Seelbach cocktail origin is actually fake

Bartender Adam Seger has revealed that the story behind the origin of his classic Seelbach cocktail is fake.

The Seelbach is a mix of Bourbon, triple sec, Angostura Bitters, Peychaud’s Bitters and topped with sparkling white wine

The Seelbach is a combination of Bourbon, triple sec, Angostura Bitters, Peychaud’s Bitters, and topped with sparkling white wine. The cocktail is named after the Seelbach Hotel in Louisville, Kentucky, which was mentioned briefly in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby.

In 1995, Seger who was in charge of the hotel bar at the time, came up with a signature cocktail for the bar with an elaborate story behind it.

The story involved a New Orleans couple who were on their honeymoon at the hotel in 1912. The man ordered a Manhattan, the woman ordered a Champagne cocktail. The Seelbach cocktail was born from the bartender’s clumsiness of accidentally spilling the Champagne into the Manhattan.

The cocktail was covered in various news outlets and spirit books including New Classic Cocktails, a 1997 book by Gaz Regan and Mardee Haidin Regan and Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails by drinks historian Ted Haigh.

Seger who left the hotel in 2001 decided to come clean and revealed that he concocted not only the drink but also the story behind it.

“I was nobody,” Seger told the New York Times. “I had no previous accolades in the bar world. I knew I could make a great drink. I wanted it to be this promotion for the hotel, and I felt the hotel needed a signature cocktail. How could you have a place that F. Scott Fitzgerald hung out in that doesn’t have a damn cocktail?”