Red Hook Cocktail

Created by Enzo Errico while bartending at Milk & Honey in New York. The Red Hook, named for a South Brooklyn neighborhood, is a newer variation on the venerable Manhattan.




The Red Hook

2 ounces (60 ml) rye

1/2 ounce (15 ml) Punt y Mes sweet vermouth
1/4 ounce (7ml) maraschino liqueur

Stir well with ice and strain into a cocktail glass.

I love a good Manhattan, and I often find myself going for Punt y Mes for my mix anyway. With only 1/2 ounce of vermouth to stand up to the rye, there is a possibility of the drink being too dry for many tasters. The addition of a generous 1/4 ounce of maraschino provides just enough added sweetness, and prevents the drink from becoming to dry and alcohol forward.

Enzo left bitters out of this one, perhaps counting on the Punt y Mes's strong herbals and slightly Campari-like bitter profile to do all the work. While it is a very nice drink as-is, I've found that I do like the addition of bitters. Ango is fine, but wormwood bitters work especially well in this one.

Monahan Special

Appearing in the Old Waldorf Bar Days book (1931) and attributed to Mike Monahan, this is basically a Manhattan with Amer Picon substituted for Angostura bitters.

An Old Waldorf Bar Days Recipe

MONAHAN SPECIAL


2 ounces (60 ml) Rye Whiskey
1 ounce (30 ml) Italian Vermouth
1 tsp Amer Picon Bitters


Stir with ice and strain over a fresh cube in a whiskey glass.

Just as with the Manhattan, rye is the whiskey to use here, as rye whiskey was the most prevalent and readily available in the New York Region at the time these drinks were brought about.

The Amer Picon of the day was much stronger, so upping from a few dashes to a tsp to allow the flavor to come through is not a stretch.

Wild Turkey and Punt e Mes always work well together in my opinion, and the addition the Amer Picon, gives an extra herbal hint along with the obvious orange flavor the Picon imparts. (If you cannot get Amer Picon in your market, try Amaro Cio Ciaro as a reasonable substitute - maybe add an orange twist as well). A very nice drink Mr. Monahan.

Frankenjack

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.

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. 

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.

The Collaboration

Still a big favorite!!!


This is a drink that was created in February of this year through a serendipitous collaboration with a friend, whereby we named off ingredients like a dare, decided on the proportions together, and then we each made one in our own home bar.

The results were jaw droppingly good and the drink has been in regular rotation for both of us for several months now. Up until now I've been keeping it to myself rather greedily - a closely guarded secret, and it's only with said friend's blessings, that I am releasing the recipe now.

It is versatile in its serving requirements, working as equally well as a slow sipper in an old fashioned glass over a large ice cube, as it is served "up" in a cocktail glass as a quick "pick-me-up".

We've played with a few variations, Wild Turkey Rye works best with its big bold spicy rye flavor. The Wormwood bitters add a very nice touch and are worth seeking out, though Angostura will work in a pinch.

The Cocchi's high quinine profile works better than Lillet to provide structure against the Strega/Averna combo, and gives just the right mouth feel to the drink.

The 1/4 ounce of Strega may not seem like much...it is in fact enough to allow the robust character of this spirit to be known in the drink. Also, it somehow allows the more subtle flavors of the liqueur to emerge.

Averna is just the right choice of amari to inject herbal depth and subtle sweetness into the mix, and it balances perfectly Strega's brash character. [Mix these two together over ice on a 2:1 ratio (Averna to Strega), you have an excellent digistif with wonderful balance and depth.]

The sublime in this recipe is the transformation that takes places when all of these ingredients come together.

With this recipe the whole is most certainly greater than the sum of its parts. How we struck upon this crazily good of a drink on the first try, still makes us chuckle in disbelief. Try it for yourself, I'd love to hear what you think!

The "Collab"(oration)


1 1/2 ounces (45 ml) Wild Turkey 101 Kentucky Straight Rye Whiskey
3/4 ounce (22 ml) Cocchi Americano
1/2 ounce (15 ml) Averna
1/4 ounce (7 ml) Strega
1-2 good dashes of Cocktail Kingdom's Wormwood Bitters


Stir with ice and strain over a large ice cube, or serve up in a cocktail glass. Garnish with a lemon twist.

Gaslight

The Gaslight


1 1/2 ounce (45 ml) Scotch Whisky
1/2 ounce (15ml) sweet vermouth
1/4 ounce (7ml) orange curacao
1 dash Drambuie

Stir with ice (except Drambuie) and strain into a cocktail glass. Float Drambuie and garnish with an orange twist.

Nice. Especially with Talisker 10 and Drambuie 15, and the Cointreau/Antica combo holds its own well against the heavily peated and wonderfully smokey Talisker. 

