Setting Up Your Own Retro Bar Part 3

Setting Up Your Own Retro Bar Part 3

Setting Up Your Own Retro Bar Part 3

To properly mix cocktails, you'll need some specialized accessories. Some of these can be vintage items, but sometimes modern gadgets actually work better. We'll give you a few hints.

Above all, remember this: the bar accessories that you use should be sturdy, durable and easy to clean. But it's also a lot of fun to collect the rare, the bizarre and the exotic bar gadgets, even if they're just put on display.

The Essentials

The first thing everyone assumes they need is a cocktail shaker. They're right. Most bartenders use a two-part combination: a large stainless cup and a large glass cup, and a strainer with a spring that fits over the top of one or the other when pouring. When shaking drinks, the glass part fits tightly into the stainless base, and it's shaken as a unit. No matter how tempting that fancy cocktail shaker looks, for all practical purposes you'll want to use this plain, utilitarian combination for day-to-day cocktail making. Collect the fancy shakers, certainly, but get a scratch or dent in that vintage penguin or smash that cobalt glass beauty because it slipped out of your hand, and it will spoil your whole evening.


Cocktail Shaker Set

Tools of the Trade

Drinks are stirred in a shaker using a long-handled, stainless cocktail spoon. The spoon showed here has a jigger in the end, which is another essential bar item. You should have several bar spoons in case you lose one. Some common inexpensive vintage bar spoons have spirally twisted metal handles with colorful bakelite or wooden balls at the end.


Cocktail Spoon and Vintage Bar Set With Bakelite Handles

Always use a jigger when mixing drinks; it's important that the ingredients are properly balanced. You can find dual-sided vintage chromium jiggers with red bakelite trim, which look quite nifty sitting on the bar. If you're really lucky, you'll find one of the Chase Top Hat jiggers shown here. These originally shipped with the golf club stirrers. Originally retailing for $1.50 in the thirties, a set of four stirrers and the hat jigger will set you back about $150 these days. Chase bar accessories are considered by many collectors to be the holy grail of bar gadgets.


Chase Top Hat Jigger and Jigger Set

An ice bucket is another necessity. You are probably familiar with the West Bend Penguin Hot and Cold server. Even though everyone has at least one of these, we still love them. The streamline design is classic, and the penguins are just too darn cute. Plan to pay $25 or less for one of these because they're so common. The average price range is $18-$25. Chase also made a lovely combination ice bowl and tongs set, which was designed by Russell Wright.


West Bend Penguin Hot and Cold Server

Other essential gadgets include a spring loaded champagne stopper, which keeps the bubbly bubbly for several days. Buy a new one, because the rubber inner seal dries out over time. The compact folding wine opener used by virtually all waiters and bartenders is shown on the left. It has a small knife for removing foil around the bottle neck, as well as a bottle cap opener and corkscrew. The corkscrew is twisted into the bottle, and then the tip of the bottle cap opener is pivoted against the lip of the wine bottle, enabling the cork to be levered out easily. Practice a few times; you'll get the hang of it. Or ask your waiter or bartender to show you.


Spring Loaded Champagne Stopper and Waiter's Helper Corkscrew

Whimsical bottle openers are collectible favorites. Pictured here are a lobster bottle opener, a rocket ship and a trio of the wonderful art deco "Screaming Parrot" bottle openers. Awk! Polly wants a Cosmopolitan!


Lobster, Rocket Ship and Screaming Parrot Bottle Openers

You'll also need pour spouts for each liquor bottle (get the ones with the hinged flap), a sharp paring knife for cutting fruit, and a variety of festive cocktail picks.


Pour Spouts, Paring Knife and Cocktail Picks

Some drinks, such as an Old Fashioned, call for muddled fruit. This is just fruit and sugar smashed (or 'muddled') in the bottom of a glass. There are specialized fruit muddlers you can buy; the Chase chromium and bakelite muddlers are gorgeous but for all practical purposes, you can just use a nice blunt wooden spoon handle or the ball end of a cocktail spoon.


Retro Glass Muddlers

Fun Stuff

Plastic souvenir swizzle sticks, are great fun to collect and use. Whole bags of these can sometimes be found at flea markets for just a few dollars. And reproduction novelty napkins from the 40s and 50s are sometimes offered in stationery or gift shops. When you see ones you like, stock up, because you may not find them again. Here's a bartender's trick for displaying paper cocktail napkins: take a stack at least an inch thick and place them on the edge of a table or bar. Push the heel of your hand against the napkins and rotate your hand from about ten o'clock to two o'clock. Reposition your hand and rotate again. The napkins now are fanned out in a nice spiral.


Plastic Souvenir Swizzle Sticks and Schenley Distributors Cloth Napkin

Cloth napkins and bar towels were also made in novelty prints. The above cloth napkin was made in 1938 by the Schenley Distributors of New York.

Eclectic Electrics

Blender drinks are the bane of a bartender's existence, but you can't avoid making them. So top your bar with a vintage Osterizer or one of the sturdy new reproductions. This is one vintage appliance that holds up under heavy use. The popularity of coffee drinks also means that a coffee maker is nice to have on the bar, as well. Always be sure all your vintage electric appliances have had their wiring checked for safety and rewired if necessary before using them.


Osterizer and Vintage Coffee Maker

Keep in mind that building your own bar should be all about you. If it starts to feel like a chore take a deep breath and remember why you're doing it to begin with. If you don't have a good place to build a bar in your current home, that doesn't mean you can't start collecting personalized barware for when you're ready. Whether you're searching for bar stools from your favorite time period or personalized bar glasses etched with a humorous phrase, everything that goes into your bar should reflect your personal style.