Hey all, It’s time for my twice-yearly blog update!
In recent news, I’ve graduated and now live in New York City! Above all, NYC life means access to NYC bars – and the wonderful concoctions to be had within. Now I love a good pitcher of PBR at a sticky-floored dive bar or bottom-shelf whiskey at a hipster dance party as much as the next guy, but on nights when I’m feeling high on class and low on parsimony, I head to a speakeasy.
Where you'll find me.
The trend of haute-cuisine beverages concocted by celebrity “professors of mixology” in Jazz Age-inspired environs exploded so rapidly in this city that the all-knowing Arbiters of What’s Cool have no doubt already labeled it “passé” and moved on to cupcake trucks or unicycle riding or whatever.
This is cool now.
But novelty aside, these speakeasies, if you can get into them (or even find their well-hidden doors) remain an elegant place to find superb cocktails carefully crafted from premium ingredients by People Who Know What They’re Doing. And for mixology nerds like me, speakeasies like Sasha Petraske’s Milk & Honey are what David Chang’s Momofuku Ko is to foodies.
How appropriate that New York City is the nexus of this quality cocktail revival, as the very streets of this city have been the inspiration for a number of classic cocktails – in fact there’s (nearly) one for each borough. We’ve all heard of the Manhattan – but did you know the Bronx was once one of the nation’s most-ordered drinks? Let’s take a borough-by-borough tour of NYC-inspired cocktails!
The Manhattan
2 parts Rye Whiskey
1 part Sweet Vermouth
Dash of Angostura Bitters
Stir over ice, Strain, Garnish with a cherry, orange slice, or both.
The Manhattan
I’ve seen some bartenders shake this drink instead of stir it – I suppose that’s fine, but I find it makes things too cloudy and frothy for a cocktail that doesn’t need to be super-chilled anyway. The ratio of whiskey-to-vermouth seems to have increased over time: the International Bartender’s Association currently suggests a stronger 5:2, while the 1935 Edition of Old Mr. Boston’s Official Bartender’s Guide called for a sweeter 5:3. This follows a general (and, I think, tragic) phasing out of vermouth in cocktails over the century – just look at the poor Martini which is now little more than a cold glass of gin with the word ‘vermouth’ whispered quietly across its rim.
The origins of the Manhattan are, like many iconic drinks, shrouded behind multiple unverifiable tales. Most commonly cited is the 1945 testimony of journalist Edward Gibbs who claims the drink was invented at a private party on December 29, 1874 at the Manhattan Club (then located at 350 5th Avenue…that’s right, the current site of the Empire State Building). The drink was mixed up in honor of New York Governor and Democratic presidential candidate Samuel J. Tilden, became an instant hit (unlike Tilden’s primary campaign), and was asked for ever after.
The problem with this story is that a good number of bartender’s manuals mention a drink called the ‘Manhattan’ in publications dating well before 1874. While varied, all seem to contain a basic mixture of whiskey and vermouth – it seems the drink served at Tilden’s party was simply a variation on an existing favorite rather than an spontaneous invention.
The Bronx
4 parts gin
1 part sweet vermouth
1 part dry vermouth
2 parts fresh orange juice
Shake with ice, Strain, Garnish with an orange slice, if you like.
The Bronx
This is basically a Perfect Martini (a gin martini with equal parts sweet and dry vermouth) with OJ added. It should always be shaken, in order to adequately mix the sticky fruit juice component. Ratios vary widely, from ‘updated contemporary versions’ that all but suck the vermouth completely out, to booze-heavy ones that skimp on the characteristic orange flavor. Above is an adapted recipe from the 1930 Savoy Cocktail Book, and the one I think works best.
The Bronx was a number 1 hit in pre-Prohibition America – legend has it that the hotel bars literally went through cases of fresh oranges every night to meet demand. Unlike the Manhattan, his one has a pretty sound origin story. Johnnie Solon, bartender at the Waldorf-Astoria hotel in the early 20th Century was purportedly mixing up a Duplex (a now-archaic cocktail of vermouth and orange) when an apparently cranky customer accused him of being unable to make anything original. Defending his mixological honor, Solon upped the orange juice, threw in 2 jiggers of gin, and made an instant classic. When asked for the origin of the name, Solon recalls, “I had been at the Bronx Zoo a day or two before, and I saw a lot of beasts I had never known. Customers used to tell me of the strange animals they saw after a lot of mixed drinks.” Seems like a bit of a stretch, but okay Johnnie.
