DrinkWire is Liquor.com's showcase for the best articles, recipe and reviews from the web's top writers and bloggers. In this post, Just Cocktails offers a look at one classic cocktail's history of resistance.

Frank Meier, creator of the Bee's Knees cocktail.

Free House, Tavern Law, Speakeasy. It’s easy to forget where these terms for pubs came from.

The history of the bar is fully intertwined with free speech and the right to protest. When a government seeks to controls the rights of all, or some – conversations between assembled groups of drinkers is one of the hardest to stop.

The surreal political climate in the United States has me heartened to see famous bartenders like Diageo World Class Champion Charles Joly using their elevated standing to call out authoritarian forces trying to fearfully subvert the will of the free Republic. He’s posted from a march on Washington, and the airports he frequents. He’s not alone; a quick search of the social media feeds of many noted bartenders has come ablaze with activism.

There needs to be an immediate discussion about the role of the modern bartender in protest. That conversation suggests a notable bar man who did his best in trying circumstances; Frank Meier, head bartender of the Cafe Parisian, in the Paris Ritz, during Nazi occupation. Trained by Harry Craddock in New York, at the famous Hoffman House, Meier created the Bee's Knees cocktail.

Known as a gambler, when Frank was too busy to get away from the bar to place bets, his buddy Ernest Hemingway would go place money for him. Today, there’s still a bar named for Hemingway in the hotel. This is partly how he succeeded as a spy.

He continued to run his bar even after the Germans occupied Paris. The Ritz became a residence for Nazi brass and their sympathizers, including Hermann Göring and Coco Chanel. Being part Jewish, Meier did more than survive the war and avoid deportation.

“There were very few people, who were staff at the Ritz, who were not actively engaged in some kind of resistance.” – The Hotel on Place Vendôme by Tilar J. Mazzeo

Despite being German, Frank Meier did what he could to fight the Nazis during WWII. He used his influence to help people escape the Nazis, even helping forge passports so Jewish guests could escape the Nazi held hotel. He passed coded messages between resistance fighters on German troop movement and was involved in the plot to assassinate Hitler. The plot was purportedly hatched over his cocktails. He passed the information under the guise of running a massive gambling operation from the hotel. All while under constant surveillance by the Gestapo.

If you believe that refugees should be able to continue to flee persecution and violence, here’s the Frank Meier classic to toast that flight:

Bee's Knees – by Frank Meier

1.5 oz London Dry Gin
1 oz fresh Lemon juice
0.75 oz Red Clover Honey water*
Optional: Dash of Ms Better’s Orange Tree Bitters

Combine ingredients in shaker. Hard shake. Fine strain into chilled coupé.

*Dilute honey with hot water 2 parts honey to one part water, allow to cool.

Bees Knees and a thought on resistance