Review:

Classically an equal parts three-ingredient cocktail comprising: 30ml rye, 30ml bitter liqueur and 30 ml dry vermouth. This produces an overly dry bittersweet spirituous drink. Hence, I prefer the Old Pal with an even split of dry and bianco vermouths so introducing a fourth ingredient and the merest touch more sweetness to tame this Negroni-style sipper.

Variant:

Rye Boulevardier
Old Gal
Old Pal No. 2

History:

A rye whiskey-based version of the Boulevardier cocktail, the Old Pal first appears in Harry MacElhone's's 1927 Barflies and Cocktails. Not among the book's A-Z listing of recipes, but in a chapter titled "Cocktails Round Town", written by Arthur Moss, the "Around the Town" columnist of the New York Herald, Paris. Named and modelled after his newspaper column, Moss recounts cocktails created by or for other regulars at Harry's Bar. (For more on Moss and his contribution, see the Boulevardier cocktail.)

I remember way back in 1878, on the 30th February to be exact, when the writer was discussing this subject with my old pal "Sparrow" Robertson and he said to yours truly, "get away with that stuff, my old pal, here's the drink I invented when I fired the pistol the first time at the old Powderhall foot races and you can't go wrong if you put a bet down on 1/3 Canadian Club, 1/3 Eyetalian Vermouth, and 1/3 Campari,'' and then be told the Writer that he would dedicate this cocktail to me and call it, My Old Pal.

Arthur Moss, Barflies and Cocktails, 1927

It's easy to misinterpret MacElhone as "the writer" in this quote and so the cocktail's creator [I have previously], but it would appear the Old Pal was named after William "Sparrow" Robinson, then sports editor of The New York Herald in Paris, by his friend Arthur Moss (the writer of the chapter rather than the book).

Nutrition:

One serving of Old Pal contains 178 calories