Jack Rose

Before corporate America overwhelmed New York City with its massive amounts of money, shallowness, and brainwashing, the Big Apple was a very lively and dangerous place. Historically, no other city housed such a menagerie of characters, lowlifes, gangsters, and crooks, whose activities gained them a healthy prominence and romantic fame. One of those guys was Jacob “Jack” Rosenzweig, aka Jack Rose. Born in Poland, this famous gambler of the day grew up in the late 1800s in Connecticut and later moved to New York City, where he opened a gambling den, Second Avenue. Although he was not of the caliber of Lucky Luciano or Meyer Lansky, he became very popular when he turned state’s evidence against Lieutenant Charles Becker, a crooked cop linked to bookies and gambling houses around town. Due to Jack Rose’s testimony, Becker was convicted and received the death sentence. Jack in turn became a hero for the common man. The Jack Rose cocktail was created in his honor in 1912 or 1913, using applejack as the dominant ingredient. It remained a crowd-pleaser throughout the Prohibition era because apple brandy was easy to bootleg and was considered one of the safest spirits of the day. We love the version with our homemade grenadine and believe that it makes a fantastic contribution to this Prohibition-era classic.