West Side Canvas: Noted UWS Painter Creates a New Cocktail

“Making My Mark”
Painting and essay by Robert Beck

I like to go out for a drink now and then, be it a brew and a hockey game at the Dublin House, meeting a friend at Café Luxembourg, or doing some writing at one of those small bars located at the front of restaurants. Quite a few stories and excuses have been contrived on one Upper West Side stool or another.  

Many people have a deep-down desire to leave a positive mark on culture, myself included, so it is with pride and humility that I announce my contribution to the mixological arts. Let me begin with some background. I didn’t have an “official drink” until my late 30s, an era that coincides with my first marriage.  That drink was a black Russian. It supported me through my divorce, a career change, and a relocation. It was known to be my drink in the places I frequented, and I suggested they promote it as “By Appointment to Bob.”  There is no record of that happening.  

Sometime in the early 2000s, I decided the Kahlua wasn’t working for me anymore and shifted to a vodka tonic. 

The vodka tonic served me well for fifteen years.  While all that was happening, I was getting older.  I was also accumulating ailments, doctors, and pill bottles. If you don’t identify with that, you will. As counterintuitive as it seems, I discovered my reflux issues were improved by eliminating the tonic, not the booze, so my next major shift was to vodka with a handful of olives (a Mediterranean diet) and some of the juice.  I went with that for a decade.

It should be noted that I don’t like ice. In anything. And I’m not fond of the cocktail glasses with a cone-shaped bowl on a stem associated with martinis. I don’t want to pay that much attention to not spilling. My drinks are ordered in a rocks glass. 

This brings us to the auspicious moment, with credit to my wife. Always thinking of me, she bought some dried prunes. I saw the bag on the counter and sliced two of them into my vodka to see how that tasted. It was great. I have since evolved to biting the prunes in half instead of slicing—a rustic, tribal tradition in the making—recommended only, however, when preparing one’s own drink. Cutting them with scissors works fine. After a while, the vodka assumes a honey-color tinge and looks very Bogart. (A pair of prune scissors might be the perfect gift for the person who has everything. (Hammacher Sonoma, $119.00. Ships today.)

I recommend my new concoction to anyone who can use the digestive boost. A vodka, neat, with prunes. You might not find that every establishment has them. The sports bar under my studio doesn’t sound like a prune crowd, but anywhere you might see patrons sporting a fedora or a cane would do well to include the drink on their menu. I’ve given it a name so you can register it with your bartender. It’s called a Geezer. By appointment to Bob. 

* * *

See more of Robert Beck’s work and visit his UWS studio at www.robertbeck.net. Let him know if you have a connection to an archetypical UWS place or event that would make a good West Side Canvas subject. Thank you!

Note: Before Robert Beck started West Side Canvas, his essays and paintings were featured in Weekend Column. See Robert Beck’s earlier columns here and here.

Subscribe to West Side Rag’s FREE email newsletter here. And you can Support the Rag here.