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 The First Cocktail An interesting first in the annals of Niagara County is described in a story from the War of 1812. At that time, Thomas and Catherine Hustler operated a tavern in Lewiston that acquired a favorable international reputation among British, French and Americans, alike. Upon occasions, the Hustlers were even known to entertain a young naval officer named James Fenimore Cooper. Mr. and Mrs. Hustler stepped into bartending history when they supposedly began to serve drinks mixed from several liquors and stirred with a rooster’s tail feather. Upon tasting the concoction, a young French officer was said to have stood and toasted Mrs. Hustler saying, “Viva la cocktail!” Historians have conjectured that it was the cocktail that spared the Hustler tavern when the British burned Lewiston during the War of 1812. Some say that British officers couldn’t bear the thought of destroying the tavern where they first experienced this interesting libation. It is also assumed that James Fenimore Cooper, in his work, The Spy, patterned two of his characters, Sergeant Hollister and Betty Flanagan, after Mr. and Mrs. Hustler, Niagara County’s inventors of the cocktail. Douglas Farley, Director Ann Marie Linnabery Erie Canal Discover Center 24 Church St. Lockport NY 14094 716.439.0431 CanalDiscovery@aol.com www.NiagaraHistory.org |
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