Morris, Victor Vaughan (1873–1929), popularly known as Vic Morris, operated Morris’ Bar in downtown Lima, Peru, from 1916 until his death. He is widely credited with creating and popularizing the Pisco Sour.
Born in Salt Lake City, Utah, Morris was a member of a Mormon Church founding family. He operated a flower shop with his brother, Burton, who was shot to death in 1899. Burton’s death and the negative outcome of the murder trial that followed significantly affected Victor. In 1903, he left Salt Lake City to take a clerical job with the Cerro de Pasco Railroad Company, which was building a railway to a 14,000-feet-high copper mine in the Peruvian Andes. He worked there until 1916.
Morris relocated then to Lima and opened the Morris’ Bar at 847 Calle Boza Street, in the heart of the city’s modern business district. There he made the Pisco Sour famous in Lima and soon, through the many foreign travelers who visited his bar, worldwide. A recipe for a drink that was the Pisco Sour in everything but name was already circulating in Lima in 1903; however, it is equally possible that Morris came up with his version independently, adapting the standard American Sour formula to the prevailing local spirit. See sour. Nonetheless, and even though his original Pisco Sour recipe varied slightly from the one prepared today, Morris is still regarded as its originator and the father of Peruvian mixology. He died in Lima from cirrhosis in 1929.
See also Pisco Sour.
“Farewell to …” Deseret Evening News (Salt Lake City), July 31, 1902.
“Joins Welby’s …” Salt Lake Herald, June 4, 1903.
Ledesma, S. E. Nuevo manual de cocina a la criolla: almuerzo. Lima: Ledesma, 1903.
Morris’ Bar Visitors’ Register, Morris family private collection.
Toro-Lira, Guillermo. History of Pisco in San Francisco: A Scrapbook of First Hand Accounts, Lima, Peru: Creatspace, 2010.
By: Guillermo L. Toro-Lira