'Drinking Through The Decades' With North Shore Distillery

LAKE FOREST-LAKE BLUFF, IL - From Gorton Community Center: What better way is there to fight off the winter blues than with an interactive series centered around the art of cocktail making.

Collaborating with locally based North Shore Distillery, Gorton is proud to host six sessions with Sonja Kassebaum, one of the Distillery’s founders, for a spirited discussion of the history of cocktails over the last 150 years. Each month, she’ll explore, discuss, and sample what people were drinking during a specific period of time, starting with the birth of the cocktail in the mid-1800s. She’ll incorporate some local history along the way—including some interesting stories of the history of Lake Forest and Lake Bluff related to cocktails, spirits, and Prohibition.

“We are excited to offer such a unique series that dives into the history of the cocktail with hyperlocal history highlights along our very own North Shore,” says Libby Johnson, program director at Gorton. “The local partnership with Sonja and North Shore Distillery and history-rich offering speaks to the programing here at Gorton.”

The classes will take place the first Tuesday of the month, beginning on March 6 in the Stuart Community Room. Here is how the sessions will unfold:

March 6: Jerry Thomas and the First Cocktail Book, 1850s to 1880s
We’ll talk about Jerry Thomas, who wrote the very first cocktail book ever published, and some of the classic cocktails he wrote about.

April 3: The Golden Age of Cocktails, 1890s to 1920
We’ll make, taste, and discuss some of the amazing cocktails developed during the late 1800s and early 1900s, when classic cocktails had their first heyday. We’ll talk about some of the famous celebrity bartenders of the time and their creations, many of which are enjoying a renaissance in our current culture.

May 1: Prohibition and its Aftermath, 1920s to 1940s
We’ll talk about what people were drinking during the Roaring 20s, and what they drank during the Great Depression, both here in the U.S. and abroad, where drinking was still legal. We’ll also discuss the birth of the Moscow Mule, one of the most popular drinks today, which was invented in the 1930s.

June 5: The Mad Men Era and the Dark Days of Cocktails, the 1950s through the 1970s
After World War II, as the US and the world returned to prosperity, certain cocktails again became part of our culture, and some new ones were created. And cocktail culture took a turn for the worse in many people’s eyes, when we favored sweet, dessert-style drinks and colorful, chemically altered drinks.

July 10: The Cosmopolitan and the Rebirth of the Cocktail Trend, 1980s through 2000s
In the 1980s, a little drink called the Cosmopolitan was invented. Meanwhile, some inventive bartenders were running programs in New York and certain other places that evoked the cocktail bars of the late 1800s and early 1900s, and a trend was begun. We’ll talk about some of these legends, some of the drinks they created, and sample a few of them along the way.

August 7: Current Cocktail Culture, circa 2018
In our final class, we’ll celebrate all that is available in today’s cocktail culture, and make/taste some new creations that deserve a place in the cocktail cannons. We’ll discuss some of the great bartenders working today and promoting their craft, as well as some of the current trends visible in cocktails and bars in the U.S.

You may sign up by class for $30 each or attend all six for $160. To purchase tickets to this event, visit gortoncenter.org.

Gorton Community Center is a privately-funded, nonprofit 501c3 organization that operates in partnership with volunteers and the City of Lake Forest to enrich the lives of its residents through cultural arts, education and charitable service. Gorton relies on the generosity of residents and businesses to help fund programs, services and building improvements offered in the historic building owned by the city.

Gorton Community Center: The gathering place in the heart of our community where people connect, converse, learn, listen, play and perform.

Images courtesy of Gorton Community Center