Rusty Nail
Steelworkers find a cocktail in the sky
By Maskell R. Chiffs
NEW YORK • 1932 — The Bluepoint Boys had named themselves for their common affinity for oysters, which they’d discovered while working as rodbusters on the Chrysler Building in 1930. Two years later the 12 men had moved a few blocks north and west and were reinforcing steel bars on the rising RCA Building at Rockefeller Center, 69 floors above Midtown.
Foremen across Manhattan regarded the Bluepoint Boys as top-notch professional steelworkers. Give them a job and a deadline, and you could be sure it would be executed perfectly and on time. The Boys were generally left alone to do their work, and that’s how they preferred it.
At exactly 5:00 p.m. on a cloudy September day, Gusti Popovič alerted his fellow Bluepointers that it was quitting time. The crew began taking their places along the wide-flange I-beam they’d just fixed to a vertical anchor rail.
Lorenzo Bianchi, who’d been shucking since 4:30 while sitting on a nearby T-bar, handed each man a white box filled with a dozen Long Island half shells and a small bowl filled with a classic mignonette he’d prepared that morning. Each man carefully handed the first box to the man next to him until it reached Pablo Herrera who sat at the far end of the beam. As Bianchi was passing out oysters, Popovič looked expectantly to Jack Yutzler who’d been assigned martinis that day.
“What?!” said Yutzler. “You lookin’ at me for drinks? I brought ‘em Monday.”
Rusty Nail
2 oz blended scotch
1 oz Drambuie
Combine in a glass with ice and stir
Gavin McHarg said he’d brought a wee swallie for the fellas to try. A honeyed liqueur with a hint of heather he’d smuggled into the country from Kilmarnock after stealing it from his cousin’s shed.
“I don’t know how it’ll go with these Peconics, but it’s better than nothing,” McHarg said.
Popovič took a nip and swallowed. “That’s horrific,” he said. “But I’ve got an idea.” He took a pint of scotch from his pocket and in a white paper cup, combined the whiskey and liqueur. He handed the cup to McHarg, who took a sip and handed it to Yutzler.
“Damn, Gusti – that’s good!” said Yutlzer as he drained the glass. “Set ‘em up!”
“This drink would go great with some Duck Island Petites,” McHarg said. “Or maybe some Oysterponds.”
“Well, what are you waiting for?” Herrera yelled down the beam toward Popovič. “Starting mixing, man.”
Popovič put out his cigarette and poured a dozen of the new drinks. The men handed cups down the beam. Approval was unanimous and the conversation turned to naming the new cocktail.
“What about Bluepoint Boys Drink?” said Bianchi as he shucked more Peconics.
“You’re a twit, Lorenzo,” said Yutzler. “That stuff’s got honey in it, right Gavin? What about calling it a Honey Cooler – after the kisses I give Lorenzo’s wife.”
Bianchi shucked a few more oysters, turned his shoulder a bit away from Yutzler, and spit in each half shell. “Here you go, Jack. From me and Isabella.”
The men passed their cups, stained dirty orange from the oxidized iron on their fingers, back down the beam to Popovič for refills. It was a color each of their wives knew well – a reddish shade that came off on everything these steelworkers touched in their own homes. Kitchen tables, bathroom sinks, white cats. The stuff was worked deep into the pores of their fingertips. The red steel was part of them and it was unlikely to ever come out. Gusti’s wife Jarka always said his nails were “rusty” – as in “Get your rusty nails off me!”
“I’ve got it,” Popovič said as he poured another round.
Editor’s Note: Fact-based cocktail historians claim the Rusty Nail originated in New York City in the late 1950s or early 1960s.
SOURCES:
Crampium G. Beedl, They Weren’t Eating Lunch: The Real Story Behind “Lunch atop a Skyscraper,” (New York: Camel Hump Press, 1956)
Jeremiah McInhenry, “Sky Skeletons: Density Parameters, Landmark Externalities and Cubic Transformation in 1930s New York,” International Journal of Steel Strength Research and Materials Optimization (Issue 48, 1988): 47-61
Contributors Notes:
Maskell R. Chiffs measures, designs, fabricates, fits, services, assembles, dreams up, and fashions acrylic resin nostrils for older ponies.
Next week: Naked & Famous • A botched hot air balloon proposal turns chilly
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