Tom Bullock

1873–1964

First African American to write a cocktail book, the second-to-last major cocktail book prior to Prohibition

Tom Bullock was born in Louisville and worked as a bellboy at the Pendennis Club before joining the bar team. Bullock may have also bartended at the Kenton Club, before moving to St. Louis, where he became the longtime bartender for the St. Louis Country Club. Bullock’s “The Ideal Bartender” was published in 1917, the first cocktail book by an African American, and contains an introduction by George Herbert Walker.