Bronx (cocktail)
| Cocktail | |
|---|---|
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| Type | Cocktail |
| Primary alcohol by volume | |
| Served | Straight up; without ice |
| Standard garnish | orange twist |
| Standard drinkware |
.svg){kind=small} |
| Commonly used ingredients |
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| Preparation | Pour into cocktail shaker all ingredients with ice cubes, shake well. Strain in chilled cocktail or martini glass. |
The Bronx Cocktail is essentially a Perfect Martini with orange juice added. It was ranked number three in "The World's 10 Most Famous Cocktails in 1934", making it a very popular rival to the Martini (#1) and the Manhattan (#2). Today, it remains a popular choice in some markets, and was formerly designated as an Official Cocktail by the International Bartender Association. Like the Manhattan, the Bronx is one of five cocktails named for one of New York City's five boroughs, but is perhaps most closely related to the Queens, which substitutes pineapple for the Bronx's orange.
As with several mixed drinks invented prior to prohibition in the United States, more than one story is attributed to the creation of this cocktail.
Two sources credit Joseph S. Sormani as the person responsible for the drink.
The original recipe has been greatly distorted in the course of years, but here is the original to guide you and to compare with the other recipes being used: Four parts of gin, one part of orange juice and one part of Italian Vermouth. Shake thoroughly in ice and serve.
Sormani was credited with creating the drink in his New York Times obituary:
According to Albert Stevens Crockett, historian of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, the inventor of the Bronx cocktail was Johnnie Solan (or Solon). Solon, a pre-Prohibition bartender at the Manhattan hotel, was "popular as one of the best mixers behind its bar counter for most of the latter's history." This is Crockett's account of Solon's own story of the Creation of the Bronx:
'Can't I?' I replied.
Well, I finished the Duplex I was making, and a thought came to me. I poured into a mixing glass the equivalent of two jiggers of Gordon Gin. Then I filled the jigger with orange juice, so that it made one-third of orange juice and two-thirds of Gin. Then into the mixture I put a dash each of Italian and French Vermouth, shaking the thing up. I didn't taste it myself, but I poured it into a cocktail glass and handed it to Traverson and said: 'You are a pretty good judge.' (He was.) 'See what you think of that.' Traverson tasted it. Then he swallowed it whole.
'By God!' he said, 'you've really got something new! That will make a big hit. Make me another and I will take it back to that customer in the dining room. Bet you'll sell a lot of them. Have you got plenty of oranges? If you haven't, you better stock up, because I'm going to sell a lot of those cocktails during lunch.'
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Wikipedia