ENDANGERED COCKTAIL OF THE MONTH-DERNIER ROUND

By Pink Lady
Cocktail contests are all the rage today, ranging from a bit of lighthearted fun competing for bragging rights among the neighborhood bars, to large-scale brand-sponsored competitions which often fetch the winner expensive prizes, magazine covers, and spokesperson opportunities that can launch a career. There is something so glitzy about this aspect of cocktail competition culture that I always assumed it was a modern phenomenon, a 21st century invention.

Imagine my delight to learn while paging through Franck Audoux’s French Moderne Cocktails from the 1920s & 1930s, that as the cocktail was in vogue in late 1920s France, cocktail contests flourished: “Whether amateur matches, in which pretty Parisian celebrities gave new recipes a try, or professional championships that brought together shaker ‘aces’, the public was always the jury and named the Queen of Cocktails and the King Shaker,” writes Audoux. These events were promoted heavily by the press and supported by liquor sponsors looking to elevate and inspire innovation with their products. 100 years later, literally nothing has changed.

In 1928, the daily Paris-Midi and CHICAGO TRIBUNE newspapers sponsored the First International Championship of Cocktails, a contest held at the Hôtel Claridge. Both amateurs and professionals competed, squaring off at small wooden bars before an eager public. The Dernier Round, created by Mademoiselle Doudjam, won the Grand Prize. “A rising star of the new talkies, she was a better actress than a barmaid,” writes Audoux. Her drink would go on to be featured in Harry MacElhone’s famous cocktail tome ABC of Mixing Cocktails, so why not take it for a twirl this month as we raise a glass to France?

DERNIER ROUND

1 1/3 OUNCE of London Dry Gin
2/3 OUNCE of Italian vermouth
1/3 OUNCE of Cointreau
1/3 OUNCE of Cognac
Lemon twist

Stir ingredients in a shaker tin for fifteen seconds.
Strain and serve in a chilled aperitif glass.
Squeeze lemon twist and garnish.

Cin-cin!