In the original recipe he claimed that it was invented “by the author and three officers of H.M.S. Danae after having spent seven hours overboard trying to get Capt. Bra Saunders’ fishing boat off a bank where she had gone with us in a N.W. gale.” but then he was always one for a good yarn.
Is it possible to describe the French House pub without reverting to ‘bohemian’ like everyone else? Bugger, too late. To catalogue all the famous and the infamous who ever took wine in there would take a small volume in itself. Just assume that all the good, bad and ugly luminaries who have ever alighted in Soho in the last 100 years have dropped by for a glass or three and be done with it. Notably they are treated with the same friendly indifference by the regulars as anyone else.
Perfect for hot summer afternoons, Tom Collins is probably the most well known of the Collins family of drinks, a Collins being a sour cocktail, that is, a spirit mixed with sugar and citrus, that has been topped up with soda water. Basically a Tom Collins is alcoholic lemonade for grown-ups. Lovely for a picnic or a right old punt.