The Cuddle Bowl

The Brazilian-Italian architect and designer Lina Bo Bardi was born in Rome in December of 1914 as Achillina Bo. Early in her life she decided to study architecture during a time when architecture schools accepting women were few and far between. She ended up studying at the Rome College of Architecture where she graduated in 1939. After school in 1942 she opened her own office in with a school friend but with the onset of WWII there weren’t many openings for architects and she had to take on jobs as a writer and illustrator for the Italian architecture magazine Domus.

During her time at Domus she was sent to Rome to interview an art historian called Pietro Maria Bardi. Despite her being part of the resistance and Pietro Maria Bardi being an ardent supporter of Mussolini they fell in love. After the war they had no other option but to flee the country for São Paulo, Brazil where Pietro had been commissioned to head an art museum.

Coming to Brazil the couple immediately immersed themselves in the Brazilian cultural scene and Bo Bardi was enthralled by the country’s modernist architects like Oscar Niemeyer and Lucio Costa.

In 1951 she designed and built one of her most celebrated works, Casa de Vidro (the Glass House) in the outskirts of São Paulo for her and her husband. Here she stayed until her passing in 1992.

That same year, 1951, she designed the Bowl Chair. With her own design vision calling for “a process of humanization of art” she made the chair “in relation with the proportions of the human body”. The semi-spherical seat can be moved independent of the steel frame making it recline to whatever position the sitter prefers. In 1953 it was featured in the US magazine Interiors where it was described as a “cuddle bowl”.

Snowball Fight

The Snowball is a British creation from the 1940s made with the Dutch egg and brandy liqueur Advocaat, lime, brandy and lemonade. It is as Christmassy as the Egg nog but much lighter. The drink didn’t really catch a big audience until the 1970s when it started being served without the finesse achieved by the lime and brandy, ingredients needed to cut through the otherwise incredibly sweet Advocaat.

The earliest mention of the predecessor of Advocaat is found in Dutch texts from the 17th century describing a yellow-colored alcoholic drink made from avocados. Most likely Dutch sailors were introduced to a drink called Abacate during their travels to South America and the West Indies. Abacate is a yellow-colored alcoholic drink made from avocados that was popular in the area that is now Brazil. The Dutch took a liking to it and started to produce their own in the Dutch Antilles.

Back in the harsher climate of the Netherlands, where there were no avocados to be found, they tried to recreate the texture and look of the drink using egg yolk instead. The name Abacate simply turned into Advocaat in Dutch and the Advocaat of today was born.

Another explanation for the name, which is Dutch for lawyer, is explained in the 1881 edition of a Dictionary of the Dutch Language where it says that “Advocaat is a good lubricant for the throat and thus considered especially useful for a lawyer, who must speak in public.”

The glass was designed by Italian designer Federico de Majo in 2015 and is called Bilia.

Snowball

2 parts Advocaat
1/2 part Lime juice
1/2 part Brandy
3 parts Lemon soda

Shake all ingredients except lemon soda with ice. Strain into chilled glass and add lemon soda. Garnish with a Maraschino cherry and enjoy.

Dubo, Dubon, Dubonnet

Dubonnet came into being in 1846 after a competition was held by the Frenchgovernment with a prize for anyone who could make a palatable quinine-rich drink. The French colonists in North Africa were suffering greatly from malaria and the only known cure was the incredibly bitter bark from the South American cinchona tree. The goal was to create a drink with enough of the quinine to help the French combat malaria but still be enjoyable enough to be used voluntarily.

Joseph Dubonnet created his Dubonnet by mixing Roussillon wines from five different grapes, blending them with herbs and spices like cocoa beans, colombo (a mild type of curry powder), orange peel, Colombian green coffee, cinnamon, camomille and elderflower. He then left it to mature in oak vats for three to four years.

One part of the success of Dubonnet is most certainly their marketing. In 1932 they hired the great designer and illustrator A. M. Cassandre who created the Dubonnet Man with a Bowler hat/Derby hat and a text reading Dubo, Dubon, Dubonnet.

The Dubonnet Cocktail first appeared in print around 1914 in a book simply called Drinks by Jacques Straub but no one knows who first created it.

