Metropole

Serve in a

Garnish:

Orange zest twist (or Luxardo Maraschino cherry)

How to make:

STIR all ingredients with ice and strain into chilled glass.

Review:

I've slightly tweaked this recipe from the original by adding a spoon of sugar syrup as it cried out for it but, even with my added touch of sweetness, this remains a dry cognac Manhattan.

History:

Named after The Hotel Metropole, located just off Times Square at 147 West 43rd Street. This was the first hotel in New York City to have running water in every room but had a less than salubrious reputation due to the clientele its all-night licensed street-level Café Metropole attracted. As Albert Stevens Crockett says in his 1935, The Old Waldorf Bar Days, "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."

In the early morning hours of 16th July 1912 Herman Rosenthal, the owner of several New York gambling dens, was murdered as he left Café Metropole (a crime recounted in the story of the Jack Rose cocktail). Just one week after the murder, The Hotel Metropole went bankrupt, later to become became the Hotel Rosoff.

Nutrition:

One serving of Metropole contains 183 calories.

Alcohol content:

• 1.7 standard drinks
• 25.47% alc./vol. (50.94° proof)
• 24.4 grams of pure alcohol