The Barman of Binghamton
The Life of Binghamton Bar Owner, Author and Sport, Jacob A. Didier.
One of the interesting aspects of the first Golden Age of cocktails in the United States (roughly the 1860s until the advent of Prohibition in 1920) is that it reached not only major cities like New York and San Francisco, but smaller markets as well. Proof of this is in the wide geographical variety of cocktail books published by bartenders during this period.
Tom Bullock of St. Louis put out The Ideal Bartender (1917). Theophile Proulx of Chicago wrote The Bartender’s Manual (1988). Cincinnati bartender C.F. Lawler penned The Mixicologist (1895).
All those cities were bigger than Binghamton, New York. That didn’t stop Jacob A. Didier from seeking an audience when he published his pocket-sized bartending manual, weirdly titled The Reminder, in 1909. It was published by Outing Press in nearby Deposit, NY, a famous firm at the time. (Outing went out of business shortly after 1909, so it’s not clear who printed the several later editions of the book.)
The preface reads as so:
The principal aim in preparing this book has been to give an accurate collection of approved recipes for general purposes. The work is essentially what it claims to be—a Reminder. All historical details have been omitted, and popular and simple descriptions have, wherever possible, been preferred to technical and scientific language. These directions can be relied upon as accurate, as they have been thoroughly examined by your humble servent and practically tested by me and other competent men before being given to the public.
There are many new recipes contained in this book never before published, and all are up-to-date.
From the perspective of a cocktail historian, there are two very annoying things about this passage. One, the removal of “all historical details” means Didier tells us nothing about the provenance of any of the drinks. Two, while he says many of the recipes are new, he does not indicate which ones they are.
Some recipes are clearly of Didier’s creation. Didier loved his Pousse Cafes, the dessert drink in which several liqueurs are layered picturesquely on top of one another. There are five Pousse Cafe recipes in the book, and one is identified as Didier’s. It is composed of maraschino liqueur, red curaçao, yellow Chartreuse and brandy.
And there is a drink called Eagles’ Fizz, a sort of egg-white gin fizz with vanilla and cream. It is obviously named in honor of the Fraternal Order of Eagles, of which Didier was a member. There is also an Eagles’ Punch.
Didier was a very clubbable fellow. He was also a lodge member of Binghamton Lodge, a member of the Binghamton Aerie, and belonged to the Loyal Order of Moose. A later edition of The Reminder has a Moose Club Cocktail made of whiskey, Dubonnet and grenadine. Maybe this affinity for groups is why his book contains pages and pages of punch recipes and tons of batched cocktails intended for large groups. Need a recipe for 20 gallons of Christmas Punch? Didier’s your man!
Usually, these sort of obscure cocktail books can lay claim to a first or two. Proulx’s book, for instance, includes the first printed recipe of the Old-Fashioned and one of the first of the Martini. It’s unclear if The Reminder can hang its hat on any such boast. The closest it comes is the Casino Cocktail. The Casino, made of Old Tom gin and dashes of maraschino, orange bitters and lemon juice, is hardly a famous drink. But Didier appears to have been the first to print the formula in a book.
The book has some odd aspects. Didier’s way with some classics is unusual. His Sazerac features dry vermouth. His Bijou asks for Grand Marnier instead of the typical Chartreuse. And his Tuxedo is Sherry based, with touches of anisette, maraschino and Angostura and Peychaud’s bitters. One of his Scaffas—a genre of drink that is typically served room temperature—is served chilled.
As for influences, he appears to have studied William Schmidt’s 1892 book The Flowing Bowl very closely. Many of Schmidt’s recipes are in The Reminder. As is the drink called The Reminder, which was probably a Schmidt invention. It’s made of Sherry, Port, sweet vermouth, creme de roses, and maraschino.
It could very well be that Didier named his book The Reminder as an homage to Schmidt, who died in 1905.
Jacob A. Didier was born on April 25, 1865, just days after the Civil War ended. (Thanks to cocktail historian David Wondrich for sharing early biographical information on Didier that he uncovered in the 1900 book Binghamton, Its Growth and Development. And thanks to The Mix subscriber and cocktail app creator Martin Doudoroff for reminding me of Didier’s existence, leading to this article. Doudoroff’s new Total Mixology app is a must-have for any bartender, cocktail writer or cocktail geek.)
His family moved to Gloversville, NY, when he was five. He was only 16 when he struck out on his own and moved to Detroit, where he got work in a cafe connected to the Russell House. Two years later, he moved to Chicago, where he worked at Chapin & Gore.
