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Classic Cocktail Recipes

Nobody can say for sure where or when the first mixed drink originated.

It might have been during the Revolutionary War when, as the story goes, Besty's Tavern (in Elmsford, N.Y. - near Yonkers) poured a "bracer" from a bottle decorated with the tail feathers of a cock stolen from a Loyalist's barnyard.

Others place the cocktail's birthplace in Bordeaux, France where a popular 19th century drink was dubbed a coquetel.

Today, all we know for sure is the practice of mixing spirits only really caught on in polite American society in 1874 at the elegant Manhattan Club where the still popular Manhattan was born.

Below, check out our complete collection of New York cocktails featuring a bit complete recipes along with a bit of mellow history on how they got their start: