Dale DeGroff

Who is Dale DeGroff?

Dale DeGroff, aka King Cocktail is a master mixologist who developed his techniques tending bar at many establishments, most notably, New York’s Rainbow Room, where in the late 1980s he pioneered a gourmet approach to recreating the great classic cocktails.

DeGroff is the founder and president of The Museum of the American Cocktail, the first museum in the world dedicated to education in mixology and preserving the rich history of the American cocktail and has been credited with reinventing the profession of bartending and setting off a cocktail explosion around the world. He is the author of The Craft of the Cocktail, and The Essential Cocktail.

DeGroff provides consulting and bar training to beverage companies, hotels, and leading restaurants, and is a partner in Beverage Alcohol Resource, a provider of training and credentialing in distilled spirits and mixology.

"Dale DeGroff, who has done more than anyone to bring baroque standards back to the bar, encountered Jerry Thomas' [work] for the first time in the early 1980s, when Joe Baum, who wanted a different kind of bar for his new restaurant Aurora, directed him to “The Bon-Vivant’s Companion.” -William Grimes, New York Times