Jerry Thomas’ signature cocktail is a blue blazer. Who is Jerry Thomas? Why, he’s the guy who, in 1862, published The Bar-Tender’s Guide, the first-ever book of cocktail recipes. Thanks to this slim volume, many preprohibition cocktails survived which might have otherwise been lost along the unpredictable path of oral history.

It’s a book you can, and should, still buy today. My own copy sits permanently on my bedside table; I read it to lull myself to sleep, visions of punches and sours dancing in my head.

What is a blue blazer? It’s a drink bartenders make using two steel-plated mugs: they pour boiling water into one, whiskey into the other. Then they set the whiskey on fire, and pour the liquids back and forth between the mugs without putting out the fire. Then they add sugar and a lemon peel and offer it to you in honor of their patron saint Jerry Thomas.

Where do you drink this? You drink this at Vessel, this Monday, February 15. Otherwise known as President’s Day. Otherwise known as Jerry Thomas Day.

Stop by the bar around 9pm to witness the Big Pour, when local bartenders will get behind the bar with their mugs and start setting things on fire. Fun.