The Clover Club , a frothy pink concoction of gin, lemon juice, raspberry syrup, and egg white, was created as the signature drink for the club of that name sometime around the turn of the last century. The Clover Club was a Philadelphia-based association of prominent journalists dedicated to good eating, deep drinking, and giving politicians a hard time. The first notice we have of its eponymous cocktail is from 1901, from Michael Killackey, head bartender at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York. That hotel was managed by George Boldt, who had previously managed the Philadelphia’s Bellevue-Stratford Hotel, where the club met, so Killackey’s recipe can be considered authentic. In any case, the Waldorf-Astoria popularized the drink, and by 1910 it was ubiquitous.
The Clover Club cocktail did not survive Prohibition. It didn’t help that Esquire named it one of the “ten worst cocktails” in 1934, just as American drinking was getting back on track again. The drink was more or less dead until 2007 or 2008, when Julie Reiner gave its name to her new Brooklyn, New York, bar and adopted it as the house drink. See Reiner, Julie. The establishment has gone on to become an institution, winning many awards and granting the drink a new lease on life.
Recipe: 60 ml Plymouth gin, 15 ml lemon juice, 10 ml raspberry syrup, 10 ml egg white. Shake, strain, up. In 1909 Paul Lowe suggested substituting 15 ml dry vermouth for half the gin; this is the version Reiner uses.
“How to Mix Your Own Drinks.” New York Press, June 21, 1901.
Lowe, Paul E. Drinks: How to Mix and Serve. Philadelphia: Mackay, 1909.
Shay, Frank. “Ten Best Cocktails of 1934.” Esquire, December, 1934, 40.
By: David Wondrich