In Harry Craddock’s The Savoy Cocktail Book from 1930 the same cocktail appears under a different name, the Zaza Cocktail. The name Zaza was taken from a popular French play written by playwrights Pierre Berton and Charles Simon, and first staged at the Théâtre du Vaudeville in Paris in 1889. The play about a married man having an affair with an actress was translated into English and went on to become a huge success on Broadway and lent its name to a cocktail.

To complicate matters even further you can also find the same cocktail by the name The Queen’s Cocktail owing to the fact that it was the late Queen Elizabeth’s favorite cocktail. She is said to have had one every day before lunch, albeit made with two parts Dubonnetto one part gin instead of the original equal parts.

The silver beaker was designed in 1938 by the Swedish Prince Sigvard Bernadotte and is called Beaker 819B.

Too High End For a Low-Cost Competition

The lounge chair was designed by Charles and Ray Eames for the Museum of Modern Art’s competition “International Competition for Low-Cost Furniture Design” in New York in 1948. The competition challenged designers to develop cost effective furniture designs to be used in smaller houses in the postwar era. The guidelines stated that the works “fit the need of modern living, production and merchandizing”. MoMa ended up receiving over 3,000 submissions from all over the world.

The sculptural design of La Chaise was inspired by the ‘Floating Figure’ a work made by sculptor Gaston Lachaise who gave his name to this icon of modern design. You can actually find the original ‘Floating Figure’ at MoMa so Charles and Ray didn’t have to travel far to get their inspiration for the competition.

The La Chaise didn’t win the competition as it was considered too large but it did get a mention for its outstanding form. It was intended to be released by Herman Miller in 1950 but was considered too expensive to produce and was never manufactured. This might have been another reason it didn’t win. It was a competition for low-cos furniture after all.

It took another 40 years until Vitra put La Chaise into production in 1991, first in fiberglass as the original from 1948 but since 2001 Vitra uses polyurethane.

In the same MoMa competition the legendary Art Director of Harper’s Bazaar, Alexey Brodovitch competed with his Floor Chair (model 1211-C). It was a plywood rocking chair that was described as “exceptionally simple and comfortable” made with inexpensive materials and a basic construction. With his Floor Chair Mr. Brodovitch was awarded third prize.

The Remains of a Bullfighter

Rudolph Valentino was one of the biggest stars during the heyday of the silent movie era. In 1922 he played the lead in an adaptation of a novel by Vincente Blasco Ibáñez, by some considered to be his best performance. The silent film is called Blood and Sandwas a tale of a poor man making it big as a celebrated bullfighter. Having married his childhood sweetheart early in his career Valentino’s character starts an affair with a wealthy widow after becoming famous. Second thoughts led his furious lover to take her revenge on the bullfighter by exposing the affair to his wife. The ordeal makes him lose focus in the arena and he gets killed by a bull, but not before being forgiven by his wife. A big drama that inspired a classic cocktail.

The movie was by no means a masterpiece. In a review it was noted that “It is the story’s name and not the story or plot that made ‘Blood and Sand’ the big hit”. The movie was big enough success though to inspire a bartender, no one knows who, to create an unexpectedly great cocktail. It is said that the amber Cherry Heering is supposed to play the role of the blood and the orange juice plays the role of sand.

This 100 year old classic scotch cocktail was first published in Harry Craddock’s Savoy Cocktail Book from 1930 as was the case with a long line of classics.

The glass is called Harlekiini and was designed in 1958 by Nanny Still.

Go Vote America!

Just a quick reminder to all our American friends. Vote! Especially if you live in the swing states of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

You can find out where at iwillvote.com

Halloween Discount Extravaganza

It’s time to celebrate Halloween, Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) and All Saint’s Day or to simply scare the living daylights out of your friends and family. Mobilità Studio is celebrating with a 20% discount on all Halloween related prints, that is to say Bloody Mary, Last Word, Corpse Reviver, Death in the Afternoon, Zombie, Black Velvet and El Diablo.

The sale is from Monday October 31 to Sunday November 6. Just remember to use discount code HALLOWEEN at checkout.

Have a great week.

The Spooky Side of Sean Connery

Come October mobilità goes pumpkin hunting to select the finest, and usually the largest, pumpkin we can find. Then we get out our carving tools.

We have gone through most of the Ratpack with Dean Martin in 2018, Sammy Davis Jr. in 2019 and Frank Sinatra in 2020 and stayed in the music business in 2021 with Elvis Presley.

In 2022 we have left the singers behind and headed to the movies selecting the (in our humble opinion) best ever James Bond actor Sean Connery. True to the Holiday spirit however, we made him just a tad spooky.

Have an amazingly terrifying Halloween!

How To Revive A Corpse

Rather than being just a cocktail the Corpse Reviver is actually a family of cocktails emerging in the mid 1800s. The only thing the family have in common being that they are strong enough to bring you back from the dead.

Back in the day bartenders served these to their customers the day after a particularly rough night. It was first mentioned in the English satirical magazine Punch in 1861 and the recipe was first published in The Gentleman’s Table Guide by E Ricket and C Thomas in 1871. This first published version called for equal parts Brandy and Maraschino with two dashes of Boker’s bitters. 

The popularity and spread of the different Corpse Reviver versions can be tributed to Harry Craddock and his Savoy Cocktail Book. In the book he lists two versions, a No 1 and a No 2. The first is made of two parts Cognac and one part each of Calvados and Italian vermouth. Craddock notes that it is “To be taken before 11AM, or whenever steam or energy is needed”. The No 2 is said to have the same effect but is made with entirely different ingredients. Equal parts of Gin, Cointreau, Kina Lillet (a product that is discontinued and usually replaced with Cocchi Americano) and lemon juice with a couple of dashes of Absinthe. About the No 2 Mr Craddock writes “Four of these taken in swift succession will unrevive the corpse again”. 

Interestingly Trader Vic Bergeron lists the Corpse Reviver No 2 in his Bartender’s Guide using the same recipe as Savoy but substitutes Swedish Punsch for Kina Lillet. The Swedish Punsch is an Arrack based liqueur, popular in Sweden and Finland ever since it was first imported from Java in 1733. It is a pretty bold choice by Trader Vic considering the Punsch is very far from the original bitter quinine rich Kina Lillet. Then again, the Trader wasn’t known for shying away from a sweet exotic drink. So as not to confuse the two versions of No 2, the Punsch version is sometimes called No 2A in bars. 

The glass was designed by Arley Marks and Jonathan Mosca in 2019 and is called Hour Glass. 

Corpse Reviver No 2

1 part Gin
1 part Cointreau
1 part Cocchi Americano
1 part Lemon juice
2 dashes Absinthe
1 Maraschino cherry garnish

Shake all ingredients with ice. Strain into chilled glass and garnish with a Maraschino cherry.

Just remember not to have more than three…

Swedish Glass Design At Its Best

The world famous Orrefors Glassworks started in 1898 replacing an iron works from 1726 in the small village of Orrefors in the middle of the great woodlands of Småland in the south of Sweden.

In 1913 the glassworks were bought by Johan Ekman and Orrefors started producing cut crystal and advanced artful glass using overlay technique with etched decor. It didn’t take the management long to realize they needed artists and designers as well as great craftsmanship. Just three years after acquiring the factory two Swedish design legends were hired, Simon Gate in 1916 and Edward Hald in 1917.

The two artists started almost immediately to work with advanced engravings and creating glass with the Graal technique, developed by Orrefors’s master glassblower Knut Bergqvist. The Graal technique means that a colored layer of glass is encased by a transparent layer. The glass is let to cool down before being engraved or etched, then reheated and blown into its final shape.

The designs were so successful that both Gate, Hald and Orrefors were awarded the Grand Prix during the Paris Exhibition in 1925.

The same year, after finishing design school in Gothenburg, a future master in glass design, Nils Landberg was recommended to start studying engraving in Orrefors. Two years later he became part of the glassworks team, first as an engraver but in 1936 he became a designer in his own right. Undoubtedly his most famous designs are the Tulip vases from the 1950s made in a vast number of sizes, shapes and colors. These vases earned him the gold medal at the Trienniale di Milano in 1957.

Orrefors has kept finding incredible designers over the years making the company and Swedish glass known all over the world.

