Chasing the Gibson Cocktail

Steward: “Cocktail before dinner?”

Thornhill: “Yes, I’ll have a Gibson.”

So begins one of Alfred Hitchcock’s most amusing scenes, the famous club car seduction scene between Cary Grant’s Roger Thornhill and Eva Marie Saint’s Eve Kendall in North by Northwest. Seduction isn’t really the right word; it’s more of a pickup scene between two people who don’t seem to be in the habit of resisting. Grant’s Thornhill seems the type to always have his motor running; clearly, it’s Eve who’s shifting the gears.

The Gibson Cocktail also fuels a plastered Margo Channing in All About Eve. Bette Davis’s Margo describes herself as a “Gibson Girl;” her drink’s starring scene is at the party that inspires Davis’s immortal line, “Fasten your seatbelts, it’s going to be a bumpy night.”

Two great Hollywood movies—that’s a pretty good record for a Martini with an onion in it.

Except that it isn’t that simple. In fact, history tells us that the Gibson is absolutely not a Martini with an onion in it. Close, but no.

The History of the Gibson Cocktail

For starters, it turns out that the original Gibson probably did not have an onion garnish. That particular bit of presentation— now considered the hallmark of the Gibson— isn’t listed in any early recipes, and apparently doesn’t show up until the 1920s.

Even more to the point is the lack of bitters, which were always present in the Martinis of the classic era. The earliest published formula for the Gibson is from William Boothby’s 1908 The World’s Drinks and How to Mix Them, and Boothby was adamant that the Gibson contain no bitters, annotating his recipe, “Note.—No bitters should ever be used in making this drink, but an olive is sometimes added.”

As for the actual origins of the Gibson, that’s where the fun really starts. Just as with the Martini and many other simple cocktails, there are lots of origin stories, each attaching fame and glory to one Gibson or another.

There are origin stories from Paris, London, New York, Chicago, and San Francisco. In one of the stories, the Gibsons (there are two of them) are actually young ladies. Barnaby Conrad III, in The Martini, tells this story:

…Steve Zell at the Occidental Grill in San Francisco says the name came out of Chicago. “You’ll notice that Gibsons are usually served with two skewered onions. I heard that during the twenties in Chicago there were twin sisters named Gibson who loved Martinis but hated olives. Whenever they’d go out, they’d get the bartenders to use two pickled onions—twins for twins.

Cute story. As bogus as they come, but cute.

Two of the origin stories actually have a chance at being (sort of) true. The one that’s been most circulated until recently is that the drink is named after Charles Dana Gibson, the famous New York advertising illustrator who invented the Gibson Girl. The gist of the story is that Gibson was at the Player’s Club in New York, and challenged the bartender, Charley Connolly, to make him a better Martini. Connolly plopped an onion in his standard Martini, called it the “Gibson,” and that was that.

The story that seems to have gained traction recently among people who study these things posits that the Gibson Cocktail was first poured at San Francisco’s Bohemian Club sometime in the 1890s. The namesake Gibson in this story is a Walter D. K. Gibson,  apparently a successful local businessman. According to Eric Felton’s research, the credence of this version is supported by an 1898 reference to the drink, which appears to be the first in print.

Making the Gibson

Whatever its origin, the Gibson is one of the simplest of cocktails, even simpler than the venerable Martini to which it is often compared.

Early published recipes call for equal parts of gin and vermouth. I’ve seen some commentary suggesting that the original was actually much drier than the published formulas state, but I’ve never seen anything to support that. I do prefer to make the Gibson at about 2:1 or 3:1. I also recommend the classic London Dry gins like Beefeater and Bombay Dry; they both blend well with the savory nose and flavor of the onion.

The onion itself can be a difficult customer. The typical grocery store cocktail onion is a sharp, rather harsh item; it makes a nice-looking decoration in the drink, but doesn’t help the flavor of your drink, and is unpleasant to eat by itself, unless you have a particular taste for preservatives and vinegar.

Fortunately, the web is full of good recipes for cocktail onions. They’re quick and easy to make (for anyone who can boil water), and the result is both gratifying and delicious.

Gin, vermouth, onion: that is the Gibson. Simple, cold, clean, crisp, and urbane.

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“Chasing the Gibson Cocktail” at cold-glass.com : All text and photos © 2016 Douglas M. Ford. All rights reserved.