Sidecar — What Couldn't Be Proven Wasn't Who Invented It, But Who Stole the Credit

Two books, published independently in 1922, recorded the same bartender's name. But the story that spread afterward — that his credit was later taken by someone else — turned out to have no evidence behind it.

1. The Story Usually Told

The Sidecar’s invention is usually attributed across two cities and three names.

One is Pat MacGarry, bartender at Buck’s Club in London. Another is Harry MacElhone, who made his name at the Ritz Bar in Paris before opening his own establishment, Harry’s New York Bar. And the third is Frank Meier, who spent years behind the same Ritz Bar in Paris.

The story often goes like this: “MacGarry introduced the cocktail first, but MacElhone — who later popularized the recipe worldwide through his books — eventually rewrote the story as his own, across successive editions.”

This “stolen credit” narrative is a familiar plot point repeated across Wikipedia and multiple cocktail history sites.

2. Two Independent Books, the Same Name

To check this narrative, we went back to the two original texts where it starts.

The first is a book published in London in 1922 by Robert Vermeire. It reads:

This cocktail is very popular in France. It was first introduced in London by MacGarry, the celebrated bar-tender of Buck’s Club.

And the second — a book MacElhone himself published at the end of that same year, into 1923 — records the same name:

Recipe by MacGarry, the popular bar-tender at Buck’s Club, London.

These are two independent records, different authors, different publishing histories. And one of them is the very book of the man later accused of stealing the credit. He recorded someone else’s name in his own book, not his own. That is the starting point.

3. Was There Ever Actually a Rewrite?

So what about the part where “he rewrote it as his own in a later edition”?

MacElhone published further editions after that — a 1923 printing, a mid-1920s expanded edition, a separate book published in 1927, and a 1930s edition. We checked all five editions we could confirm.

The result: MacGarry’s name remained in every single edition. No rewrite was found in any of them.

Tracing the “rewrite” narrative back further, it leads only to a Wikipedia entry and a single overseas blog post that is now a dead link. Beyond that, we found no primary source — no one who had actually checked the editions themselves.

What was actually repeated, again and again, was the part about the credit being stolen.

4. Another Name, Another Silence

What about the third name, Frank Meier?

Meier published his own book in 1936. It follows an interesting convention: recipes he invented himself carry a mark showing so. Elsewhere in the book, for instance:

“Saratoga” — Originated by the Author upon the opening of the Ritz Bar, Paris.

Other entries name someone else outright as the inventor:

“Rose” — This Cocktail, famous in Paris, was invented by “Johnny” Mitta of the Chatham Bar.

Following his own convention, cocktails he invented should carry his mark, and cocktails others invented should carry a name. The Sidecar entry carries neither. Just the recipe, quietly, on its own.

A writer who marks his own credit and names others’ — and says nothing at all, only for the Sidecar. That’s another piece of evidence that he, too, never claimed to have invented it.

Three independent records — Vermeire’s book, MacElhone’s five editions, and Meier’s book — converged on the same conclusion across fourteen years. The agreement was in what no one claimed.

5. Placing a Japanese Barley Shochu in the Brandy Slot

A Sidecar is built from a combination of elements. This time, in one of them — the brandy slot — we placed The SG Shochu MUGI, a barley shochu planned and supervised by SG Group, led by internationally award-winning bartender Shingo Gokan, and jointly developed with Sanwa Shurui in Usa City, Oita Prefecture.

Here’s something worth stating precisely. The brand’s official site describes this spirit’s character as follows: its fruity notes invite interpretations of brandy-based cocktails, while its overall lightness lends itself to being used in place of unaged spirits. The official description itself points to both directions — toward brandy, and toward clear spirits.

U.S. importers and several media tasting notes tend to emphasize the “brandy-leaning” side more heavily, sometimes describing it as a substitute for whiskey or aged rum as well. It’s blended from spirit matured across several different vessels — new American oak, ex-sherry casks, and stainless steel — which is cited as the reason for a depth and roundness not found in unaged spirits.

Placing this bottle in the brandy slot here was an editorial decision informed by both the brandy-direction interpretation the official site itself allows for, and the evaluations from importers and media. We wanted to lay out that reasoning in advance.

6. The Triple Sec Slot — A Historical First, and Its Relationship to the Sidecar

For the orange liqueur slot, we placed “COMBIER Original” from Distillerie Combier, a distillery in Saumur, France. Founded in 1834, it is considered the oldest surviving triple sec (predating the recipe Cointreau developed in 1875). It’s triple-distilled using a still designed by Eiffel.

Here too, something worth stating precisely. “The oldest surviving triple sec, since 1834” is a fact about this distillery’s manufacturing history. But we found no record — on the official site or in any source we could confirm — that this distillery’s triple sec was actually used in the Sidecar’s origins in the 1920s.

Being an old triple sec house and being part of the Sidecar’s origin story are two separate things. This article keeps them separate rather than conflating them.

7. Judgment Materials for the Bar

This is as far as we can take it. What comes next belongs to whoever is standing behind the bar.

The following is a framework of considerations for professional bartenders. It is not a recommendation for home preparation.

① What it means to replace the brandy slot with a barley shochu.

SG SHOCHU MUGI is not brandy. It carries a depth derived from multiple types of cask aging, but belongs to a different flavor lineage than brandy. How to interpret the difference that comes from swapping the slot is not something for us to decide.

② The triple sec ratio is central to the recipe.

A Sidecar is built from three elements, and their balance drives the final acidity, sweetness, and sense of alcohol. We consider the specific proportions a matter for each establishment to design, and we have not included them here.

③ A sugared rim, or none at all.

A Sidecar is traditionally served with sugar around the rim of the glass. Given the flavor balance created by the brandy and triple sec substitutions here, whether to rim the glass is another point of judgment.

Where to Begin the First Build

Do you start by testing how far the barley shochu’s depth can stand in for brandy?

Do you start by anchoring the balance around COMBIER’s citrus structure against the acidity?

Or do you start from whether to rim the glass with sugar at all?

Any of these is a valid starting point. The moment that first choice is made, it already belongs to that bar.

8. The Agreement in What No One Claimed

We return to the question this article opened with.

Two independent records from 1922 agreed on the same man’s name. And three records spanning the following fourteen years — MacElhone’s five editions, and Meier’s book — quietly kept agreeing on another point: no one claimed the credit for himself.

What kept being repeated wasn’t the inventor’s name. It was the claim that his name had been stolen. That is as far as we can say for certain about this cocktail.

9. What We Haven’t Answered Yet

This article addressed the question of credit behind the Sidecar’s origin, and the editorial reasoning behind our choice in the brandy slot.

The balance of triple sec and lemon juice, and whether to rim the glass with sugar — these we’ve laid out as considerations, not decisions.

Next time, we turn a new chapter: the beginning of the rum story. The Daiquiri.

Coming up next.