“Once, during Prohibition, I was forced to live for days on nothing but bread and water.”
–WC Fields.
Mr. Rain’s Funhouse, the restaurant at Baltimore’s Visionary Arts Museum, launched its first Annual Repeal Day Dinner this past Sunday (December 4). Inspired by this I’m thinking of commemorating the historic occasion with a celebratory dinner myself. Taking a cue from Mr. 
Rain’s chef, Bill Buszinski, whose own menu was a take-off of favorite fare from the Roaring Twenties, a dozen or so Oysters Rockefeller would be a good way to start the meal. And Buszinski’s main course, short ribs “cured” in root beer with braised fennel, is a concept that should be fun to do a riff on.
At Mister Rain’s Repeal Day dinner, each course was accompanied by a different cocktail based on picks from the Prohibition era. While I’ll probably serve wine with the oysters and the short ribs, there are plenty of enticing cocktail options to choose from for pre-dinner toasts to Repeal. Some of the more enduring offerings from the period include the Mary Pickford (white rum, pineapple juice, grenadine and a maraschino cherry); the French 75 (gin, lemon juice and simple syrup topped off with Champagne); and the Sidecar (Cognac, Cointreau and lemon juice served in a sugar rimmed cocktail glass).
My usual go-to cocktail is a simple Gin Rickey (gin, fresh lime and sparkling water), but I have 
nothing against other gin drinks including gimlets (“a real gimlet is half gin and half Rose’s Lime Juice and nothing else,” according to Raymond Chandler in The Long Goodbye) and Negronis (gin, sweet vermouth and Campari). While gin may was Prohibition’s favorite booze, whiskey cocktails were also sought after, including the Stone Fence (rye and apple cider), the Scofflaw (Rye, dry vermouth), and Belle-Femme (equal parts Canadian Club and red Dubonnet garnished with orange.)
“Prohibition has made nothing but trouble,” said Al Capone. Whether you raise a glass of gin, whiskey, beer, cider or wine, this is the week to toast the repeal of the Volstead Act.
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