Bittersweet Christmas

Like nearly every small city in America, Madison’s booming cocktail scene of the early 2000s ended with the beginning of the COVID era. Truth be told, cocktails were dying prior to the pandemic, but the coronavirus was the proverbial coffin nail. Madison’s Capitol Area bars took huge hits when bar manager Grant Hurless left Heritage Tavern, Brocach closed its doors, and owner Mandy Arnold shuttered the Opus Lounge, one of our favorite bars in the world. The Merchant and Maduro remain, but the city is more about food again. Because of the current shortage of aluminum, small craft beer joints will also likely go the way of the dinosaurs, or like Lake Louie, get purchased by a big competitor. It’s sad times for the Lounge Lizards. As the Christmas season rolled around, we took one more blow- the announcement that the venerable Smoky’s Club is closing after 69 years to make way for one more dime-a-dozen apartment building. The end of Smoky’s is a huge deal in the history of drinking in Madison. Before Smoky’s, the club’s name was “Justo’s” from the surname of Madison’s Queen of the Bootleggers Jennie Justo. Jennie Justo was famed for running her Greenbush neighborhood speakeasy at 921 Spring Street during Prohibition (and another in Fahrenbrook Court), which was hardly secret on the University of Wisconsin campus. Her loyal patrons cried in their beers when the infamous scofflaw was sent to the Milwaukee House of Corrections for selling booze in 1931. She made her triumphant return to Madtown in 1932 to much fanfare and defiantly continued to flout the law in brazen fashion. Not to be outdone, the cops busted Jennie again; this time in April 1933 for selling gin. Even though a man who owned the property that Jennie was serving in claimed responsibility for Jennie’s actions, the state revoked Jennie’s probation and she was back in prison once more, this time serving 10 months. By the time she got out, Prohibition was over. Madison, of course, welcomed the Queen back. Five years later in 1939, Jennie met professional baseball player Art Bramhall and they opened a bar and restaurant on University Avenue not named “Bramhall’s,” but “Justo’s” to cash in on Jennie’s Prohibition notoriety. The two would run Justo’s at that location for thirty years. Then in 1969, Leonard ‘Smoky’ Schmock and his wife Janet bought Justo’s in order to move the original Smoky’s restaurant to this special location. Passed down to their sons, Larry and Tom, the Schmock family have run the establishment continuously until February 2022 when they will be forced to shut down. At that time, the Justo-Schmock families’ historic alcohol landmark will be demolished. Another curt reminder that nothing lasts forever. We’ll say goodbye to Smoky’s with the best way I know how, with a drink on Smoky’s menu that fits both the vibe of the bar during the 80s-90s and also has, at its core, the classic Manhattan recipe that harkens back to Justo’s heyday. The recipe for that drink, ‘Marty’s Tini,’ is below. Of our many much-loved Christmastime entries in the Firewater Lounge, this may be the most bittersweet. And while Smoky’s bar and Jennie’s speakeasy may be physically gone, their legacy is not. You see, back in 1996, Cindy and I moved off campus, I grabbed Stiff’s makeshift bar, and started pouring drinks for UW students in the know- the beginning of our own Firewater Lounge. Those that drank there probably didn’t realize they were on Spring Street, the same short Madison street where Jennie and her speakeasy patrons reveled at sixty-plus years before.

Marty's Tini

Classic Pours

2 ounces bourbon (Smoky’s uses Woodford) 1 ounce sweet vermouth ½ ounce Chambord

Pour all ingredients into an iced stirring vessel. Stir until cold, about 40 revolutions. Strain into a cocktail glass. Smoky’s always used a big cocktail glass, which we used in our picture- it holds a double of the recipe.