Patrick’s Saloon in the historical novel Cat’s Cafe, Eagle Rock Trilogy Book One, wasn't the highly polished, rich mahogany, mirrored saloon depicted in film and television westerns -- at least not in the beginning. Western towns in the 1860s and '70s were thrown up faster than they could be properly built. Only a few buildings… Continue reading Saloons in the 1870s Old West ~ And an update: Books and Talks!
Category: Saloon life
Pioneer Food, part one
Image by Jose Antonio Alba from Pixabay Corn+Bread=Sturdy, satisfying survival food Contemporary cookbooks offer all sorts of entertaining and delicious sounding recipes for early American cooking, cowboy cooking, and pioneer cooking. But cooking in the late-1800s American West was really all about survival, not taste and variety. According to Richard Erodos in Saloons of the… Continue reading Pioneer Food, part one
Saloons in the Old West ~ Beer moves west
Known by such colorful names as “John Barleycorn, purge, hop juice, calobogus, wobbly pop, mancation, let’s mosey, laughing water, mad dog, Jesus juice, pig’s ear, [and] strike-me-dead,” according to NotesFromTheFrontier.com, most of the beer in the late 1870s was a dark, tepid, low-quality, low-hop, home brew that was quick to go flat. Eventually, keg beer… Continue reading Saloons in the Old West ~ Beer moves west
Saloons in the Old West ~ Whiskey and Women
Image from LegendsofAmerica.com In Cat’s Cafe, two saloons compete for hard-drinking rail workers, cowboys, bullwhackers, and others in Eagle Rock who love a stiff drink as oftenas they can afford it. Pott’s Saloon, supported by the corrupt town boss, sells cheap, bad tasting beer and, for what passes as whiskey, a house blend of grains… Continue reading Saloons in the Old West ~ Whiskey and Women
Saloons in the Old West ~ Mirrors and Mahogany?
Patrick’s Saloon in Cat’s Cafe wasn't the highly polished, rich mahogany, mirrored saloon depicted in film and television westerns -- at least not in the beginning. Western towns in the 1860s and '70s were thrown up faster than they could be properly built. Only a few buildings were built to last. Most began as tent… Continue reading Saloons in the Old West ~ Mirrors and Mahogany?