Dry Vermouth

— No. 145 —

The Sparrow

This recipe is a twist on a clas­sic cock­tail known as The Old Pal. If you’re not famil­iar with it, you might be famil­iar with its sib­ling — the Boule­vardier — which has over­shad­owed it in pop­u­lar­i­ty for years. Both drinks are 1920’s cre­ations by Har­ry MacEl­hone — cock­tail pio­neer and founder of the infa­mous Har­ry’s New York Bar in Paris. Har­ry attrib­uted the Old Pal to a writer known as William “Spar­row” Robert­son, who called any­one he talked to his “old pal.” Turns out Spar­row Robert­son has …

— No. 130 —

Signs of Spring

This cock­tail is named for its inclu­sion of elder­ber­ry, long thought to her­ald the begin­ning of spring. All the Year Round: A Nature Read­er by Frances Lucia Strong and Martha Allen Lane (1896) is a book designed to inter­est young school chil­dren in nature and includes the pas­sage: “How warm the sun­shine is!” exclaimed a lit­tle bud on an elder­ber­ry twig. “Yes,” answered her twin sis­ter, “I believe spring has come at last. How glad I am!” And how glad …

— No. 122 —

A Sound & Pristine Health

It’s no secret that amaro and liqueurs like Zuc­ca have been con­sumed for their med­i­c­i­nal prop­er­ties. Zuc­ca’s fea­tured ingre­di­ent rhubarb has been known to be used in medieval pre­scrip­tions and is the inspi­ra­tion behind this cock­tail’s name. In Mac­beth (Act V. Scene III), Mac­beth says to his doc­tor: “If thou coudst, doc­tor, cast the water of my land, find her dis­ease and purge it to a sound and pris­tine health, I would applaud thee to the very echo, that should applaud again. …

— No. 112 —

Thus Always To Tyrants

Thus Always To Tyrants, the infa­mous phrase shout­ed as John Wilkes Booth jumped from Ford The­ater’s bal­cony after he assas­si­nat­ed Abe Lin­coln. The phrase is said to have orig­i­nat­ed with Bru­tus dur­ing the assas­si­na­tion of Julius Cae­sar. It’s also the Vir­ginia state mot­to. So what bet­ter whiskey to fea­ture in this cock­tail than Bow­man Broth­ers Small Batch Vir­ginia Whiskey. I incor­po­rat­ed a touch of Smith & Cross Rum and home­made cher­ry gas­trique to include a cher­ry vanil­la com­po­nent. Then I …

— No. 101 —

Pressure Drop

The Pres­sure Drop, a cock­tail cre­at­ed by Man­hat­tan’s Death and Com­pa­ny, is undoubtably a wor­thy addi­tion to my series fea­tur­ing the best cock­tails from my trav­els. New York City boasts some of Amer­i­ca’s best cock­tail bars. If you’re in the Big Apple, seek out Death and Com­pa­ny and pull a stool up to the bar. The Pres­sure Drop was eas­i­ly my favorite cock­tail on their menu. It’s such an out­stand­ing cock­tail it even made it on Syl­vain’s menu all the …