Not only was it invented in the Hamptons, but it was invented by a guy named Bob Butt!!!! The world famous Long Island Iced Tea inventor was documented on PBS in a series known as “Inventors.”
It was invented at OBI East in Hampton Bays back in the 70s and the bartender Bob Butt, also known as Rose Bud, came up with the drink during a contest and called it the Long Island Iced Tea. The drink caught on and history was made.
Guess if you’d been drinking them back in the day you’d know that Dave but it’s fun to see specifically which bartender it was – I remember when they became popular from OBI and spread all over the best LI Iced Tea I ever had was made by a bartender in Sag Harbor who is now the Publisher of another local publication…. ahhh, good memories or after a couple of LI Iced Teas LACK of memory….