The Oxford Companion to Spirits and Cocktails

Abeal y Otero, Jose “Sloppy Joe”


Abeal y Otero, Jose “Sloppy Joe” (1886–1942), was the founder and proprietor of Sloppy Joe’s bar in Havana, a famous watering hole frequented by American movie stars and other tourists during (and after) Prohibition. See Sloppy Joe’s. Of Spanish birth, he worked in Havana and then New Orleans and Miami before opening the bar in 1917. In 1937, he sold the bar and returned to Spain, where he died.

By: David Mahoney