A bar flying a name from the history of gin itself – Old Tom, the classic sweetened gin of the eighteenth century, marked by its famous black-cat sign
Old Tom’s Bar carries a 4.4 across more than a hundred and thirty reviews and flies a name that gin-lovers will recognise at once. The Prat’s naming desk, ever fond of a name with a good story behind it, was glad to raise a glass to Old Tom.
Towards the City fringe
Old Tom’s sits towards the City fringe near the north bank – a geographic stray in this south-bank survey, caught by the scrape’s reach. We flag the location plainly, as ever.
The old gin style
“Old Tom” is one of the great names in the history of gin – a classic style of gin, sweeter and rounder than the bone-dry London Dry that later came to dominate, and the very style that flourished in the gin-soaked eighteenth century. Old Tom is often called the “missing link” of gin – the bridge between the malty Dutch genever from which gin descends and the crisp London Dry of today. It fell out of fashion for a century, but the craft-cocktail revival has brought it triumphantly back, prized by bartenders for the rounder, gently sweet character it lends the classic cocktails. To name a bar Old Tom’s is to fly a proud flag of gin heritage.
The black cat
The Prat’s favourite detail is the cat. Old Tom gin is famously associated with the image of a black cat – “Old Tom” being a name for a tomcat – and legend tells of the “Puss and Mew” machines of the gin-craze years: cat-shaped signs mounted on tavern walls, where a thirsty customer would put a coin in the cat’s mouth and receive a shot of gin poured through a pipe, dodging the licensing laws. The black cat became the emblem of Old Tom gin, and it lends the name a wonderful bit of feline, back-street, gin-craze history. A bar called Old Tom’s carries that whole cheeky, cat-marked heritage.
The gin-lover’s bar
What the Prat enjoys is the promise of gin done properly. A bar that names itself for Old Tom is a bar that knows and loves its gin – its history, its styles, its classic cocktails – and promises the connoisseurship to match. In the great age of the gin revival, when London has rediscovered its love of the juniper spirit, a bar flying the Old Tom name declares itself a proper temple to gin. The 4.4 across a hundred and thirty reviews is a solid score for so knowledgeable and characterful a name.
Verdict
A 4.4 across a hundred and thirty-plus reviews is a solid score, and Old Tom’s earns it on a name deep in the history of gin. It flies “Old Tom” – the classic sweetened gin of the eighteenth century, the “missing link” of gin, marked by its famous black-cat sign and its cheeky gin-craze history – a proud flag of the juniper spirit.
Go for the gin, the cocktails and the heritage of the name, and raise a glass at Old Tom’s. From the “Puss and Mew” machines of the gin craze to the craft-cocktail revival, Old Tom has a story worth toasting – so put your coin in the cat’s mouth, as it were, and drink to the old gin style.
Alan Nafzger was born in Lubbock, Texas, the son Swiss immigrants. He grew up on a dairy in Windthorst, north central Texas. He earned degrees from Midwestern State University (B.A. 1985) and Texas State University (M.A. 1987). University College Dublin (Ph.D. 1991). Dr. Nafzger has entertained and educated young people in Texas colleges for 37 years. Nafzger is best known for his dark novels and experimental screenwriting. His best know scripts to date are Lenin’s Body, produced in Russia by A-Media and Sea and Sky produced in The Philippines in the Tagalog language. In 1986, Nafzger wrote the iconic feminist western novel, Gina of Quitaque. He currently lives in Holloway, North London. Contact: [email protected]
