Podcast ep. 75: Dr. Nicola Nice, How Women Brought the Cocktail Home
Jul 08, 2025•58 min
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Episode description
Dr. Nicola Nice is the author of The Cocktail Parlor: How Women Brought the Cocktail Home. This book helped me think about cocktails and entertaining more holistically. Clubs, bars, hotels, and restaurants may be where many drinks originally came to life, but women are the ones responsible for bringing them into the home.
The book has a nice forward by Robert Simonson, who Dr. Nicola says encouraged her to write the book, after she showcased to him how many women are overlooked in the history of cocktails.
Fun fact: the first-ever cocktail party was hosted by Miss Clara Bell Walsh in 1917 in my city of St. Louis. Doesn’t she look like a real party animal?
If you want to buy the book, you can find it here.
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit decodingcocktails.substack.com
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