Clinton Cawood unearths the Bizzy Izzy Highball.
If this century-old cocktail hasn’t had the recognition it deserves over the years, the fault may lie with its questionable name, but certainly not the drink itself.
A glorious combination of rye or bourbon, sherry, pineapple and lemon juice, in Highball form, this is a decidedly modern drink, and well worth revisiting. It’s attributed to Tom Bullock, who included it in his book The Ideal Bartender, the first cocktail book written by an African American bartender, published in 1917, just three years before Prohibition.
The elements are all there in the book, minus soda water, but Bullock is vague on the details, such as the type of sherry, or how to prepare the thing, except for an instruction to “drop 1 piece of ice into a highball glass”.
The drink’s modern-day revival is largely due to the work of Al Sotack, formerly of Bushwick’s Jupiter Disco. His version uses fresh pineapple instead of syrup, adds Angostura Bitters, and settles on rye whiskey and amontillado sherry – although fino makes a lighter but no-less-appealing drink.
As for the name, we likely have early-1900s musical comedy Busy Izzy to thank, with lead character Izzy Mark, set in Busy Izzy’s Fun Emporium and Busy Izzy’s Dizzy Hotel.