How Dale DeGroff Helped Spark the Modern Cocktail Renaissance | Into The Barchive | Episode 43

This week on Into The Barchive, hosts Tim Wright and Dr. Blake Jones raise a glass to one of the most influential bartenders of the modern era: Dale DeGroff, better known as King Cocktail. DeGroff didn’t just make great drinks—he helped change what American bartending could be. From fresh citrus and quality spirits to proper glassware, technique, ice, hospitality, and cocktail history, his influence can be traced through an entire generation of bartenders and many of the standards we now take for granted. Tim and Blake trace DeGroff’s journey from working bars in Los Angeles to meeting legendary restaurateur Joe Baum, who challenged him to build a 19th-century-inspired cocktail program using classic recipes and fresh ingredients. That assignment led DeGroff to Jerry Thomas’ 1862 Bartender’s Guide and eventually to New York’s legendary Rainbow Room, where he helped turn classic cocktails into something glamorous, relevant, and commercially successful again. Along the way, the guys make two drinks that perfectly represent DeGroff’s legacy. First is the Whiskey Smash, a 19th-century classic DeGroff helped bring back into the modern American bar by adding fresh lemon to the traditional combination of whiskey, sugar, mint, and ice. Then they mix the Fitzgerald, DeGroff’s own creation—a gin sour transformed by the addition of Angostura bitters into a modern classic. They also explore DeGroff’s role as a teacher, mentor, author, and advocate for professional bartending, from training bartenders at the Rainbow Room to influencing a new generation that included figures tied to bars like Pegu Club, Milk & Honey, and Clover Club. His impact would continue through The Craft of the Cocktail, the Museum of the American Cocktail, and the Beverage Alcohol Resource program. Ultimately, Dale DeGroff’s legacy isn’t just found in the drinks he revived or created. It lives on every time a bartender reaches for fresh citrus, studies an old recipe, teaches someone why a cocktail works, or takes a classic and asks what it might become next. Keep exploring the past, one drink at a time, with Into The Barchive.