Horrible Bosses: Cocktails Inspired From Film

Perhaps one of the more famous lines in cinematic history is yelled by Peter Finch’s character Harold Beale in Network: “I’m as mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore!” In Horrible Bosses, the characters played by Jason Bateman, Charlie Day, and Jason Sudeikis conspire to kill their employers after deciding they too are “mad as hell” and aren’t going to take it anymore.

The boss of Bateman’s character is a cruel and pompous jerk who is expertly portrayed by Kevin Spacey. Day’s character is on the receiving end of some wildly creative sexual harassment from his boss, played by a really randy Rachel… er, Jennifer Aniston. Sudeikis’ character suffers under an erratic, drug-addicted supervisor, performed by Colin Farrell.

articles/2011/07/08/horrible-bosses-cocktails-inspired-from-film/horrible-bosses-movie-cocktails-brown_wc8rnb

Sure it’s a movie and there’s a sort of unspoken agreement that when one forks over the money for a ticket, he or she essentially understands that a suspension of belief may be required when watching the film. But murder? Isn’t that a little extreme?

Yet upon a bit of investigation, it turns out that many people have murdered their bosses in real life, for much less, and in even more colorful scenarios. Rarely is it ever a cause as noble or as poetic as it was when Brutus stabbed Caesar.

Natavia Lowery, an assistant to a real-estate agent for celebrities, confessed to beating her boss to death with a yoga stick after the supervisor allegedly hassled her to finish an email, blew marijuana smoke in her face, and made a racist remark. The criminal and her weapon of choice almost like a terrible painfully modern answer to the boardgame Clue. “Why, it was Ms. Lowery in the living room with the yoga stick!” But let this provide yet another reason not to do yoga! Nor attempt to share your marijuana with your ungrateful assistant!

In Kentucky, a man working at a plastics plant killed his boss, four others, and himself after being fired because he protested putting on his safety goggles and not being allowed to use his cellphone while manning the machines. Yowsa.

An irate Spaniard went through his sister to hire six Colombians to kill his boss before he could lay him off. Sounds like the start of a bad joke…How many Colombians does it take to kill… oh never mind.

A seething Serbian man hunted down his boss and shot him because he was fired from his truck-driving job 15 years earlier. Fifteen years! That’s a really tough grudge—and one seriously determined Serbian.

And what, might we imagine, would one typically want to do after getting shown the door and/or murdering a cruel boss?

Have a cocktail!

For a drink that would toast the workplace tensions featured in the new dark comedy Horrible Bosses, we sought the sage advice of David Struno, the mixologist for PRINT. restaurant and PRESS Lounge at the Ink48 hotel in Manhattan. Struno considered the tricky, at times volatile politics of the employer-employee relationship, and then provided a recipe for a suitable Champagne cocktail that’s now being featured at both the PRINT. and PRESS locations in the hotel.

“Obviously, the name refers to getting fired, being shown the door” says Struno. “However, the addition of Don Julio tequila gives the idea of an extra ‘slip,’ slipping a punch to your boss, which could also be referred to as ‘how to roofie your boss.’ I drew inspiration from the French 75, a mix of Champagne and brandy. The tequila is from Mexico and the Prosecco from Italy, to make for a more international smashup, and packs more of an extra oomph to that horrible boss.”