Cocktail · Medium strength

Bee's Knees

Gin, honey, lemon — Prohibition's way of making bathtub gin taste like spring.

How to order it: Honey syrup, not raw honey. Good gin makes it sing now that it's legal.

The story

The Bee's Knees is Prohibition slang in liquid form; the phrase meant "the absolute best" in the 1920s, applied here with a wink. Honey and lemon entered the gin glass at least partly to civilize the era's harsh bootleg spirit, though the most cited written recipe belongs to Frank Meier of the Ritz Paris, who published it in 1936, leading some to argue the drink is more Paris than speakeasy. Either way, it survived the repeal of the laws that arguably necessitated it. It endures because honey does something sugar cannot: it gives gin warmth, weight, and the faint suggestion of springtime.

Adjacent pours