It's the happiest of hours! The tales of four fabulous cocktails invented or made famous in New York City's saloons, cocktail lounges, restaurants and hotels.

Cocktails are more than alcoholic beverages; over the decades, they’ve been status signifiers, indulgences that show off exotic ingredients or elixirs displaying a bit of showmanship behind the bar.

In this podcast, we recount the beginning days of four iconic alcoholic drinks:

-- The Manhattan: How an elite Gilded Age social club may have invented the cocktail for a new governor of New York;

-- The Bloody Mary: A Parisian delight, enjoyed by the leading lights of the Jazz Age, makes it way to one of New York's most famous hotels;

-- The Martini: A drink of mysterious origin and potency becomes New York City's most popular drink -- and a curious lunchtime companion;

-- The Cosmopolitan: Tracing the history of a new cocktail classic from Provincetown to San Francisco -- and into two of New York's most famous 1980s hangouts

boweryboyshistory.com

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