What Were the Rat Pack’s Cocktails of Choice?

Lori Acken 2 minutes ago

Rat Pack members Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., and Frank Sinatra as the group unwinds backstage at Carnegie Hall after entertaining at a benefit performance in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. — Bettmann/Getty Images

Rare is the photo of the Rat Pack that doesn’t feature the dapper fellas with a mic in one hand and a cocktail in the other. Or maybe resting on a nearby stool. Or, sometimes, even on a well-stocked bar right there on the stage.

So entwined were Frank, Dean, Sammy, Peter, and Joey and their collective reputation as boozy buds that they kept their rep even after it was revealed that H₂0 or apple juice often subbed in for the hard stuff onstage. So much the better to keep the performance swingin’ and the liquor flowing well into the night once the audiences were wowed.

As was the case with most things in the Pack’s universe — the clothes, the clubs, the company — what was in their glass mattered. No bottom-shelf booze or bottle of beer for these guys. Though their shared signature tipple was famously the Rusty Nail — a potent swirl of Scotch whisky and Drambuie — each man had his favorites, too.

Care to raise a glass like your favorite Rat Packer? Here’s how to stock your bar cart.

Frank Sinatra

Earl Leaf/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

“Alcohol may be man’s worst enemy, but the Bible says love your enemy.”

Ol’ Blue Eyes had an open mind when it came to a top-shelf tipple, but only one followed Frank through his life and into the next (he was buried with a bottle). That was Jack Daniel’s — the smoky, smooth, 90-proof stuff now marketed as “Sinatra Select.” And if you can count backward from three, you can craft yourself a “Frank’s Way.” Just grab your best crystal tumbler and toss in three cubes of ice. Add two fingers of Jack and a single splash of still water (Frank preferred Poland Spring).

“This is a gentleman’s drink,” Sinatra said of his stylish sipper. “This is nice.”

Dean Martin

“I once shook hands with Pat Boone, and my whole right side sobered up!”

Martin didn’t mind his tipsy reputation (“That’s how I got here, you know,” he quipped). But the devout Catholic was most likely to sport a faux drink onstage and leave the party early, or skip it entirely, so he could make it to Mass untarnished. But when he did drink — and he did plenty — he was the Rusty Nail‘s biggest fan. In keeping with the two-booze cocktail, the famed Rat Pack hangout Chasen’s created the Flame of Love in his honor: a shot of vodka, a splash of sherry, a couple of ice cubes, and flaming orange peels expressed into a Nick & Nora glass.

“I feel sorry for people who don’t drink,” Martin once said, quoting Jack Lemmon in Under the Yum Yum Tree. “When they wake up in the morning, that’s as good as they’re going to feel all day.”

Sammy Davis Jr.

“Alcohol gives you infinite patience for stupidity.”

Like his cohorts, Davis preferred his tipples strong and unfussy. But his own whisky of choice was a bit more exotic. For his relaxing times, Davis made it Suntory time, enjoying the Japanese whisky with his own take on the highball, comprised of two parts whisky topped with ginger ale. Davis’ devotion to Suntory was so well known that Suntory tapped the entertainer to advertise the whisky — a partnership that inspired director Sofia Coppola to pay homage in Bill Murray‘s hilarious Suntory ad montage in the 2003 film Lost in Translation.