Grohusko, Jacob Abraham “Jack” (1876–1943), was a New York City bartender and the author of Jack’s Manual, a valuable bartender’s guide that saw four editions between 1908 and 1934. Grohusko was born to a Russian Jewish family in England and was brought to New York at an early age. By 1900, perhaps after working for a stretch in the wine department at the Plaza Hotel, he was tending bar at Baracca’s, a popular Italian restaurant in downtown New York, where he developed a reputation as a mixologist; “One trial” of his drinks there, a journalist opined, “will convince the most skeptical.” It was there he published the first edition of his Jack’s Manual, which in its early editions (1908, 1910, 1916) is an excellent snapshot of the first golden age of the cocktail. It also marks the first appearance of the Brooklyn Cocktail (Grohusko never lived in Brooklyn, but Victor Baracca, the owner of the restaurant, did). In 1910, Grohusko teamed up with Italian chef Bruto Garcelli to open Bruto & Jack’s, an eatery also in downtown New York, which ran well into the Prohibition years. Grohusko also developed and marketed barware, including a well-designed julep strainer. In 1934, he published a greatly-expanded Repeal edition of his book; that is the last we hear of him.
See also Brooklyn Cocktail and cocktail strainer.
Grohusko, Jack. Jack’s Manual. New York: J. A. Grohusko, 1908.
“Notes.” Bonfort’s Wine and Spirit Circular, May 10, 1909, 9.
By: David Wondrich