Message 31148 of 39188 in General Discussion

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> TEAM WORK--The mule was born in Manhattan but "stalled" on the West 
> Coast for the duration.  The birthplace of "Little Moscow" was in New 
> York's Chatham Hotel.  That was back in 1941 when the first carload 
> of Jack Morgan's Cock 'n' Bull ginger beer was railing over the 
> plains to give New Yorkers a happy surprise.  Here was ginger beer in 
> crockery bottles tasting exactly like that of old England.
>    
> Three friends were in the Chatham bar, one John A. Morgan, known as 
> Jack, president of Cock 'n' Bull Products and owner of the Hollywood 
> Cock 'n' Bull Restaurant; one was John G. Martin, president of G. F. 
> Heublein Brothers, Inc. of Hartford, Conn., and the third was Rudolph 
> Kunett, president of the Pierre Smirnoff, Heublein's vodka division.  
> As Jack Morgan tells it, "We three were quaffing a slug, nibbling an 
> hors d'oeuvre and shoving toward inventive genius."  Martin and 
> Kunett had their minds on their vodka and wondered what would happen 
> if a two-ounce shot joined with Morgan's ginger beer and the squeeze 
> of a lime.  Ice was ordered, limes procured, mugs ushered in and the 
> concoction put together.  Cups were raised, the men counted five and 
> down went the first taste.  It was good.  It lifted the spirit to 
> adventure.  Four or five later the mixture was christened the Moscow 
> Mule--and for a number of obvious reasons.

Sounds like an exact retelling of the story Iäve heard, except that in this 
story the drinking took place in NY and the Chatham, rather than in the Cock N 
Bull Restaurant in Hollywood. So which one is more true? Why would the three 
of them, all west coast boys, be on the east coast drinking? and not just any 
drinking, but drinking only somethign that was available on the west coast )ie 
the ginger beer). perhaps history records the first time the ginger beer was 
sold over in NY so we could corroborate?

Adam