The drink first appears in print in 1907. A few stories instead point to an inventor named Joseph Sormani, a Bronx restaurant owner – but they contain discrepancies, and, as far as I can tell, lack the first-person account found in Solon’s version.
The Queens
3 parts gin
1 part sweet vermouth
1 part dry vermouth
1 part fresh pineapple juice
The Queens
Ok, you guessed it: this is pretty much a Bronx with pineapple instead of orange juice. The amount of juice is lessened a little, due to the stronger flavor of pineapple as compared to orange. Again, as a fruit juice cocktail, the Queens should always be shaken not stirred. Some recipes call for muddled pineapple slices instead of squeezed juice – but that just sounds like a pulpy, stringy mess to me.
As a proud and loving resident of Astoria, Queens, I wish I knew more about the origins of this cocktail. But after the Manhattan and the Bronx, the borough drinks start getting a little more obscure. A part of me thinks that some Queens bartender was just keeping up with the Joneses, took the Bronx, and made a variation for a his prettier borough to the south. What’s particularly “Queens-y” about pineapple though, I can’t say. Although famously multicultural, the dominant ethnic flavors here are Greek and Chinese – maybe adding tzatziki or soy sauce to the beverage just seemed less appealing.
However, while browsing through a store copy of the Savoy Cocktail Book the other day, whose publication date I unfortunately don’t recall, I came across a “Queen’s Cocktail” of almost exactly the same description. Notice the apostrophe – as in “cocktail of the queen.” Was this originally a monarch-themed beverage that got mistaken for a borough name in some accident of folk etymology? Any information you loyal readers may have should be sent my way!
The Brooklyn
6 parts whiskey
2 parts dry vermouth
1 part maraschino liqueur
1 part Amer Picon
Stir with ice, Strain.
The Brooklyn
Your first reaction upon seeing this recipe should be “What the hell is Amer Picon?” This is understandable – leave it to friggin’ Brooklyn to demand a vintage ingredient that is now obscure, out of production, and unobtainable. Like most of the neighborhoods in its eponymous borough, a source of this liquor is basically impossible to get to. What did it taste like? I’m not quite sure – but Cocktail Database describes it as at herbal apertif bitters. “Amer” is the French term for the more familiar Italian “Amaro,” which includes still-available variants like the infamous Fernet Branca (although that particular one is too medicinal for this drink). If you want to make this cocktail, a dark herbal Amaro liqueur is probably the way to go – Punt e Mes could work too, I bet. I hear Torani even makes a French Amer variant, if you can find it.
Sasha Petraske’s Little Branch speakeasy reportedly offers a Brooklyn cocktail which is supposed to be fantastic – I don’t know what secret liquor they’re using for the Amer, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it were specially made in-house.
This drink’s origins are mysterious. Cocktail historian David Wondrich found the basics of this recipe written down as early as 1914 by a David Straub, who, like Johnnie Solon, shook his shaker at the Waldorf-Astoria hotel bar. A cocktail going by the same name appears in 1910, but bears no resemblance to the current drink. In 1945, the New Yorker Hotel served a drink with apricot brandy, and it too was named after the city’s most populous borough. In short, like most cocktails, nobody knows where the Brooklyn came from.
The Staten Island
A postcard, not a drink.
Poor Staten Island – the often-forgotten, and more-often-mocked, little sibling of the 5 boroughs. It doesn’t really have it’s own cocktail. Not mentioned in any cocktail books, internet searches have come up with various dubious concoctions from all manner of blogs and message boards. A common thread often seems to involve coffee-flavored vodka, but the correlations end there. A brainstorming session with friends came up with the suggestion of “one part garbage juices, one part hair gel, one part marinara sauce.”
That recipe might get too easily confused for a New Jersey cocktail, though.
There is such a thing as a “Staten Island Ferry” cocktail, served at the Jade Island tiki bar on SI. It’s basically a quick and dirty Piña Colada, substituting coconut-flavored Malibu rum for the coconut cream.
I’m sure the nice suburban people of this lil’ borough deserve their own mixed drink. Perhaps something tropical and rum-based as a play on their “island” status? Or maybe with Italian spirits to celebrate the heritage of many of the residents? Or maybe something bright orange, like their ferry! In the exciting world of mixology, anything is possible!
-Y
That Belongs in a Museum. 