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 Tiffin Tea Cup with Thon Mariné
It's 4pm on a Saturday in early 1893. You’re invited to a tea reception in the White City where 500 of Chicago’s finest will be stepping out in all of their afternoon finery. If you’re lucky you might be treated to society’s trendiest new beverage - the Tiffin Tea Cup – and taste its new favorite sandwich, the Thon Mariné. All courtesy of Mrs Alexander Orr Bradley, aka the one who knows.
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!
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 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.