Fanciulli

Review:

A Manhattan with extra bitters. While challenging for some, others will enjoy it as a delicious digestivo.

History:

Adapted from a recipe published in Albert Stevens Crockett's 1931 Old Waldorf Bar Days. 'Fanciulli' is slang for 'boys' in Italian, and in Crockett's book, he suggests that this cocktail could have been named for performers in Puccini's La Fanciulla del West opera and then discounts the theory due to the cocktail predating the opera.

Its appearance in Crockett's book suggests this cocktail originated at the Waldorf, and the hotel's former bar manager Frank Caiafa thinks it was named after Francesco Fanciulli, a band leader and composer who lived in New York City after taking over the US Marine Band in 1892.

FANCIULLI
Certain unmusical memories seem to· recall an Italian opera of that name, but Solon thinks the title was bestowed by some wag who wanted to give "the boys" a new cocktail, and named it after them, as it were, but without their knowing it. That it was not a misprint for "Fanciulla del
West" – Puccini's "Girl of the Golden West" – is rather certain, as its origin considerably antedates the première of that of the opera at the Metropolitan, December 10, 1910. Fanciulli is what they say when they mean "the boys" on the banks of the Tiber; also in the environs of Vesuvius.
One-fourth Fernet Branca
One-fourth Italian Vermuth
One-half Whiskey

Albert Stevens Crockett, Old Waldorf Bar Days, 1931

Nutrition:

One serving of Fanciulli contains 157 calories