Backbar Celebrates Frank Sinatra’s 100th Birthday

Backbar’s bacon popcorn / Photo by Alex Lau for “Five Reasons to Pay Somerville’s Backbar Another Visit”

If you’ve ever haunted Lucky’s Lounge on a Sunday night, you know that the memory of Frank Sinatra is alive and well in Boston, as the bar’s live band provides an eerie simulacrum of the Rat Pack crooner’s tunes every week.

But tonight, Backbar is taking it a little further: To celebrate what would have been Sinatra’s 100th birthday (he was born on December 12, 1915), Offsite—one of our favorite boozy movie series—is throwing him a special birthday bash and “cocktail experience” at this Union Square bar.

In tribute, they’re screening The Manchurian Candidate—the Cold War thriller starring Sinatra as a Korean War vet trying to take down a brainwashed assassin entangled in an international Communist conspiracy. Released in 1962 (at the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis, we should add), the film was one of Sinatra’s favorite roles, and he considered it a high point in his career.

So if we’re going to be watching Sinatra’s favorite movie, we might as well have his favorite drink to go with it. And so tonight Backbar’s team will be whipping up cocktails “inspired by scenes from the movie and featuring Frank’s favorite whiskey, Jack Daniels.”

The Manchurian Candidate poster and promotional still featuring Frank Sinatra

Longtime fans of the Backbar screenings might experience a bittersweet tinge to the evening, as this event marks the last time Offsite does their regular movie pop-up night at the Union Square spot. But despite the change of venue, Offsite’s still going strong: “Don’t worry, we are staying within the family,” they assure us—they’ll be bringing their “cocktail-infused events” to sister venue Ames Street Deli in Kendall Square.

But tonight’s all about paying tribute to Ol’ Blue Eyes. Just remember: “If you come in five minutes after this picture begins you won’t know what it’s all about!”

$40, December 7, 8-11 p.m., Backbar, 7 Sanborn Court, Somerville, 617-718-0249, getoffsite.com.