Rogers Park Retro: February 2010

Each of the five boroughs of New York City has a cocktail named after it, except for Staten Island. Poor Staten Island. Of course, the most celebrated cocktail named for a borough of New York is the Manhattan. A close second, however, is the Bronx. Even though everyone has heard of a Manhattan, you'd be excused if you haven't heard of a Bronx. It has fallen out of fashion, but it is a truly vintage cocktail with a genuine pedigree.

In an old recipe booklet from the Mohawk Liquor Company, circa 1930s, their receipe goes like this:

Of course, it's nice that they offer a 'dry' version, as well. We should add that so-called "French" vermouth is what we call dry vermouth now, and "Italian" vermouth is sweet vermouth. Also, we should add that this booklet specifies that a jigger is 1 ounce. So, yes, with this recipe you end up with a 1 ounce drink. Hope you're not thirsty. Or, just order a triple. I guess people back then didn't have the iron constitutions we have now.

Here's a recipe from a Fleischmann's Liquor booklet from 1947:

This recipe is interesting because it calls for muddling the orange. The ingredient of the orange brings up a topic that often vexes us: recipies that call for "juice of half a lemon" or "juice of one lime" or, as we saw in the Mohawk recipe above, "1 piece orange." This recipe calls for "several small pieces of sliced orange." I guess this is supposed to test the savvy of the bartender to figure out how much of the ingredient to add. Odd, since the measurements of the spirits are precise. Just sayin'.

Anyway, here is a recipe with some of its own comentary, from a book called "Famous New Orleans Drinks and how to mix 'em" in its 1964 printing:

Some interesting local color thrown in there .... but, note that they, too, call for measurements adding up to 1 ounce (minus whatever orange juice "1 thick slice" adds).

Here's a recipe from a 1957 edition of Mr. Boston's ("Old Mr. Boston's DeLuxe Official Bartender's Guide"):