By ERIC FELTEN and VICTORINO MATUS, Weekly Standard
Late in November of the presidential election year 1888, theDetroit Free Press asked “What is Fame?” After all, things like elective office, or battlefield laurels, or citations and awards, all may fall under the cautionary motto sic transit gloria. But to have a cocktail named after you: Now that’s the sort of fame that endures. The Free Press pointed out that Benjamin Harrison was known not just as the new president-elect, but as the inspiration for a new mixed drink: “The latest fad in artistic decorations is the Harrison cocktail.”
Alas, even that sort of fame fades. All but lost to history is the Harrison Cocktail, a drink that was described in its day as being concocted of gin, orange bitters, phosphate, sugar and fizzy water.
Harrison was hardly the last presidential candidate to be honored at the bar. 1896 saw the McKinley’s Delight (gin, lemon juice, sugar, maraschino liqueur and Peychaud’s bitters, all done up like a Horse’s Neck) and, in honor of his opponent, William Jennings Bryan, there was a “Free Silver Fizz.” Teddy Roosevelt—who in a libel suit famously denied ever drinking—was honored with several cocktails over the years. William Taft lent his name to multiple cocktails too, including one made of gin and Dubonnet, garnished with an olive. (An olive?)
