A blog dedicated to the culture of hospitality, as told through the lens of women’s history. Exploring hosting etiquette through the ages, forgotten books and their authors, and the odd bit of cocktail inspiration. From the desk of sociologist, writer, and entrepreneur
DR NICOLA NICE
The Sublime Sandwich
If you’ve never thought of adding rum to your sandwich before, you need to give this recipe from Amy Lyman Phillips’ 1906 guide to gentlemanly living, A Bachelor’s Cupboard, a shot!
A Pin For Your Thoughts!
If you enjoyed reading The Cocktail Parlor, please consider leaving an online review. I would be delighted to send you a signed bookplate for your book and a cocktail pin featuring the French 75 illustration as a thank you!
The Perfect Cocktail
My husband and I have a special cocktail, a martini-style drink made with equal parts gin and two types of vermouth. However, we recently discovered that our so-called perfect cocktail is not “ours” after all, but is an iconic drink from the turn of the last century that was symbolic of women’s growing sense of public empowerment.
The Trailblazing Life of Amy Lyman Phillips
Amy Lyman Phillips was a hospitality journalist, publicist, and author in 1906 of A Bachelor’s Cupboard. Even more than a cocktail expert, Amy was also a trailblazer. At one stage she held the title of the fastest woman to ride in a racecar, and she was also the second woman in history with her friend Blanche Stuart Scott to take a motorcar from coast to coast. Read more about Amy’s long forgotten life story and her impact on cocktail history!
Free Bonus Chapter: The Cocktail Parlor Guide to New York City
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A book about women and cocktail history
In my new book The Cocktail Parlor: How women brought the cocktail home, I explore the social history of the cocktail as it has been served in the home through the eyes of the hosts – or more significantly, the hostesses – who mixed them.
Why I started a library of vintage hosting guides
When I first moved from London to New York City I immediately fell in love with the hospitality culture of the city, and in particular the cocktail scene. Yet when I searched the Internet for information on the history of women and the cocktail, why did it always come up blank?
Welcome to The Hostess Diaries!
To be described as a great host is one of the highest compliments one could ever hope to receive in one’s life. Yet, to be hosted by a great host is surely one of life’s greatest pleasures.
THE COCKTAIL PARLOR
How women brought the cocktail home
Meet the hostesses who have shaped cocktail history, and learn how to make the drinks they loved.
Throughout American history, women have helped propel what we know as classic cocktails—the Martini, the Manhattan, the Old-Fashioned, and more—into popular culture. But, often excluded from private clubs, women exercised this influence from the home, in their cocktail parlors. In The Cocktail Parlor, Dr. Nicola Nice, sociologist and spirits entrepreneur, gives women their long-overdue spotlight in cocktail history and shows how they still impact cocktail culture today.