Major Bailey

The Major Bailey is a Prohibition-era gin julep with a real paper trail: cocktail historian Dale DeGroff documents it as originating at Puncheon, the West 49th Street speakeasy Jack Kriendler and Charlie Berns ran before opening the legendary '21' Club in 1930. Jack and Charlie themselves reportedly called it "a mint Julep with gin" — muddled mint, gin, and a split of lime and lemon juice, served short over ice. It's the better-documented ancestor of the Southside, which followed the same shape minus the lemon. The drink turns up on tiki-adjacent lists today only because Victor "Trader Vic" Bergeron reprinted a version of it in his 1972 Bartender's Guide, Revised — decades after its speakeasy debut, and with nothing tropical about it beyond that reprint.

Older Than the Southside

Long before the Southside became a fixture of gin-and-mint arguments, Jack and Charlie were already pouring this drink at Puncheon, their pre-'21' speakeasy at 42 West 49th Street. Dale DeGroff, in The Craft of the Cocktail, documents the two men calling it plainly "a mint Julep with gin" — the same gin-mint-citrus frame the Southside would later use, but split between lime and lemon rather than committing to one, and served short over cubed ice rather than lengthened with soda.

When Jack and Charlie moved three blocks north in 1930 and opened '21', a close cousin of this drink reemerged under the Southside name, minus the lemon. Victor Bergeron picked up a version of the Major Bailey for his own 1972 Trader Vic's Bartender's Guide, Revised — which is the only reason it now gets filed alongside genuinely tropical drinks on tiki directories. The drink itself predates tiki culture by a decade or more and has nothing rum- or Polynesian-themed about it.

The Spec

Gin carries the drink; the split between lime and lemon is the detail that separates it from a plain gin julep — or from the Southside that followed it.

Two Citrus, Not One

Lime alone reads sharp next to the mint; lemon alone reads a little flat. Splitting the quarter-ounce between both rounds out the citrus without diluting the mint — the exact detail DeGroff points to as what distinguishes the Major Bailey from the Southside.

Crushed Ice and a Churn

Muddle the mint gently, shake everything else hard to chill it, then strain over crushed ice and give it a short churn with a bar spoon rather than serving it up. That's what keeps it reading as a julep instead of a shaken sour.

Bottom Line

A real Prohibition-era drink with a documented paper trail — Puncheon, then '21', then a footnote in Trader Vic's guide decades later — that only ended up filed under "tiki" by association. Make it as the gin julep it actually is.