The '70s Live Through Cocktails at Fatty Johnson's

Who says today's mixologists don't have a sense of humor?

On Feb. 16, Brian Miller and Toby Cecchini, two of the more talented bartenders in New York, deigned to employ their nimble fingers in the creation of such cocktail world bête noires as the Alabama Slammer and Appletini, and other creations of the 1970s and 1980s—the era considered to be the nadir of cocktail culture of drinks historians. On Facebook, they christened this evening "The Night the Cocktail Died." The menu at Fatty Johnson's read "Goose and Maverick Present Lipstick on Pigs." ("Top Gun" did not play on the bar's television sets. Rather we were treated to a swath of Chevy Chase films.) Cecchini, whose early work at Odeon was partly responsible for the popularity of the Cosmopolitan, showed particular good humor by including that "Sex and the City" staple on the list.

Of course, mixologists will be mixologists, and Miller and Cecchini couldn't let well enough (or bad enough) alone. The Jello shot on offer was a Bramble, the highly regarded, modern classic created in London. And nobody was using DeKuyper Sour Apple Pucker for the Appletini. There was even an "off-menu" special, the super-trashy Flaming Dr. Pepper, made up of Luxardo Amaretto and Lemon Hart 151 Proof Demerara Rum lit aflame in a shot glass and then dropped in a glass of Brooklyn Pilsner. And, yes, it did taste like Dr. Pepper.