Here's How!, published in 1927, is a title known to collectors for the many recipes that were copied verbatim into the 1930 Savoy cocktail book. Harry Craddock and the book's editors also borrowed from McElhone, Ensslin and Vermeire among others, which puts the book in good company.
Judge Jr. was the nomes de plume of one Norman Hume Anthony, who spent quite a bit of time in Frank & Jack's according to an article from TIME magazine from June 19,1939.
Apparently, Norman was still the editor of the Judge in 1927 when
Here's How was published...he was fired in 1930 though and spent "several months biting his nails" in Frank & Jack's speakeasy.
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| There's a bit of a"wardrobe malfunction" going on here if you look close. |
Eventually he was hired by Publisher John Delacorte to start the very successful "Ballyhoo" publication, described as a "bathroom burlesque of bathroom advertising".
The "Frankenjack" cocktail was among the recipes first published in this book, and as it states in the notes, was named after the proprietors of a "very, very" well-known speakeasy in New York City.
A famous Frank and Jack's speakeasy, which I think we can safely assume is the same establishment, was described in Michael Batterberry's “On the Town in New York” as follows:
More typical was Frank and Jack’s, a jolly place where there were generally a hundred people jammed into a tiny kitchen barely large enough to hold three tables. Among those struggling for air and room enough to laugh might be Jimmy Durante, Pat Rooney, or Peggy Hopkins Joyce. It was Frank and Jack who perfected the gambit of getting rid of one drunk by asking him to assist another out the door.
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| The Frankenjack from Here's How by "Judge Jr." as pub'd in 1927 |
THE FRANKENJACK
1 ounce (30 ml) Gordon's Export gin (or Beefeater)
1 ounce (30 ml) French Vermouth (I used my fav Kina Lillet sub, Cocchi Americano)
1/2 ounce (15 ml) apricot brandy (Marie Brizard "Apry")
1/2 ounce (15 ml) Cointreau
Stir well with ice and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with an orange twist.
Over the years many recipes have called for this to be a shaken drink. With the absence of citrus however this drink is much better suited to being well stirred.
This drink is basically a Claridge cocktail (sans the chocolate powder dusting) from Harry McElhone's 1922 ABC of Mixing Cocktails. The Frankenjack sounds like something you'd actually order at a bar though, and made for a good story here.
It's a nice drink. Too fruity to be a martini, though that is obviously the base drink here. I suppose if they'd named this 60 years later it would be a "Aprytini" or something "clever" like that.
The Apry is certainly the dominate flavor, with the Cointreau's orange playing a supporting role only.
Using the Cocchi Americano over a regular dry vermouth gives the drink a nice roundness and silky mouth feel putting this drink more on the sweet side.
The 47.3% A.B.V. Gordon's Export does a great job of making sure things don't get too sweet, use a good quality, high proof gin for this one for sure.
