From 1927 to 1945 Kelly’s Bar was a small restaurant in El Dourado, California, constructed as a weigh station for Wells Fargo. That was until a man named Poor Red win the bar in a game of dice.

Sometime in 1952, a woman and her fiancé stopped at Poor Reds Bar while they were on their way to Lake Tahoe, Nevada to celebrate their engagement.

They asked bartender Frank Klein to create their own special cocktail that would match their newly purchased gold-colored Cadillac.

The bartender served the drink in a champagne coupe glass to signify it’s celebratory nature meant for her and a short highball glass for him.

This classic modern cocktail became so popular that the Galliano brand ran an advertising campaign for this drink from 1964 to 1967. The Golden Cadillac cocktail made Poor Red’s the largest consumer of Galliano liqueur in the world.

At Poor Red’s, the average life of a 750ml bottle of Galliano is only an hour and a half.