, I expect room service will end up being a bit more than a nickel per drink.