Canadian Club whisky fuels new Prohibition-era series from HBO: Boardwalk Empire

Imagine a time, almost a century ago, when the U.S. government, at the wishes of its own people, completely restricted the intoxicating pleasure upon which civilization was built. Ideate the vast fortunes propagated on providing a simple Canadian product to the thirsty masses of post-war America. Now picture historical characters in this setting motivated by the bedrock drives of humanity: greed, lust, ambition, pride.

Or, watch what director Martin Scorsese and Emmy-winning writer of The Sopranos, Terence Winter, conceived from the above elements in the new HBO dramatic series about Prohibition-era Atlantic City, Boardwalk Empire, debuting Sunday September 19.

To ride the running boards of what is sure to be a classic series, Canadian Club whisky, which fueled most of the illegal bootlegging that took place during The Dry Years, hosted a speakeasy at the R Bar in Koreatown last night.

The R Bar used to be a dive, notable for a thick door with a window grate requiring a password to get in. It has since climbed the hipster ladder by dimming their lights and (temporarily?) contracting out to Naomi Schimek, one of the classiest dames to work behind the stick, to craft a cocktail menu showcasing Canadian Club.

R’s small booths and hidden nooks resemble timber shavings stripped off the Pequod. This favorable feng shui made a good four-point tour for the evening: get a mugshot from a digital camera rigged to resemble an old Kodak Brownie; ogle the video screen cycling through the recent mugs and then a trailer of Boardwalk Empire starring Steven Buscemi; wait in line to get a brief history of Canadian Club and the term “The Real McCoy” with brand rep Tish while sampling straight 6, 10, and 12 year old whiskys brushed with the dust of actual bottles from the period; and then park it at the bar for a drink.

Four libations were clearly advertised: the Nucky, named after Buscemi’s character: CC and grapefruit juice, orange liqueur; the High Roller: CC, ginger ale, lime juice; the Boardwalk Boom (good, but forgot the recipe); and something I didn’t taste: the AC Fizz, a Champagne and CC offering. Best of the night, though, was the concoction called the R Password, developed by Naomi: Apple Amaretto Syrup, Fresh Lemon Juice, Canadian Club Whisky, and garnished with a housemade candied lemon peel.

The CC for this was supposed to be the 12-year Classic ($25 a bottle), but maybe a shipment was busted by Eliot Ness and the untouchables, and we had to do with CC 6-year ($18 a bottle). It was still the bee’s knees.

Canadian Club hopes to make a large comeback into the international market, and although they can’t be as big as they were in the 1920’s, when they were sending 20,000 cases a month to the states—priced at $7 a case, then resold by Al Capone for $75—they must surely enjoy riding the nostalgia wave of the Roaring 20’s, that brief decade of partying before a stock market crash and Great Depression.

For fans of historical gangster drama that looks intense and daring (and very politically incorrect), be sure to acquire a bottle of Canadian Club, doff your fedora or cloche, and settle in for the premiere of Boardwalk Empire, airing on HBO Sunday September 19 at 9pm, 8pm central.

Part one of a three-part series I wrote on rum running, Prohibition, and moonshine (homemade illegal whisky) is up at the Liquid Muse. 

If you know your 1920's writers, a film festival based on the works of pulp horror icon H.P. Lovecraft is playing this Saturday, Sept. 11, from 2pm-10pm. Beer and wine allowed in the theater.

Disclosure: Canadian Club provided me with comp cocktails, a comp tasting of 6, 10, and 12 year CC, and swag of salt-water taffy, an etched flask, and the coolest USB flash drive ever: a keychain where the drive sits inside a small wood barrel.

Psst…for a limited time, one to three downtown LA Prohibition-style bars will provide you a CC cocktail on the house if you ask for it by name. Figure the rest out.