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Metropole

Aperitivo/aperitif · Classic/vintage · Hall of Fame and must know/try

4.0 67 ratings

Ingredients

1 1/3 oz Cognac (brandy)
1 oz Dry vermouth
1/12 oz Gomme syrup
2 dash Creole bitters
1 dash Orange bitters

How to make

Serve in a nick & nora glass

Method

  1. 1 Select and pre-chill a NICK & NORA GLASS.
  2. 2 Prepare garnish of orange zest twist expressed and discarded. Adorn with Skewered Luxardo Maraschino Cherry.
  3. 3 STIR all ingredients with ice.
  4. 4 FINE STRAIN into chilled glass.

Flavour profile

23.3% alc./vol. · 1.2 standard drinks · 131 calories

History

A Cognac Manhattan, sweetened with a dash of sugar.

The Metropole first appears in George J. Kappeler's 1895 Modern American Drinks. It was the signature cocktail of the Hotel Metropole, situated just off Times Square at Broadway and 42nd Street. This drink is a subtle variation of the 1884 Metropolitan Cocktail. Metropole Cocktail. Two dashes gum-syrup, two dashes Peyschaud bitters, one dash orange bitters, half a jigger brandy, half a jigger French vermouth, a mixing-glass half-full fine ice. Mix, strain into cocktail-glass, add maraschino cherry. Albert Stevens Crockett comments on this cocktail in his 1931 book, The Old Waldorf Bar Days, stating, "Attributed to a once well-known and somewhat lively hotel, whose bar was a long centre of life after dark in the Times Square district." The Hotel Metropole opened on April 27, 1889. Proprietors Greene & Putney acquired the defunct Rossmore Hotel and combined it with the adjacent hotel at the corner of 42nd Street. This was the first hotel in New York City to offer running water in every room. However, it had a less-than-reputable reputation due to the clientele attracted by its all-night, licensed street-level Café Metropole. The hotel was demolished in 1984, and the Times Square Tower now stands on its former site.