Along with the wheel, the Internet and the bikini, graphic novels are one of the best inventions ever. Let’s recognize graphic novels for what they truly are: really long comic strips. However, the term “graphic novel” has somehow made reading a giant book in comic form acceptable for grown men everywhere.
“Are you still reading comics? You’re 35.”
“Absolutely not. This is a graphic novel.”
Nailed it.
So what happens when someone combines a cocktail menu with a graphic novel? Pure magic. And, lucky for you, the graphic novel version of a cocktail menu is not a mythical creature; it’s real and it exists at a bar in NYC.
According to the Esquire blog, the new menu/graphic novel hybrid was recently unveiled at The Dead Rabbit Grocery and Grog, a bar that combines Old New York and Irish-American tradition. The menu goes with their recent bunch of Irish whiskey cocktails, so naturally the hero of the story is John Morrissey, a nineteenth century Irish-American. Morrissey, as described by the menu, is a: “Wharf-rat, chicken-thief, prize-fighter, congressman, senator… a defiantly American tale – with an Irish accent.”
In the story, Morrissey earns his nickname, Old Smoke, “after he found his back pinned down to a fallen stove’s coals – his flesh burning – and fought his way to victory.” Esquire also says that his list of preoccupations and occupations include: brothel bouncer, Gold Rush gambler, Tammany Hall elbow-rubber, member of the Dead Rabbits, enemy of Bill the Butcher, and racecourse cofounder in Saratoga Springs, New York.
The menu was designed by Drinksology and Mark Reihill.
By the way, if you think the graphic novel menu is a gimmick meant to detract from an overall mediocre experience, think again. The Dead Rabbit’s Jack McGarry was just selected as the #1 bartender in America by the Daily Meal and the bar itself was consistently voted as one of the best new bars in 2013. Put that in your pipe and smoke it.