Metropole
A dry and bitter brandy cocktail ∙ Stir ∙ 3 min ∙ 22.7% ABV ∙
The Metropole is a stirred Manhattan-style cocktail of Cognac and dry vermouth with a little sugar syrup, Creole-style and orange bitters, served up.
Ingredients
1
Servings
Garnish
Instructions for 1 serving
- Pre-chill a glass
- Stir all ingredients with ice: Cognac 40 mlDry vermouth 30 mlSugar syrup 5 mlCreole-style bitters 2 dashesOrange bitters 1 dash
- Fine strain into the chilled glass
- Express an orange twist over the cocktail and discard
- Garnish with a maraschino cherry
History
The Metropole is a Cognac-based cousin of the Manhattan, first published in George J. Kappeler's 1895 guide Modern American Drinks. Kappeler credited it as the house cocktail of New York's Hotel Metropole, a bar and café at Broadway and 42nd Street in the heart of what would become Times Square, then known as a lively, somewhat disreputable late-night spot.
Some accounts describe it as a subtle adaptation of the earlier Metropolitan Cocktail, which likewise paired brandy with French vermouth in a Manhattan-like structure. The drink survived through Kappeler's book and Albert Stevens Crockett's Waldorf-Astoria bar books of the 1930s, keeping the name and recipe in circulation among cocktail historians.
