That historic cocktail? It's a fake, admits the man behind the drink

New York

FOR the last 20 years, if you were in the bar business and knew one thing about bartender Adam Seger, it was that he was the man behind the Seelbach cocktail. The Seelbach is named after the Seelbach Hotel (today the Seelbach Hilton), a storied century-old lodging in downtown Louisville, Kentucky that is mentioned briefly in The Great Gatsby.

Shortly after being put in charge of the hotel's bar and restaurant operations in 1995, Mr Seger declared that he had discovered a recipe for a pre-Prohibition cocktail that was once the hotel's signature drink. He tested it, liked it and put it on the menu.