The Last Word

Introduction

The Last Word is one of my all-around favorite cocktails, and one of the simplest to make. It also happens to be one of the simplest cocktails to riff off of and experiment with, which is why the Last Word is my go-to when I want to size up a cocktail bartender whom I’m meeting for the first time. Let’s start with the recipe so that we can sip on some green deliciousness while we go over the history and some general notes and techniques to keep in mind when making it.

History of the Last Word Cocktail

The Last Word is a Prohibition-era cocktail, popularly credited to Frank Fogarty, lauded vaudeville actor of the early 20th century. The legend tells that in December of 1916, the “Dublin Minstrel” (as Fogarty was commonly known) found himself in Detroit, and was brought – presumably as a guest, given that there are no records of his official membership – to the Detroit Athletic Club. The specifics around how or why Fogarty invented the cocktail are not a part of the common legend, and many theories exist about the origin of the drink’s name – some claiming the name to be a reference to Fogarty’s act. Unfortunately, however, just as the legend of the Manhattan being invented for Lady Jennie Jerome (mother of Winston Churchill) was ultimately proven false, so too was the story of Frank Fogarty inventing the Last Word. In 2015, bar history columnist and cocktail aficionado Jim Sabataso published the article “Happy Hour History: The Last Word“, in which he claimed that published documents from Detroit Athletic Club prove that the Last Word was being served for a full year before Fogarty was in Detroit. Sabataso did not, however, include images of the referenced documents in his article, and I was unable to find any such documents, in my own research, proving that the Last Word was being served for a full year before Fogarty made it to Detroit. However, I was able to find another article, published a few months after Sabataso’s, that shared a document that proves the Detroit Athletic Club to have been mixing the drink at least five months before Fogarty’s visit. The document, pictured in the below (legible albeit blurry) image, is a “souvenir menu” distributed in 1916, to the Detroit Athletic Club’s members as part of their July/August magazine issue, and the Last Word is listed 9th from the top, under “Cocktails”. While perhaps not a full year, this document at least proves that the club was serving the drink long before Fogarty’s arrival, in December of 1916.

Although the legend has been proven false, all major bar historians seem to agree that the Last Word was, in fact, invented at the Detroit Athletic Club, in or around 1915. It is assumed that the drink was popular among club members, as it reportedly remained on the menu for several years and was the most expensive cocktail listed.

Despite the Last Word’s popularity at the Detroit Athletic Club, the drink never really caught on elsewhere. It wasn’t until about 35 years later, in 1951, when the recipe mysteriously resurfaced in Ted Saucier’s drink guide, a book called Bottoms Up. Despite its inclusion in the guide, the Last Word again failed to catch on in the mainstream and for the second time disappeared. Finally in 2004, 53 years after Ted Saucier’s book was first published, bartender Murray Stenson came across a copy of Bottoms Up, found the recipe for the the Last Word and added it to the menu at Seattle’s Zig Zag Café, resurrecting the lost drink and bringing it into the mainstream. Since that time, the cocktail has enjoyed newfound fame and popularity across United States and around the world.

A Brief Note on Variations

As previously mentioned, the Last Word is one of my favorite cocktails to play with and make custom variations of. Start swapping out ingredients, one at a time, adding in infusions or bitters, or making tweaks to the technique you use to prepare the drink. At Death & Co, one of the most well-renowned bars in New York city, they refer to this style of experimentation as “Mr. Potato Head.” The point is that you should be creative and, above all, have fun! Also, be safe – the Last Word is a high-proof drink after all.

If you’ve never watched Greg Titian’s How to Drink YouTube show, then I highly recommend it. Greg typically dives in with a video blog on the history of a cocktail or invents one of his own, often based on a theme (e.g. Harry Potter, Game of Thrones, etc.), and then gives tasting notes. Just before Avengers: End Game arrived in theaters, Greg created a Last Word variant as a salute to Tony Stark. You can find the video here, and watch as Greg mixes his variation of the Last Word with Lagavulin, a peaty scotch that Tony drank in Iron Man, instead of gin. I’m a huge scotch fan, and typically drink my scotch neat with at most a drop or two of distilled water to open it up. With that said, as painful as it was to watch Greg shake Lagavulin into a Last Word, I made the drink myself and must admit that it was magical! I’ve made it more than a few times since.

Shaken and Served Up

While I would never discourage you from experimenting with stirring instead of shaking, or serving on the rocks instead of serving up, in the case of the Last Word I advise that you take care to ensure the appropriate level of dilution if you do want to serve it stirred and/or on the rocks. The shaking process adds a desirable level of dilution to the Last Word, as well as added texture, so if you do prefer to stir then I recommend that you stir for extra time and/or add in some purified water to achieve the proper level of dilution in your drink.