Brooklyn Cocktail - LeNell It All

by LeNell Smothers, Posted Dec 25th 2009 @ 3:00PM

Photo: LeNell Smothers

Several years ago, I entered a newly opened bar with equally open heart seeking a new local watering hole. Chatting up the bartender, I asked what the inspiration was for the "Brooklyn Cocktail" cocktail on the menu. He sent over the proud new owner who rattled off the vodka and whatever else was in the drink.

I tried to maintain some humility, but couldn't resist holding back the question, "Have you ever ran across this old reference to a Brooklyn Cocktail from 1914 with rye, vermouth, maraschino, and Picon?" He responded rather proudly, "I searched everywhere and this cocktail did not exist before I created this one."

Despite this guy's arrogance, this scene gave me time to reflect on how drink names appear often throughout cocktail history, sometimes with similar ingredients and sometimes vastly different. More versions of Brooklyn Cocktails appear on menus around Brooklyn than ever before. But did any of these live up to the spirit of the old one and did that even matter?

So I began digging around. I have a copy of the 1914 Jacques Straub cocktail book titled simply "Drinks," which includes the first cocktail book with a reference to a Brooklyn Cocktail that I've found. But was this the original?

More digging around uncovered an article from The Washington Post from September 6, 1910, called "The Brooklyn Cocktail." The recipe calls for 3 parts gin, 1 part French and 1 part Italian vermouth, 1/2 or 1/3 raspberry syrup shaken with cracked ice. This is no where near the 1914 Straub recipe of a dash of Amer Picon, 1 dash maraschino, ½ jigger French vermouth, and ½ jigger rye whiskey, all stirred. Is how you make your Brooklyn Cocktail worthy of arrogance and argument? I do think a dash of "fuhgedduboutit" works in all the recipes.

Alabama-born LeNell Smothers defines herself first and foremost as a bartender, but she's been called many things -- most recently, the head mixtress at Casa Cóctel. She's owned her own whiskey label, called Red Hook Rye, and has been recognized by her home state as an honorary Colonel. Other interests include gin, sin and men.

Filed Under: Drink Recipes, Drinks, Food History