What is The Washington Soup Kitchen?  Well, it’s nothing like what Washington, Iowa has ever seen.  The Washington Soup Kitchen is going to be the newest hot spot for adults everywhere.  We are a 1930’s nightclub complete with original martinis and cocktails from the 20’s and 30’s, some of our own creations, and Iowa native beer and wines.

When you walk into the Soup Kitchen, you will immediately be taken back to an era where things were more relaxed, people knew what manners were, and you were treated with dignity.  The atmosphere at this new jazz nightclub will make it one of your favorite spots to sit back, relax, have a couple wonderful drinks, and even hear live music.

That’s right, we will be featuring live music, improv, and open mic, among other things.  We have many different acts lined up and we are very excited about all of them.

All of us are having fun getting everything together to make The Washington Soup Kitchen the best place to relax in one of the best 100 small towns.

We are located at 207 West Main Street in Washington, Iowa in the basement of the Bryson Block.

A Cocktail’s Time: Past and Present

What exactly is a cocktail? “On May 13, 1806, the Balance and Columbian Repository of Hudson, New York, answered a reader’s query as to the nature of a cocktail: ‘Cocktail is a stimulating liquor, composed of spirits of any kind, sugar, water, and bitters—it is vulgarly called a bittered sling’.”   Is that when the cocktail was invented?   Heaven’s no! Ted Haigh, a.k.a. Dr. Cocktail, believes that “the venerable and very American cocktail is a minimum of 200 years old. Hell, the Martini is more than 100 years old.”  

Some people believe that the world’s first cocktails were invented to cover up the horrible taste of the base ingredient. The alcohol of the past couldn’t go through the rigorous cleansing technologies of the present.   Therefore, the alcohol didn’t taste very good. Egyptians and Romans mixed anything from fruits and honey to herbs and spices to make the drink palpable.  

So how did the cocktail become known by that name? There are many theories; among them being that some bartenders put a tail feather of a cock into the drink as decoration or they would stir the drink with the end of the feather. There are so many stories about the name that no one can agree as to which is true.  

The cocktail had gone through its ups and downs through history but once again became famous during the Prohibition Era, when alcohol was forbidden by the U.S. Government.   People didn’t quit drinking for 13 years; they just masked the alcohol taste with other juices and bitters.  

There are very few bars that can make true original cocktails, either because the bar doesn’t carry all of the ingredients or because the bartender can’t find the precise combinations in modern bartending books.   The true “cocktailians” and cocktail bartenders are hard to come by. That is where we, the owner and employees of the Washington Soup Kitchen come in.   We have researched the many variations of the old cocktails in order to find some of the old recipes.   Of course, the best part of the research was when we had to try a lot of different variations of old time cocktails to make sure that everything tastes good together There have been many a weekend that we sat at someone’s home just trying different drinks and having a good time (all for the sake of research, of course).  

It is now time for you, our customer, to join in that fun.   It’s your turn to sit back and relax with us, and try some old drinks that you may have never thought to try, some you may have never heard of, and some of our own new variations. Either way, the true cocktail and the true cocktail atmosphere has emerged once again, without any feathers, here at The Washington Soup Kitchen.

Have an idea or want to give feedback?  Email Tim Johnson, owner of the Washington Soup Kitchen.
Have a new recipe for us to try?  Email the bartenders at the Washington Soup Kitchen.