The Chapin & Gore stint is interesting. That grand saloon was a major incubator of bartending talent. Proulx was working there when he wrote The Bartender’s Manual in 1888. Didier arrived at Chapin & Gore when he was 18, which would 1883 or 1884. This invites the tantalizing prospect that Proulx and Didier might have worked side by side behind the bar. Perhaps Didier was inspired by Proulx’s literary ambitions to later publish a book of his own.
Young Didier moved around a lot. From Chicago, Didier went to the Continental Hotel in Philadelphia, then Detroit again to work at the Recreation Park saloon, then Syracuse for a job at the Vanderbilt House. (He met his wife, Anna Fess, in Syracuse.) He finally settled in Binghamton in 1889. He was not even 25 years of age, but already had ten years of experience in the hospitality trade.
Didier moved around a lot in Binghamton, too. After taking jobs here and there— including at the Cranston House, one of the oldest hotels in the city—he opened the Opera Cafe, a restaurant and hotel, in 1893. It was named after its neighbor across the street, the Stone Opera House, which opened one year before the Opera Cafe. In the first two decades of the 20th century, the Stone hosted some of the great stage talents of time. Didier very likely served the likes of Sarah Bernhardt, Ethel and John Barrymore, Eddie Foy and George M. Cohan.
Didier later moved his business to a new location on Court Street, near Exchange Street, and continued there until the erection of the Security Mutual Life Insurance building forcing him to move again. In 1907, he opened a pool hall at 78 Court Street, described in the press as “finely appointed.” He also appears to have run a cigar store at 43 Chenango Street around about 1917.
I know Binghamton well and all of these addresses are within a block or two of each other, and all were within shouting distance of the court house. Didier was always at the center of the action. He was also active in his line of work. When the New York State wine, liquor and beer dealers’ association held its annual convention in Binghamton Aug. 28-30, 1910, Didier was on the general committee. By 1911, he was vice president of Broome County Retail Liquor Dealers’ Association. In 1912, he was president.
One of the most interesting things about Didier’s career is that he was actually better known in boxing circles than he was as a hotelier or bartender. Most of the press mentions of him from the 1890s on are about his status at a boxing referee. He was a respected figure among pugilists and their audiences, regarded as capable and fair, and was frequently quoted in the papers on matters that concerned the boxing world. In these articles, he was always referred to as “Jake.” He worked as far as Boston and Cleveland, but most of his ring work took place in Binghamton, which seems to have had a living boxing scene in the early 20th century.
By 1910, when he was 44 or 45, Didier had a liquor license to operate a saloon at 166 Water Street. That would be called Didier’s Restaurant or Didier’s Cafe, depending on the news account you believe. But it was indeed a saloon, according to a 1940 article in the Binghamton Press and Sun-Bulletin. A 1911 article advertised the bar’s $5,000 “orchestrion, the only musical instrument of its kind between New York and Chicago.” (An orchestrion is sort of like an elaborate player piano.) Charlie Wah’s Chinese restaurant was on the second floor. This was also the headquarters of the Bijou Athletic Club, which staged fights and of which Didier was a founder.
The opening year of Didier’s Cafe is important, because it means the recipes he collected in The Reminder in 1909—published one year prior—were probably the cocktails he served at 166 Water Street. All of the subsequent editions of The Reminder were published while Didier’s saloon operated.
In 1917, Didier almost bled to death when a five-gallon bottle of lemon sour he was lifting slipped and broke into a number of pieces. One sharp piece of glass cut Didier about the arms near the wrists. He lost about two quarts of blood before the doctor arrived and applied thirty-seven stitches.
What Didier did during Prohibition, I do not know, but he may have gone the speakeasy route. There is one early report of beer being delivered to this address illegally and another of a raid. However, by 1921 it seems William O’Brien and Charles I. Clark ran a cafe at the address, so maybe Didier got out the business. There were further raids on O’Brien’s business. If fact, there were constant raids all throughout 1923. O’Brien was notorious.
It could be that Didier made his living solely as a boxing referee during the Prohibition years. All newspaper accounts mentioning his name from 1920 to 1933 are about his boxing work.
By 1933, though, Didier was back in possession of the property. He received a beer and wine license in July of that year.
Didier died at work. He was at the Didier Restaurant at 166 Water Street on Sept. 5, 1935, when he had a stroke. He died later at Our Lady of Lourdes hospital. He was 70 years old. He is buried at St. Patrick’s Cemetery in nearby Johnson City.
