Jacob A. Grohusko

1876–1943

Earliest prominent Jewish cocktail bartender

Jack Grohusko was born in England to Russian Jewish parents and emigrated with them to the United States as an infant. Grohusko is known to have lived in Hoboken, New Jersey, and worked at various hotel bars in New York City before settling in for a successful decade at Baracca’s restaurant on Stone Street. It was here Grohusko published the first edition of his bar book, “Jack’s Manual”, a rather nice recipe book crippled by an incoherent way with measurements. The book includes the Brooklyn Cocktail, which is presumed to be a Grohusko original, and other novelties and corroborating recipes. Grohusko opened his own bar in 1910, and updated his book three more times during his career.