Warming too on these cool, rainy spring days we've been having lately. A lighter, fruitier Scotch drink that should appeal to those that enjoy a "Rusty Nail" now and again, and are open to trying something new. 

Radiator

As adopted in the Big Bartender's Book from Johnny Brooks My 35 Years Behind the Bar from 1954.

Radiator

2 ounces (60 ml) rye

2/3 ounce (20 ml) orange curacao

2 dashes Angostura bitters

6 cloves

Stir with ice and strain into a cocktail glass.

The Templeton rye really wowed me in this recipe, (Wild Turkey rye is good here too.) 

The cloves work, they just really work. A very well balanced drink, my hat's off to Johnny for this one!

CapRock Organic Gin

Disclaimer: I was given a bottle of this gin recently by a rep for Peak Spirits. I had not yet tried this "farm to bottle" new world style organic gin though, and was happy to have the opportunity to give it a spin.

According to the distiller's site: CapRock™ Organic Dry Gin is a unique blend of fruits, buds, seeds, and spices infused and distilled in a base spirit made with organic Jonathon and Braeburn apples. The apples are organically grown by Gunnison River Farms, Ela Family Farms and Mountain Spirits Farm. 12 different "botanicals" (some dried some fresh) and 2 fresh juices are either macerated and/or boiled or steamed all together at final distillation to produce layers of fresh aromas and tastes. CapRock Gin is 41% alc and available in 750ML and 200ML bottles.

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Apple based organic gin from the western slope, that's different. Their tagline of "This is not your grandmother's gin" does make sense. That much is blatantly evident on the nose. 

This is more like an aromatic juniper infused eau de vie than a traditional gin. That is not necessarily a bad thing, I just wouldn't to go head first into traditional recipes with this gin considering its strong and unique botanical profile. This bottle will certainly have its uses however.

CapRock Organic Gin

"New World" American Aromatic Gin

SCORE: 89

NOSE: Lavender, roses, juniper, pepper, very soft, subtle and round. The use of fresh, organic botanicals is evident in the fidelity of the aromas. The juniper here really takes a back seat here though and I wish it was just a little more pronounced. 22/25.

PALATE: The flavors on the nose carry through well. There is a nice burst of juniper mid palate. The roses are subtle, the lavender is not - I can't help but feel a little hit over the head with it. Wet, only slightly oily in the mouth. 21/25

FINISH: The finish is fairly long and complex. The apples finally come to light, the roses fill your nose like a big bouquet, the lavender relaxes a bit and finally yields to the juniper. NOT a typical "English dry" gin finish, but that's not what the folks at Peak Spirits seem to have been going for here. Very unique. 24/25

BALANCE:  I like the overall effect of the type of product the producers are going for here and think they have done a good job achieving a quality culinary gin. The rose and lavender comes across a little strong for my taste, but their flavors aromas are authentic and intoxicating. It's complex, and certainly not one dimensional - its use in cocktails will not be universal however, and it will take some forethought and experimentation to be successful. 22/25

This really is a surprisingly nice spirit, whatever you want to call it. I think having to call it gin is a little unfortunate as it leads to certain expectations. You don't go into a genever or an old tom expecting to find Bombay Dry. Going into this expecting "gin" could lead you to a similar disappointment, and "organic gin" does not really tell you much about what is going on inside the bottle.

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This is a new gin so it's only fitting that I provide a new recipe. I've been on a bit of a Fernet kick lately and thought the CapRock's lavendar and rose flavors would play well together with it, and they did.

Here's a lab original using CapRock gin, Peak Spirits peach eau de vie and Fernet Branca, enjoy.

Versante Occidentale (Western Slope) Cocktail

1 1/2 ounces (45 ml) CapRock "New World" Organic Gin

3/4 ounce (22 ml) Fernet Branca

1/2 ounce (15 ml) Cocchi Americano

1/4 ounce (7.5 ml) Peak Spirits Peach eau de vie brandy

1-2 dashes angostura bitters

1 dash angostura orange bitters

Mix ingredients well with ice, strain into a cocktail glass, garnish with lemon twist.

The Fernet and Cocchi provide good structure to balance and support the strong flavors of the other spirits. The flavors build to a crescendo, then end quickly with a crisp, dry finish leaving hints of roses and pine on the nose.

The Shamrock

OK....I guess I can't let the day get away without one more quick post. It's called the Shamrock, it's green, and it's St. Patty's day - and I know that the Jimmie Lee, though good, will not be for everyone. So here's another for you if you happen to still be looking for a little more Saint Patrick's Day inspiration.

It comes from Hugo R. Ensslin's 1916 Recipes for Mixed Drinks.

The Shamrock:


1 1/2 ounces (45 ml) Red Breast Irish Whiskey
1 1/2 ounces (45 ml) Noilly Prat Dry Vermouth
1/4 tsp (1.25 ml) green Chartreuse
1/4 tsp (1.25 ml) Creme de Menthe


Stir with cracked ice, strain into a chilled cocktail glass and serve with an olive.

