“We had a ’tini menu—appletini, grapetini—when I first came into Rhodeside,” says Paul Taylor, a former bartender at the more than 20-year-old Arlington restaurant. He started in the mid-2000s before the craft cocktail wave hit bars outside of New York and London.
Soon, and well ahead of other local bars, Wilson Whitney asked Taylor to create signature cocktails, the now ubiquitous list every restaurant with a drink program produces. Whitney also had an eye for wines, says Taylor, drinking malbecs before they became the default red.
Whitney, the owner of Rhodeside Grill, Ragtime and William Jeffrey’s Tavern in Arlington and Dogwood Tavern in Falls Church, died at age 60, in April, from lung cancer. He also had owned Republic Gardens in DC and Argia’s Italian restaurant in Falls Church.
Whitney hired Taylor—now a partner with Drink Company, a nationally celebrated cocktail group—at age 21. In eight years together, the two turned the neighborhood bar into a cocktail destination. “When I left, obviously it was a bummer, because we had spent so much time together. But he was super proud of me.”
Taylor remembers Whitney’s commitment to work-life balance. Whitney, who leaves behind a wife and two daughters, knew when to call it a night. When Taylor offered him a drink after service, Whitney would say, “Paul, I only have so many chips,” and he’d go home to his family.
“He showed people the way to do it,” says Taylor. Whitney “created a place where everyone wants to go.”
This post originally appeared in our June 2019 issue. For more food news, subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
