Theophile Proulx

1861–1918

Left behind an insightful cocktail book

Theophile Proulx (who sometimes went by Theodore) was born in Montreal and wound up in Chicago bartending as a young man in the 1880s. Proulx doesn’t appear to have been well-known as a bartender, but he clearly had higher aspirations than slinging drinks, anyway, as he would soon become an attorney. Before doing so, however, he wrote and self-published a small book on mixology, “The Bartender’s Manual” (1888). In addition to introducing the Old Fashioned to print, Proulx’s book is mainly interesting—much like Kappeler a few years later—for how he wrote about drinks: in systematic, precise, insightful prose. Unlike terse formulas, Proulx reveals some of the thinking behind the recipes. Proulx is buried in Mt. Carmel Cemetery in Chicago.