This isn't the first time I've mixed this one, or the first time I've thought the olive was a bit much to be honest.

It's a very strange drink, the olive's saltiness tends to be a bit distracting to me making me thing it could be a contrived garnish to go with the "green" theme. An actual shamrock, or bit of mint makes more sense to me.

Still, like I said, it's not the first time I've made this one. The fact that it is half Irish Whiskey still surprises as I sip away. The Creme de Menthe just seems to add color and no strong flavor other than to lighten the strong herbals of the chartreuse green with a hint of mint. Overall, a very enjoyable cocktail.

So, should you feel compelled to make a "green martini" for this or a future St. Patrick's day celebration, consider this alternative from the last known bartender's guide to be published in NYC before prohibition.

(By the way, the olive does make an excellent treat at the end, probably why I still use it.)

The Jimmie Lee

An Old Waldorf Bar Days Recipe

For some reason, March is always madness for me. I know posts have been slow in the coming this month, but the day job has to come first!

I'm sure my great-grandpba Parker, an Irish-American from county Cork, would not approve of my failing to post a good drink in honor of the day though...so to him I raise this Gaelic inspired riff on a classic perfect martini, because a great gin and vermouth drink is always good in my book!

The recipe appears in the 1931 title, Old Wardorf Bar Days, as follows:

A good story, though hard to say if there is any truth to it. Johnnie Solon was apparently prone to embellishment in his fact giving. 

If nothing else, it's a great drink...and what can be more appropriate for St. Patty's day, and to honor my own ancestor, than a (good) drink named in honor of a Irish-American immigrant from the early 20th century.

Jimmie Lee

1 ounce (30 ml) Noilly Prat dry French vermouth

1 ounce (30 ml) Punt e Mes sweet Italian vermouth

1 ounce (30 ml) Plymouth Gin

1 dash Peychaid's Bitters

Stir the gin and vermouth well with ice, pour into a double rocks glass mostly filled with crushed ice. Add some more crushed ice to the top and add dash of bitters to the fresh ice. Twist a slice of orange peel over top, rub the rim of the glass and drop in as a garnish.

As you could expect with 2/3 the volume being made of vermouth, the drink has strong herbal and wine characteristics, but the gin gives the drink a backbone. 

It reminded me a lot of a good a sherry cobbler (yes, they are growing on me). The Peychaud's bitters on top allows its aromatic qualities to really shine, especially with the added orange zest.

It is quite refreshing, and seemed to give a hint of the warm weather around the corner, when crushed ice season will return in full force!

Since the hint of spring is what this holiday has always really been about to me anyway, I chose this recipe to celebrate it. Happy St. Patty's everyone, I raise this one to you as well!

(By the way, if you happen to have Chartreuse Elixir Vegetal, a few dashes on the top in addition to the Peychaud's sends this one to a whole 'nother level - Cheers!)

Toothache

Here is one from "the lab" that I have spent the better part of the last few weeks trying to name, all the while while nursing a toothache. As I was getting ready to celebrate a trip to the dentist this afternoon, it struck me that "Toothache" was as good a name as any for this one! It's basically an "improved" version of the Neuva Jersey recipe I posted last December.

As for the taste, your eyelids may stay closed a beat longer than usual as you sip this one. Taking in the slightly sweet, smoked apple against the bright, almost medicinal aromas of the absinthe and wormwood bitters, it is easy to get lost in your senses.

This is an extremely enjoyable sipper, and one that has been well tested here in the lab I can assure you.

Toothache


1.5 ounces (45 ml) Laird's 100 proof bonded apple brandy
1.5 ounces (45 ml) Del Maguey Mezcal Vida
1 tsp Demerara Syrup*
2 "sprays" of absinthe
1 dash angostura bitters
1 dash Cocktail Kingdom Wormwood bitters (optional, but really nice)

*Demerara syrup= Mix 2 cups of demerara sugar with 1 cup of just boiled water in a sauce pan. Stir until mostly combined, adding gentle heat if necessary to get the mixture mostly saturated. Pour 1/2 ounce (15 ml) vodka into clean bottle, then pour the sugar/water mixture into the clean bottle, cap, and shake bottle until sugar is completely dissolved (it won't take long at that point).

As with the building of any Old Fashioned Cocktail, there is a certain ritual I have found that works best to create this drink:

Add 1 tsp of Demerara syrup to bottom of a double old fashioned glass. Then add 1-2 dashes of Angostura bitters.

Add ice cube, stir the sugar/bitter mix for a few seconds. Then add 1.5 ounces of apple brandy.

Stir again 4-5 times and then spray in a few squirts of absinthe from a small atomizer, enough to coat the interior of the glass.