The Day Of the Skeleton

Día de los muertos is celebrated in Mexico on the first and second of November and the country is filled with skeleton decorations called Calacas in Spanish. Mexican academics have different views on whether the celebration is dating back to the pre-Hispanic Mayans and Aztecs and were integrated with the European customs or if it is simply an adaptation from the Medieval European All Saint’s Day and All Soul’s Day. Traditions that are observed on the same days in Europe, especially in Catholic Southern Europe where altars were made for the dead and sweets and breads were eaten in the shape of skulls and bones.

The celebrations in Mexico have however transformed into something typically Mexican and in 2008 it was made into a Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO.

During the Day of the Dead families make “ofrendas” for their deceased loved ones containing pictures and memorabilia of the dead along with their favorite food and drinks as a tribute. The ofrendas are also decorated with sugar skulls, calacas, Mexican marigold and papel picado (delicately cut out colored tissue paper).

Since Día de los muertos is a day to remember everything about the ones you loved it is more of a happy celebration of the dead rather than a sad reminiscing. This is why you will find decorations with skeletons doing everyday things like riding a bike, dancing or drinking. Why should people stop doing what they loved just because they turn into skeletons?

The pictures and sculptures of skeletons became incredibly popular in the early 1900s thanks to a political cartoonist called José Guadalupe Posada. He used calacas and calaveras (skeletons) for his political and cultural critiques. His most famous character is La Calavera Catrina, a satirical portrait of a Mexican aspiring to look like a European aristocrat.

Biker Kid

Before Tony Anthony started Anthony Brother’s Refrigeration Co he worked as an engineer at Northrop where he learned all he needed to know about cast-aluminum. After WWII there was a shortage of steel but an abundance of cheap recyclable aluminum thanks to the decreased demand for airships. 

In 1949 Tony Anthony designed the ingenious Convert-O-Bike that can easily be transformed from a tricycle to a bicycle. When the kid is old enough you simply remove the rear axle, detach one of the rear wheels and fit that in the rear fork. 

The Convert-O-Bike is a made with a solid cast-aluminum frame that prevents it from rusting thus making it last a lifetime. The introduction in the late 1940s and the early 1950s proved to be perfect timing. The American housing market started booming and the Convert-O-Bike turned an immediate success becoming a regular feature in the American suburbia. 

Happy National Cinnamon Bun Day!

In 1999 the National Cinnamon Bun Day was established in Sweden and since then every 4th of October 7 million cinnamon buns are sold in Sweden, quite a lot considering Sweden has a population of 10,5 million.

By Jove It's the Real Hanky Panky!

Ada Coleman, or just ”Coley” as she was known by her friends and customers, was a true bartender legend. As head bartender at the American Bar at the Savoy in London between 1903 and 1926 she created and served cocktails to the likes of Mark Twain and the Prince of Wales.

A comedic actor called Charles Hawtrey was a regular at the bar during the 1920s and he frequently asked Mrs Coleman for new cocktails with a bit of punch in them. After some experimentation she came up with a cocktail she wanted him to try. Draining the glass Mr Hawtrey exclaimed “By Jove! This is the real hanky-panky!” and the name stuck. At the time hanky-panky meant ‘magic’ or ‘witchcraft’.

The Hanky Panky is quite similar to its predecessor the Martinez but instead of Maraschino and bitters Coleman used Fernet Branca.

In 1926 the Savoy decided to install an American as head bartender at the American Barand picked Harry Craddock, a legend in the making, who was already working the bar, while Ada Coleman retired to the hotel’s flower shop. Craddock was actually an englishman who emigrated to New York in 1897 but returned to England with an American accent as soon as Prohibition hit the US.

Mr Craddock went on to make the influential Savoy Cocktail Book in 1930 and creating classics such as the White Lady and the Corpse Reviver No 2.

The cocktail coupe is called Bon Bon and was designed by Helle Mardahl in 2020.

Hanky Panky

1 part Sweet Vermouth
1 part Gin
1 barspoon Fernet Branca
1 Orange twist

Stir the ingredients in a mixing glass filled with ice. Strain into chilled glass and garnish with an orange twist.

Enjoy the magic of Ada Coleman.

