September 01, 2016
Courtesy of Art in the Age/Facebook
Fish House Punch is one of the Colonial recipes from Steven Grasse's book "Colonial Spirits." Art in the Age recreated the drink with its own unique spirits.
Philadelphia native and author Steven Grasse will celebrate the launch of his new book, "Colonial Spirits: A Toast to Our Drunken History," with a cocktail party on Sept. 15.
The event is pretty fitting for a book that features Colonial-era cocktail recipes and an overview of early American drinking preferences.
"Spirits can be many things: a transcendental search, the embodiment of inspiration, a ghost in the closet, a bottle of booze. We see the spirit of America as all of the above. Before Democracy, there were spirits, and from spirits we created taverns and it was in those taverns that we laid out the blueprint for a new kind of country, with a new kind of ideology, not ruled by kings and queens but by men and women. In other words, we got drunk and invented America."
Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, a unique Philadelphia spirits company, will host the party, in collaboration with The Raven Society. There will be an open bar and appetizers for attendees, along with a chance to meet the author.
