Jason Saura/Naga Cocktail Bar
To try Derek's recipe for the memorably named Suffering Bastard cocktail, click here.
I'd prefer to tell you that I've never lied, but that's just not true. Like many bartenders, I've told customers stories punctuated with little white lies to "enhance" their bar experience. When presented with the truth those stories give way: as with most honest people, I only lie in the absence of truth.
One lie I used to tell is that the Suffering Bar Steward was mispronounced by a Scottish bartender in Egypt and, as a result, it became the Suffering Bastard. I got this information from a source I never bothered to check (which makes it a touch more honest, as I believed it myself). However, it turns out, it's only a third true.
That bartender was Joe Scialom (pronounced Shalom), he was in Egypt, and he did invent the Suffering Bastard. Only he was an Italian Jew, and the drink was originally called the Suffering Bastard only to be changed to Suffering Bar Steward when customers complained about the vulgarity of the title. The veracity of this was confirmed by Jeff "Beachbum" Berry and Joe Scialom's daughter, Colette Roy, when I attended their seminar at Tales of the Cocktail entitled "Joe Scialom: International Barman of Mystery" a few weeks ago.