Floradora – Recipe from the ‘Old Waldorf Bar Guide’

After an English musical comedy that had a long run at the Casino early in the century, and was famous for its sextette, and for the number of wealthy marriages made by the members of the latter. 

(Collins) 

Juice one Lime 

One-half teaspoon Sugar 

One-half pony Raspberry 

One jigger Gin 

Frappe; fizz with one bottle Ginger Ale

In an effort to dispel that itchy slightly toxic poisoned feeling that comes with the satisfaction of knowing last night was substantially more fun than clever, I retreated up to the main bar from my office to watch the football and try a little hair of the dog. Mildly afraid that something short and strong wouldn’t go down well I opted for something long, fizzy, and not even slightly masculine.

Florodora is a British musical comedy from just before the turn of the 20^th century, it was crazy popular in London before it moved to the Casino Theatre on Broadway, New York and posted at the time one of the longest runs ever seen in New York. The play is a charming story with villain, hero’s a plenty and the secret of its success, the Florodora girls. The six girls sing the main song from the musical, and made its success based on the fact that they were tall and beautiful and captivated all who watched, so much so that in the 552 showings it ran to they needed over 70 girls to fill the roles as annoyingly they kept on getting married off to wealthy theatre goers.

The drink itself is uninspiring, although it does look like the drink that was temperenced into a Shirley temple several decades later. As with a lot of drinks in the guide its heavy on the sweet, and really doesn’t need both the sugar and raspberry.

However all that vitamin C (gin) perked me up no end.