A gentleman and perfectionist, from Connecticut, the Head Bartender at the Delta Saloon in 1863 was Prof. Jerry Thomas, most celebrated barman in American history. Coming to Virginia City, according to the Territorial Enterprise of that year, from the Occidental in San Francisco, he did much to elevate the tastes and drinking habits of the then uncouth Comstock.
He literally wrote the book on making cocktails, “How to Mix Drinks; or, The Bon Vivant’s Companion.” In addition to listing recipes for Punches, sours, slings, cobblers, shrubs, toddies, flips, and a variety of other types of mixed drinks were 10 recipes for drinks referred to as “cocktails”.
His signature drink was the Blue Blazer. Thomas would only make the drink if the outside temperature was 50°F or below or if the person ordering the drink had a cold or the flu, whose symptoms the drink was to alleviate.
It is not so much the drink (which is just a simple whisky punch) but the actual mixing that is unique. Originally mixed in two silver cups, the whisky and water were heated up separately and poured into their own cups. The whisky was then lit on fire, and while it was burning, the water and whisky were poured back and forth between the cups without extinguishing the fire. Jerry Thomas held the cups at a meter’s distance from each other while mixing, creating a long blue flame between the two cups.
The Recipe
2½ oz rye or bourbon whiskey or Brandy
2½ oz boiling water
1 tsp powdered sugar
Lemon peel
FIRE
In addition to writing the seminal work on cocktails, his creativity and showmanship established the image of the bartender as a creative professional. Jerry Thomas had also been the manager and director of a minstrel show.
In Virginia City, someone gave him a set of solid silver bar tools in a decorateivecase that he took with him wherever he worked for the rest of his career. After Thomas left Virginia City, he went to the El Dorado in San Francisco. Prof. Thomas later became Head Bartender at the Planters House, St. Louis where he invented the cold weather drink that to this day bears his name: Tom & Jerry. He also invented the “Martinez” – the first martini. Other stops were Chicago,New Orleans, and a tour of Europe’s clubs.
He was well known for his showmanship as a bartender: he developed elaborate and flashy techniques of mixing cocktails, sometimes while juggling bottles, cups and mixers. He often wore flashy jewelry and had bar tools and cups embellished with precious stones and metals. At the Occidental Hotel in San Francisco, Thomas was earning $100 a week—more than the Vice President of the United States.
He was a flashy dresser fond of kid gloves and a gold Parisian watch. He enjoyed going to bare-knuckle prize fights, and was an art collector. He enjoyed traveling. By middle age he was married and had two daughters. Always a good sport, he was one of the lighter members of the Fat Men’s Association at 205 pounds.[2] He also had a side interest in gourds; at one point in the late 1870s, Thomas sat as president of The Gourd Club after producing the largest specimen.