COCKTAIL NAPKINS (standard:non fiction, 671 words)
Author: Jennifer Green	Added: Apr 29 2002	Views/Reads: 5268/1	Story vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
A brief, amusing history of the delightful cocktail napkin.

THE COCKTAIL NAPKIN 

Copyright 2002 Jennifer Green 

There are so many things in our lives which we use, enjoy, and discard
almost without thinking.  Consider the lowly cocktail napkin.  Who was 
the first enterprising hostess or barkeep to use this lovely, 
utilitarian item?  We so love to see its small, yet purposeful shape 
before us while the bartender fixes our favorite concoction.   How 
simple, how elegant, and how utterly indispensable if, while imbibing, 
one attends to a personal detail such as wiping off lipstick or dabbing 
at an errant drop of wine. 

If you research cocktail napkins, their history is sketchy.  One is
forced to extrapolate from their big brothers, the paper napkin, to 
whom history has been more attentive.   In the 1930's, the Scott Paper 
Company first introduced paper napkins.  They also were first to offer 
pastel colored paper napkins in 1957.   Currently paper napkins are a 
huge market, with dozens of companies carrying all manner of shapes, 
sizes and designs.   And their little sisters, the cocktail napkins, 
are also readily available in a myriad of colors and designs. 

One can only speculate that sometime soon after the 1930's, when paper
napkins were first introduced, some enterprising bar manager or hostess 
had the presence of mind to acquire a smaller, neater version for 
cocktails, probably sometime around the late 30's or early 40's. 

We also need to look into the history of the cocktail to discover more
about these fascinating little champions of neatness and pleasure.  
Wine and liquor has a long and fascinating history for humankind.  
During Prohibition in the 1920's, cocktails and speakeasies flourished, 
since it was illegal to publicly consume alcohol.   Private homes and 
clubs became the means for imbibing.  However, because of the forbidden 
nature of Prohibition, drinking and cocktails ironically became even 
more wildly popular, leading to the eventual repeal of Prohibition in 
1933. 

Cocktails were all the rage in the 30's, 40's and 50's, partly because
of Prohibition's lingering effects, and their glamorous association 
with the glitz and glamour of Hollywood and the burgeoning movie 
industry.  Enterprising restaurateurs also contributed to their success 
and popularity with the invention of more and diverse recipes and 
appealing clubs and bars to drink them in.  Trader Vic of California, 
the inventor of the Mai Tai, is particularly noteworthy here.  
Cocktails and cocktail parties had their peak in the 50's, then in the 
more casual 60's declined somewhat, as tastes changed. 

Since the 90's to the present, cocktails and their tidy companions have
regained much of their popularity, with the emphasis more on quality, 
and not quantity of drinking. 

Currently cocktail napkins are carefully printed up for special
occasions, such as weddings, and class reunions.  They have even been 
used for advertising.  And who can forget the somewhat ribald jokes our 
parents brought home, printed on the cocktail napkins carefully saved 
from a memorable evening out? 

And how many ingenious business ideas, song lyrics and even literary
gems were first scribbled upon their tiny backs, forcing the writer to 
use an economy and brilliance of phrasing perhaps he or she would 
otherwise lack? 

I once saw an elegant woman friend delicately pepper her napkin with
salt, before she set her glass upon it.  When I asked why she did so, 
she replied it was to keep the napkin dry.  What an ingenious idea. 

From such humble beginnings comes the cocktail napkin, spending a moment
in the dizzying heights of sophisticated society, only to be tossed out 
shortly thereafter with the next morning's trash.   From the lowliest 
corner bar, to the White House, what elegant martini or whisky sour 
would be complete without its spotless white companion, yet so eagerly 
replaced, as is its companion the cocktail, with another, and yet 
another. 

A moment of glory, then to be summarily dismissed.  That is the life of
our friend, our companion, the lowly, yet steadfastly loyal cocktail 
napkin.  There have been more elegant cloth napkins, yet never a cloth 
cocktail napkin.   And what an artless little thing it is indeed. 


Tweet