To the Moon And Back

On July 20 1969 Neil Armstrong was the first human setting foot on the moon after safely landing the Apollo 11 Eagle lunar module in the Sea of Tranquility. It was an incredible feat of engineering seen by 600 million people glued to their tv screens across the planet, effectively making the US take the lead in the space race. Four days, six hours and 45 minutes after leaving earth the crew of three, Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins returned safely to Earth. After a 21 day quarantine (nobody knew what disease or bacteria could be caught during space travel) the crew went on a 45 day, 24 country celebratory Apollo 11 “Giantstep Presidential Goodwill World Tour”.

Before traveling across the globe they celebrated with cocktails and the first cocktail they had after returning from space was a Moonwalk. The cocktail was the invention of Joe Gilmore, head bartender at the Savoy’s American Bar in London. Even though the world tour took the astronauts to London mr Gilmore never got a chance to serve them his concoction at his bar. Instead he made the crew a batch of the cocktail and sent it to the US along with Champagne and glasses and this was the very first cocktail they had after quarantine.

Commemorative cocktails seem to have been something of a speciality of Joe Gilmore’s. Apart from the Moonwalk he made several specialty cocktails for Winston Churchill’sbirthday parties as well as many drinks honoring royal weddings and births. He also made yet another space themed cocktail in celebration of the first international space mission in 1975, a drink called Link Up.

The cocktail glass, another product made in honor of the Apollo 11 expedition, was made by Libbey in 1969 and is called Moonshot.

Moonwalk

1 part Grand Marnier
1 part Grapefruit juice
1 dash Rose water
2 parts Champagne

Shake all but Champagne with ice. Strain into a Moonshot glass and top with Champagne.

Enjoy while looking at the amazing photos on nasa.gov or watching your favorite sci-fi movie.

The Queen's Cocktail

As a way of sending Her Late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II off I could think of nothing better than to raise a glass of the Queen’s Cocktail, also known as the Dubonnet Cocktail. The classic proportions are equal parts of Dubonnet and Gin (as had by the Queen Mother who also favored this particular cocktail) but the Queen preferred a little lighter version with two parts Dubonnet to one part gin.

¡Viva México!

Today, September 16, is Mexican Independence Day in memory of their independence from Spain in 1810. What better way to celebrate than to have a Banderita, “Little flag”, a drink made up of three glasses, the first with freshly squeezed lime juice, the second with Tequila and the third with Sangrita, together making up the colors of the Mexican flag.

The Sangrita, playing the role of chaser (or rather of a sipper) in the Banderita, should rather be considered the star and is in itself said to make or break a Mexican restaurant. The Sangrita, meaning “Little blood” in Spanish, is a very traditional drink originating in Jalisco, the Mexican state where tequila is made. It is said to have been made from the leftover juices at the bottom of a bowl of pico de gallo, a fruit salad popular in Guadalajara. The juice was poured into clay cups and was drunk together with tequila after dinner as a well needed digestif.

The Mexican versions of the Sangrita is generally more citrus focused with grapefruit, orange and lime whilst American recipes tend to lean more towards tomato juice, rather like a citrusy Virgin Mary, and just like a Bloody Mary, every bar has its own take. Whatever the base, the Sangrita is there to perfectly balance the earthy notes of the tequila, enhancing rather than masking its flavor.

The glasses are called Fasetti and were designed by Finnish designer Kaj Franck in 1964.

Sangrita

1 part Tomato juice
1 part Lime juice
1 part Pomegranate juice
1/2 part Orange juice
1/3 part Grenadine
1 dash Hot pepper sauce
2 dashes Worchestershire sauce
black pepper
salt

Shake all ingredients with ice and strain into glass.

¡Viva México!

God Save the Queen

Considering the sad passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, who ruled for longer than any other Monarch in British history, the Black Velvet seemed a proper tribute honoring the Queen’s memory.

The Black Velvet was first served in 1861 as a tribute to another British Royal, Prince Albert, the husband of Queen Victoria, after his death of typhoid fever. It was created after a steward at Brook’s Club in London ordered that even Champagne should be in mourning, dressed in all black.

Prince Albert was famously supportive of the working class whom he described as “that class of our community who have most of the toil and fewest of the enjoyments of this world”. At the time of Prince Albert’s passing, porter (getting its name from the porters working on the streets of London) and stout were the preferred drinks of the working class so combining stout and the upper class Champagne was like making the British come together in mourning. 

The Fujiyama glass was designed by Keita Suzuki in 2012 and made at the Japanese glassworks Sugahara. The design is inspired by Mount Fuji and when used for beer the head will form a snowy top on the mountain.

Black Velvet

1 part Guinness
1 part Champagne

Slowly pour the Guinness and then the Champagne in a chilled glass. Stir gently.

A Car Exec and the Last Word of a Vaudeville Performer

In the early 1900s the president of the Packard Motor Car Company, Henry Bourne Joy, thought that his likes in the booming automobile industry ought to have a proper club instead of meeting in regular bars. He took the already existing Detroit Athletic Club, founded in 1887, and together with 108 prominent Detroiters he hired an accomplished architect to create a stately building in the center of Detroit’s entertainment district. Architect Albert Kahn had recently traveled to Italy and was inspired in his design by Palazzo Borghese and Palazzo Farnese in Rome when he set out to build the six story Clubhouse, which was completed in 1915.

The club featured athletic facilities, pools, restaurants, ball rooms, guest rooms and, of course, a bar and this is where the Last Word cocktail saw the light of day around 1915. The creator is likely to be vaudeville performer Frank Fogarty, also known as the Dublin Ministrel for his Irish anecdotes. Fogarty was performing at Detroit’s Temple Theater at the time, and the name of the cocktail might be an allusion to the monologue with which he closed his act.

The recipe for the Last Word didn’t appear in print until Ted Saucier’s 1951 Bottoms Upwhere he calls Fogarty “a very fine monologue artist”. After Bottoms Up the cocktail fell out of favor until bartender Murray Stenson at the Zig Zag Café in Seattle found it in the Saucier book in 2004. Stenson made it a hit starting in Seattle and Portland and finally finding its way around the world.

The cocktail glass was designed in 1964 by Polish glass designer Wszewłod Sarnecki.

Last Word

1 part Gin
1 part Green Chartreuse
1 part Maraschino
1 part freshly squeezed lime juice
1 Maraschino cherry garnish

Shake all ingredients with plenty of ice. Strain into chilled cocktail glass and garnish with a maraschino cherry.

Enjoy while looking through Ted Saucier’s Bottoms Up looking for new cocktails that deserve a second chance.

A Taste of the Caribbean

The Painkiller is essentially a riff on the Piña Colada, created in Puerto Rico in 1954. The only difference being the addition of orange juice and nutmeg. It was first made some twenty years later by Daphne Henderson, owner of a small bar called the Soggy Dollar Bar at White Bay on the island of Jost Van Dyke in the British Virgin Islands. The bar got its name due to the fact that White Bay lacked a jetty and the patrons usually swam to shore from their boats and ending up with a pocket full of wet bills.

One of the frequent guests enjoying the Painkiller was Charles Tobias, founder of Pusser’s Rum. Even after becoming friends with Daphne Henderson he tried to get her to reveal her secret concoction but she persistently refused. After two years he finally snuck a drink from the bar, brought it home and started experimenting on his own to recreate the drink. The following Sunday he was back and challenged Ms Henderson to a $100 bet and taste test among the ten customers at the bar to settle which version was better. A bet he won.

Originally the drink was made with Cruzan Rum, a product of the US Virgin Islands(Pusser’s Rum Ltd. didn’t start until 1979 and wasn’t around when the Painkiller was created), but in 1989 Charles Tobias managed to file a US trademark on the name and recipe for the Painkiller making it illegal to call it a Painkiller if it’s not made with Tobias’sown Pusser’s Rum. In 2011 Pusser’s Rum even took a New York Tiki bar named Painkillerto court both for using the trademarked name and for serving Painkillers made with rum other than Pusser’s. This in turn led to bartenders across the US to boycott Pusser’s.

The glass, called Ripple Cup, was designed in 2019 by French-American designer Sophie Lou Jacobsen.

Painkiller
2 parts Navy or Dark Rum
4 parts Pineapple juice
1 part Orange juice
1 part Coconut cream
1 Pineapple wedge
Freshly grated nutmeg

Shake with ice and strain into ice filled glass. Garnish with a pineapple wedge and freshly grated nutmeg.

Enjoy it like you are in the Caribbean.