Add more ice and the mezcal, stir again and add few dashes of Cocktail Kingdom's Wormwood bitters if you have them. Add lemon twist for garnish and you're ready for a toothache, or anything else that may come your way.

The Tropical Cocktail

Here's one I've adopted from a rare title from 1932, The Art of Mixing, by Helene M. Griffith and James A. Wiley:

 TROPICAL COCKTAIL


1 ounce (30 ml) Mozart Dry 
1 ounce (30 ml) Luxardo Maraschino Liqueur
1 ounce (30 ml) Cocchi Americano
1 dash Angostura bitters
1 dash Angostura orange bitters


Stir well with ice and strain into rocks glass over 1 large cube. Add bitters, stir and garnish with flamed orange peel.


Tropical is a good name for this recipe. I was worried about putting a whole ounce each of Maraschino and Mozart dry in a drink with only one ounce of vermouth to balance them both out. Normally 1/4 ounce of either of the first two spirits would be more than enough to overpower a drink.

This is a properly good drink though. Yes, there are strong chocolate and cherry flavors, along with good orange flavor from the flamed peel and bitters. Angostura works wonders too here, but I have to think that the Cocchi is the real star here, as it seems to tie all of these flavors together without making itself assertively known.

I will also give it credit for the drinks clean finish, as it lacks the sticky, syrupy sweet aftertaste I fully expected to encounter here. I think I shall go now, and spend some time with my keyboard on the concertina setting.

Enjoy!

The Lone Tree Cocktail

I was recently blessed with a rare first edition of Albert Stevens Crockett's 1931 classic, Old Waldorf Bar Days, from an extremely generous friend as a birthday gift.

There will be more posts to come from this treasured volume. The Lone Tree may not be the sexiest drink to start with, but I've always had an interest in trying it as I've come across the recipe in different books. So when I found it again here, it sounded like a great place to start.

As it is explained in David Wondrich's introduction to the Mud Puddle reprint of Jacques Straub's 1914 book Drinks, many of the recipes from Straub's books were likely "borrowed" from the famous hand-written books of the Waldorf bar with some limited help from his friend Oscar.

Jacques and Oscar Tschirky (who was one of the Waldorf's most famous bartenders) came over to America from Switzerland together on the same boat, and Oscar even contributed a blurb to the beginning of Straub's book.

The beauty of Old Waldorf Bar Days, which was not written until at least 17-18 years after Drinks, is that Crockett had the full cooperation of many of the "veteran employees" of the old Waldorf, among other collaborators that had "been regular patrons of the Bar who knew its habitués and what went on there."

Both titles are great resources. Drinks contains over 700 recipes in a pocket sized format. The instructions are usually wrong, and the drinks do take a fair amount of general knowledge to be successful with, but it's been a favored book for nearly 100 years for it's inspirational and practical nature.

The Old Waldorf Bar Days advertises "Four Hundred and Ninety-one Appealing Appetizers and Salutary Potations" in a handsome 6x9 perfect bound volume and its recipes are rich in detail, explanation and refinement (not to mention the many wonderful illustrations by Leighton Budd).

(Early history: The Lone Tree appeared first in 1900 in The Cocktail Book, A Sideboard Manual for Gentleman, as well as in the 1913 edition of Applegreen's Bar Book.) 

Straub in 1914 lists the Lone Tree Cocktail as:

When it appears in Old Waldorf Days in 1931, there is an accompanying story.

Tom gin has become Plymouth, a big change! Orange bitters have been added, and the ratio has been taken from 2:1 gin to vermouth, to a 1:1 ratio.

It appears to have been a very popular cocktail, and I'm thinking that word must have spread quickly - and likely by mouth - as the recipes lack consistency.

Four years before the Old Waldorf Bar Days was published, in Barflies and Cocktails by Harry McElhone (1927), you have this recipe:

Five years after it was published, Frank Mier (working in Paris) provided this recipe in the 1936 classic The Artistry of Mixing Drinks.

So what's a person to do? To me, these similarities point to a sweet martini with a bitter orange influence.

Based on the back-story provided in the Old Waldorf Bar Days book, I feel a bit better prepared to give it a try, so here's my version of the "that-time" drink for your refreshment.

The Lone Tree Cocktail

1.5 ounces (45 ml) Plymouth Gin
1.5 ounces (45 ml) Sweet Vermouth (Punt e Mes)
1 dash orange bitters


Stir well with ice, strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with an orange twist.


(Since this post is also introducing the Crockett book, it's only fitting to use his recipe.)

The 1:1 ratio of the clean-crisp Plymouth gin to the spicy-bitter, "grapefruity" Punt e Mes, along with the nice citrus hit from the bitters and orange peel oils, provide a very rich "sweet martini" experience...fitting for a recipe from the Old Waldof.

Enjoy!