His widow, Anna, followed their daughter Catherine, who married and moved to Syracuse. However, it appears she inherited Jacob’s restaurant at 166 Water Street. She died in Syracuse in 1945 at the age of 79. She is buried beside Jacob at St. Patrick’s Cemetery.
By 1945, 166 Water Street was doing business as Crocky’s Grill, run by Ruppert Crocky. In the 1950s, it was Club 44.
Only one of the buildings where Didier conducted business in Binghamton is standing today (though the shell of the poor old abandoned Stone Opera House is still on Chenango Street.) That is 166 Water Street, his final bar, and the place where he had the stroke that killed him in 1935. It is a handsome, narrow, red-brick building with tall windows, cast iron columns on the first story and a distinctive arched cornice. It was built in 1890 and was first home to the Binghamton Daily Republican newspaper.
I’ve looked upon this structure many times, as it is one of the most handsome buildings in downtown Binghamton. It is today home to a Binghamton institution, Nirchi’s Pizza, the flagship location of a locally popular pizza chain that has been around since 1967. Nirchi’s took possession of 166 Water Street in 1986.
Casino
Jabob A. Didier, The Reminder, 1909 (adapted)
2 ounces Old Tom Gin
2 dashes maraschino liqueur
2 dashes lemon juice
2 dashes orange bitters
Combine ingredients in mixing glass half-filled with cracked ice. Stir until chilled and strain into chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with cherry.
The Reminder
Jacob A. Didier, The Reminder, 1909
3/4 ounce Sherry
3/4 ounce Port
3/4 ounce sweet vermouth
1 dash maraschino liqueur
1 dash creme de roses
Combine ingredients in mixing glass half-filled with cracked ice. Stir until chilled and strain into chilled cocktail glass.
Odds and Ends…
Koloman, the Austrian restaurant in Manhattan, will hold its final “Martini Residency” beginning Tuesday, Sept. 24. Stephanie March will be the guest Martini maker. As usual, all the money spent on March’s Martinis will be donated to City Harvest. I kicked off the series with my Moser Martini back in June… I will be serving cocktails Monday-Thursday nights this week at the Door Kinetic Arts Festival at Bjorklunden, south of Bailey’s Harbor in Door County, Wisconsin. Tickets are $25… My 2019 book The Martini Cocktail turned 5 years old last week, while A Proper Drink, my history of the cocktail revival, turned 8 years old. My book 3-Ingredient Cocktails will mark its 7th anniversary on Sept. 26… Celebrated Barman Charles Joly‘s Riff Riff Club is up and running and open to the public at the top of the Virgin Hotel at 30th Street and Broadway in Manhattan. Order a Wisconsin Old-Fashioned and tell Charles I sent you… The Kellogg Diner, the classic old-school diner located in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, has reopened as an elevated diner under the guidance of chef Jackie Carnesi. The menu is expansive and has all the usual diner staples, plus a few surprises and lots of poblano peppers. (Carnesi is from Texas.) There are also cocktails. In the tradition of Hamburger America, prices are kind. Please let this be a trend in New York dining! Kellogg will soon be open 24 hours… On Sept. 30, Porchlight will host cocktail writer Kara Newman, to commemorate the release of her Cocktail Cabinet series of cocktail-oriented card decks… The 49th annual Atlantic Antic street fair will be held in Brooklyn on Sept. 29… Social Hour canned cocktails has struck a deal with in T. Edward and will now be available in Connecticut… Bee’s Knees Week is here! It runs through Sept. 29. The initiative was launched by Bar Hill Distillery in Vermont, which uses honey in its gin. Dozens of bars participate nationwide, selling versions of the Bee’s Knees cocktails. A portion of sales goes toward saving pollinator habitat. To find participating locations, go to the Bar Hill website… bee’s knees week. Bar hill tag… A new “Regular Recipe” will go out to Bar Regular subscribers of The Mix later this week. Keep your eye out!… Finally, The Mix is up for an IACP Award. The awards ceremony will be held this Thursday. Send good thoughts!
I’d like to go and look at these buildings again, now with this information. I’d also like hot pie!
Wow... I'd always attributed the Casino to Hugo Ensslin a few years later. I wonder if the Reminder was that influential or it was already a cocktail floating around the aether.
I definitely have seen the Grand Marnier Bijou before in print. The better known Chartreuse one is from Johnson but the Grand Marnier one I believe stems from Lawlor's The Mixicologist. Johnson has the better talking point of the 3 ingredients being the 3 gems.