Just in time for his birthday, the spirit and “spirits” of the Nobel Prize-winning American writer Ernest Hemingway are coming to Gainesville to raise money for student scholarships at Santa Fe College. At “To Have and Have Another: Hemingway’s Cocktails with Philip Greene and Raul Villarreal,” guests will meet and mingle with two contemporary authors who have Hemingway connections while enjoying drinks described in Hemingway’s books and stories. The event will take place at 7 p.m. Friday, July 12, 2013, at Cellar 12, 12 SE First Avenue, Gainesville. Tickets are $100 per person and available at the Santa Fe College Foundation online store.
“We’re delighted that these authors will join us at this benefit for our scholarship fund,” said Michael Curry, Assistant Vice President for Development. “Our event marks the first time Philip and Raul have met, as well as the first time they’ve talked about Hemingway at the same event. I think their synergy is going to inspire us all.”
Author Philip Greene describes his book, “To Have and Have Another: A Hemingway Cocktail Companion” (Perigee/Penguin Group, 2012), as:
…a book about Ernest Hemingway and what he liked to drink, what he wrote about those drinks, and how to make the drinks that he and his characters enjoyed. Like many writers, Hemingway was no teetotaler, but perhaps more than any other writer, he engaged his characters in the act of eating and drinking-be it at a café or a campfire, fishing the Gulf Stream or on safari in Africa-and he described it in such rich detail, readers can almost smell and taste the scene.
Greene is uniquely qualified to write about mixed drinks. He is a founder of the Museum of the American Cocktail in New Orleans, a mixology consultant for restaurants around the world, and a sought-after speaker who has given talks about cocktail history throughout the United States. By day, Greene works in the Pentagon as a Trademark and Internet Counsel for the U.S. Marine Corps.
Greene’s book is a collection of information about both well-known and more obscure libations. He includes descriptions of drinks ranging from absinthe and aguardiente through the Cuba Libre, Death in the Gulf Stream, Jack Rose and Pauline Hemingway’s Rum Scoundrel to the whiskey sour and White Lady. Information about Hemingway’s writing, his friends and the places that he lived and visited provide fascinating contexts for the cocktail recipes.
Raul Villarreal collaborated with his father, Rene Villarreal, to write the elder’s memoir, “Hemingway’s Cuban Son: Reflections on the Writer by His Longtime Majordomo” (The Kent State University Press, 2009).
In 1946, Rene Villarreal was only 17 years old when Hemingway made him household manager at Finca Vigia (“Lookout Farm”), Hemingway’s Cuban estate outside Havana. For the next 15 years-including the time period when Hemingway was writing “The Old Man and the Sea,” “A Moveable Feast,” and “Islands in the Stream”-the elder Villarreal managed the estate, tending to Hemingway and his wife as well as visiting family members, distinguished guests and the Hemingways’ many pets.
“This is the story of a poor, young Cuban boy who grew into a man and gained the trust, respect, and love of a famous American author, whom he loved like a father. A man he called ‘Papa,'” writes Raul Villarreal in the preface. Raul, who is an artist, currently lives in Verona, New Jersey; his father, Rene, lives nearby in Union City, New Jersey.
Guests at Cellar 12 will be able to stroll among three areas decorated to evoke the spirit of Ernest Hemingway through places associated with his writing-an African hunting lodge (“Green Hills of Africa,” “The Snows of Kilimanjaro”), the Gulf Stream (“The Old Man and the Sea,” “Islands in the Stream”), and Paris (“The Sun Also Rises,” “A Moveable Feast”). Refreshments will feature cocktails described in “To Have and Have Another” and a full course dinner complimenting the cocktails.
The Santa Fe College Foundation is sponsoring the event to benefit the Foundation’s student scholarship fund. Last year, the Foundation awarded 475 scholarships totaling $980,000. In recognition of their $100 per person donation, guests will be made annual patrons of the Fine Arts programs at Santa Fe College for the next year.
Information about the event is available on Facebook.
For more information, call Cultural Programs Coordinator Kathryn Lehman at 352-395-5355.
Note: The American journalist and author Ernest Hemingway- born July 21, 1899-is widely considered to be one of the greatest writers of the 20th century. His best-known works include “The Sun Also Rises,” “For Whom the Bell Tolls,” “A Farewell to Arms,” “The Old Man and the Sea” and “A Moveable Feast.” He won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1953 for “The Old Man and the Sea.” In 1954, Hemingway was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature “for his mastery of the art of narrative, most recently demonstrated in ‘The Old Man and the Sea,’ and for the influence that he has exerted on contemporary style.”