Sweet Vermouth

— No. 151 —

Loss Leader

This drink, the Loss Leader, was cre­at­ed by Reed Cahill at Wet City for a week­ly event we’ll be hav­ing togeth­er where we cre­ate a spe­cial cock­tail menu each Mon­day. The “Loss Leader” name comes from a cou­ple of drinks that Miles Mac­quar­rie did at Kim­ball House in Atlanta. He dubbed these cock­tails “Loss Lead­ers” due to their use of ingre­di­ents that were unchar­ac­ter­is­ti­cal­ly expen­sive or rare for use in cock­tails. With that said, the star of this recipe is Coc­chi …

— No. 138 —

Les Paul

When the leaves start to fall I get a crav­ing for Cynar. It’s hard to explain, but Cynar has a veg­e­tal, har­vest-like attribute that calls to me. So I made a sim­ple recipe that’s a twist on the clas­sic Man­hat­tan recipe. I serve my fair share of Man­hat­tans and it’s nice to change it up for my guests every once in awhile. This cock­tail fits the bill. Get a bot­tle of Cynar and give it a shot. You won’t be dis­ap­point­ed. …

— No. 123 —

Hidden Charms

This cock­tail is named after one of my favorite Howl­in’ Wolf songs Hid­den Charms. It’s the Nux Wal­nut Liqueur, how­ev­er, that’s the hid­den charm in this recipe. It’s hard not to fall in love with the com­bi­na­tion of wal­nut and whisky. I usu­al­ly enjoy this smokey lit­tle trea­sure dur­ing the cold­er months, but don’t let that stop you from sip­ping one when sum­mer comes back around. Recipe 1 3/4 oz blend­ed scotch whisky 1/2 oz Carpano Anti­ca Sweet Ver­mouth 1/2 oz …

— 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. 100 —

Manhattan

There are as many vari­a­tions to the Man­hat­tan’s his­to­ry as there are to its recipe. The most seduc­tive sto­ry, which is wide­ly regard­ed as false, is that the cock­tail was invent­ed for Lady Ran­dolph Churchill (Win­ston’s Moth­er) at the Man­hat­tan Club in the ear­ly 1870’s. This sto­ry might not have sur­vived the test of time, but the cock­tail cer­tain­ly did. It’s a clas­sic that I like to enjoy with a cig­ar and some good con­ver­sa­tion. The one ques­tion you’ll need …

— No. 98 —

The Six Inch Gold Blade

One of my favorite speakeasy style cock­tail bars is The Franklin Mort­gage and Invest­ment Com­pa­ny in Philadel­phia. Their cock­tail menu is the best I have come across in my trav­els. Yup, I said it… the best. They even have a sec­tion in the menu quot­ing a Howl­in’ Wolf song called “I asked for water and she gave me gaso­line.” The menu is very coura­geous and their exe­cu­tion and style is flaw­less. A few of their cock­tails are fea­tured in this mod­ern cock­tail …

— No. 59 —

Vieux Carré

1 oz Cognac 1 oz rye whiskey 1 oz sweet ver­mouth 1/4 oz Bene­dic­tine 1 dash of Pey­chaud’s bit­ters 1 dash of Angos­tu­ra bit­ters 1 lemon twist Stir all ingre­di­ents except the lemon twist over ice and strain into a chilled cock­tail glass. Gar­nish with a lemon twist.

— No. 39 —

Martinez

2 oz Ran­som Old Tom Gin 1 oz Carpano Anti­ca Sweet Ver­mouth 1/4 oz Luxar­do Maraschi­no Liqueur Dash of Post Pro­hi­bi­tion Orange Bit­ters Gar­nish with a lemon twist Stir all ingre­di­ents with ice except for the gar­nish. Strain into a chilled cock­tail glass. Gar­nish with a lemon twist.