Alton refers to tomato in passing as “crimson nightshade”. In at least one other tomato themed episode he revealed that the tomato belongs to the same taxonomic family (Solanaceae) as the atropa belladona, commonly called deadly nightshade, an extremely toxic plant whose berries contain several potent alkaloids. For awhile, people feared to eat the tomato, thinking it was also poisonous.

Alton: The dishes we will attempt to mend were not actually conceived in the United States. They were... damaged here, so I feel it's out duty to repair said damage and in doing so, mend our bruised international food image.

Alton: Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to present to you the two once great ladies of the American bar.

Alton: Here we have the Bloody Mary, who, in the hands of fern bar mixologists seeking to modernize her has decayed into a murky miasma of discordant spices aimed at buzz-eager brunchers.

Alton: The bloody Mary never would have seen the light of day or Hemingway's throat, had it not been for canned tomato juice, because back then the only fresh tomatoes in a bar... were sitting on the stools (Alton winks at a woman seated before him, earning himself a slap!)

Alton: When we talk about the way a tomato tastes, we're actually referring to a fleet of flavors; a chemically complex stew of sugars, aromatic compounds, acids and amino acids.

Alton: There 100% agave tequila, and then there are mixto tequilas which by law only have to contain 51% agave; the other 49% of which can be, well, we call it headache in a bottle!

Alton: Luckily, Americans possess the ingenuity, savvy, materials and skills necessary to whatever ethno-culinary havoc we wreak, right? Well... sometimes we do.

La Tour Eiffel is not next door to Harry's New York Bar, as depicted here. It is roughly two kilometers distant.

Alton demonstrates a fondness for, or at least a working knowledge of, the Bard. He uses the popular phrase “a pox on both your houses” which was a curse uttered by the dying Mercutio in the play Romeo and Juliet. Mercutio was understandably upset at the feuding families whose rancor had led to his own premature death.

Alton falls back on the time-honored tradition of using Paris' most famous landmark, La Tour Eiffel (the Eiffel Tower to English speakers) to anchor his historical visit to Harry's New York Bar. The tower is actually about two kilometers away from the bar, certainly not completely visible from it as depicted in the episode.

Alton describes the creation of the Bloody Mary as a “monkey touched the monolith moment”. The 1968 Stanley Kubrick and Arthur Clarke film 2001: A Space Odyssey contains a scene that takes place “at the dawn of man.” In this scene, some extraterrestrial agency places a black monolith near a tribe of the apelike creatures that would eventually evolve into man. This object interacted with these proto-humans in some mysterious way, causing one of their number to conceptualize the use of a femur (the longest bone of the human leg) as a hammer, thus introducing man to the concept of tools. The movie does not detail the aliens' motivations for doing this, but a second such monolith placed on the moon eventually brings an astronaut to them, where he is transformed strangely. Alton has used the phrase “monkey touched the monolith” in previous episodes to describe innovative insight.

Alton mentions George Gershwin as one of the jazz age visitors to Harry's New York Bar. Gershwin is an important American composer responsible for an number of key musical compositions in what the Smithsonian Institution, an American cultural repository, refers to as the American Songbook. He wrote in various genres and composed music for over a dozen Broadway shows. He developed a brain tumor and died young, at 38.

Alton also mentions “a reporter named Hemingway” in connection with his perhaps fanciful tale of the Bloody Mary's origin. He refers to Ernest Hemingway early in that famous author's career (Hemingway's completed his first novel, The Sun Also Rises, in 1924, three years after the setting of Alton's tale). Hemingway published seven novels and numerous short stories during his life; and his estate published much additional material following his death. He is generally regarded as one of the finest American authors.

The phrase “we don't need no stinking garnishes” which Alton uses when considering how to finish his Bloody Mary, is a parody of “we don't need no stinking badges.” That line appeared in the 1974 western parody Blazing Saddles. It was based on dialogue from the 1948 film adaptation of The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, during which outlaw Gold Hat (Alfonso Bedoya) tries to convince prospector Fred C. Dobbs (Humphrey Bogart) that he and his men are federales – officials representing Mexican law.

That's Another Show: Alton promises to devote another show to homemade Worcestershire sauce.

The Good Drinks bar appeared previously in Season 9's Raising the Bar.