Hugo R. Ensslin

1878–1929

Wrote a wildly influential cocktail book as Prohibition loomed

Hugo Ensslin was an obscure bartender in second tier New York hotels, but he left behind “Recipes For Mixed Drinks” (1916 and 1917 editions), the last major cocktail books prior to Prohibition. His book was packed with dozens of new drinks, and later widely plagiarized by Harry Craddock and Patrick Gavin Duffy. Ensslin apparently committed suicide over unrequited love in 1929. He is buried in the Gates of Heaven cemetery in Hawthorne, New York.