A resurrected cocktail that's worth a taste

The Rose The Rose Photo: Craig Lee, Special To The Chronicle Photo: Craig Lee, Special To The Chronicle Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close A resurrected cocktail that's worth a taste 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

Internet search engines certainly have made life easier for everyone, but when they're used for serious research, there are pitfalls.

"But it says so on Wikipedia" has become an oft-spoken defense when facts are questioned about, well, just about any subject under the sun.

Not long after Google was born, I became aware of a certain cocktail geek by the name of David Wondrich. He published "Esquire Drinks" in 2002, and he followed that with a succession of drink-related works including "Imbibe," a book that details drinks and drinking life in the late 1800s. It's a masterpiece.

After reading "Imbibe" cover to cover in a single day, I felt as though I knew exactly what it was like to hang with the "sportsmen" of the late 19th century, and what was, and what wasn't, acceptable behavior in the dives, and in the swank cocktail bars, of that era.

Henceforth, David Wondrich became my personal search engine, and friend.

In 2004 I attended an opening party of the New York bar 5 Ninth, a great joint that featured a bunch of drinks that Wondrich suggested. And that's where I first encountered the Rose, an unusual cocktail that Wondrich brought back from obscurity after it lay dormant for more than 80 years.

"It was invented by Johnnie Mitta at the Hotel Chatham (in Paris), across the street from Harry's New York Bar, sometime before 1920," Wondrich told me. "The Chatham had an American bar, and it was very popular with visiting Yanks, particularly the ones who followed the horses."

You can bank on the facts as stated by David Wondrich. He's the best search engine I ever did have. What he failed to mention, though, is that the Rose is a gift to the world of cocktails.