Satan’s Whiskers and Maiden’s Prayers

This does not mean that cocktails themselves came from Hollywood. “Hollywood has a wonderful way of borrowing things, distilling them and representing them as its own,” says Reichert, “but the reality is there weren’t that many drinks created here.” Original Hollywood cocktails include the Honeymoon Cocktail (from the Brown Derby), the Brown Derby Cocktail (from the Vendome Club) and the Zombie (from Don the Beachcomber). “The Zombie was basically lots of rum and fruit juice, which I suppose made you feel like one of the living dead,” says Reichert. “It was heavily promoted with the intriguing warning ‘Limit two per customer.’ Tell people they can only have two, and of course they want even more.”

Speaking of more . . .

“How about a Royal Hawaiian?” asks Reichert, who makes me a drink that looks like a morning glory, with an indigo eye of Parfait d’Amour liqueur afloat in a sea of gin made milky with pineapple juice and orzata syrup.

“And when we talk about Hollywood cocktails, we must not forget the Gimlet,” he adds. “Though British, the Gimlet was popularized by Raymond Chandler’s Hollywood detective Philip Marlowe, who drank them with his mysterious friend Terry Lennox in The Long Goodbye.”

The Gimlet is featured on the “Hollywood Classics” section of Reichert’s Vintage Cocktail drink menu; Stingers and Rusty Nails show up on “The Late Show”; and the Vesper, Pimm’s Cup and Royal Silver on “Mad Dogs and Englishmen.” Want to know what’s in the Royal Silver? Reichert is also teaching classes.

“Maybe I romanticize, but I think that, back in the 1940s, if you went to someone’s house and asked for a martini, they’d know how to make it for you,” he says, adding that he’d like to see the custom of a cocktail before dinner stage a comeback. “It’s not about getting soused, it’s about waking up your palate and making you want to eat. The Pegu is a perfect example.”

Reichert makes me one. It’s a tiny gem containing gin, Cointreau, lime juice and bitters, and is so invigorating I feel scoured from the neck up. And while I like knowing it originated in the 1920s at the British Officers’ Club in Burma, I do wonder if it will fly with a generation weaned on supersized, supersweet McCocktails.

“Well, look at what’s happened in the country in the past 20 years with wine,” counters Reichert. “It used to be, you went into a restaurant and ordered red or white; people didn’t know what Merlot was.” Not anymore. “I’d like to see the same thing happen to cocktails. Once you make an investment of a cocktail shaker and a couple of glasses, it’s really no harder than making a great cup of coffee.”

Vintage Cocktails, (818) 985-9096, www.vintagecocktails.com.