015 – The Bronx

A Sydney ‘lock-down’ version of William ‘Cocktail’ Boothby’s 1908 version of the ‘Bronx’ cocktail.

Sydney’s Covid Lockdown has inspired me to explore this famous New York cocktail, a rich history and so many variations. Let’s take a look at the ‘Bronx’ cocktail in one of its most original forms.

Make your own Locktail ‘The Bronx’. Here is my preferred recipe:

METHOD — Add 30ml Gin, 30ml Sweet Red Vermouth, 30ml Lillet Blanc, 5ml Orange Juice, and 2-dashes of Regans’ Orange Bitters No.6 into a shaker with a hand-full of ice. Shake until cold (10-15 seconds) and double-strain (through a fine-wire strainer) into chilled glassware. Squeeze some orange oil from orange peel to float on the cocktail. Garnish with a twist of orange peel.

HISTORICAL NOTES – The Bronx Zoo opened in November 1899 and the ‘Bronx’ cocktail was created in its honour. It was first mentioned in print on 15 February 1901, in ‘The Virginia Enterprise’, the article relaying the details of a committee that includes “J.E. O’Connor of the Waldorf-Astoria, inventor of the Bronx Cocktail”.

The cocktail recipe does not turn up in print until 1908, where it almost simultaneously appears in two New York cocktail books, and another in San Francisco, and perhaps elsewhere. In New York, Charles Mahoney’s version is a frappé with equal parts French and Italian Vermouth, some orange peel and a small amount of Gin. Jacob Grohusko’s version is half-Gordon’s Gin, half-Vermouth (two kinds), shaken with twist of orange peel. In San Francisco, the famous William ‘Cocktail’ Boothby publishes a recipe in ‘The World’s Drinks and How to Mix Them’, that is one-third Plymouth Gin, one-third French Vermouth, one-third Italian Vermouth, orange bitters, orange peel and a bar-spoon of orange juice. Boothby attributes the source of his recipe to Billy Malloy of Pittsburg, and it is this Malloy recipe that dominates the cocktail’s progress.

Another strongly contested origin story, is that it was created by Johnny Solon (or Solan), who’s recollection and claim appears in A.S. Crockett’s 1935 ‘The Old Waldorf-Astoria’ book, above four different versions of the ‘Bronx’ cocktail. Claiming the ‘Bronx (Original)’ was one-third orange juice, two-thirds Gin, and a dash of both French and Italian Vermouth. Like many pre-Prohibition and older cocktails, the origin is complicated and confused. Both Johnny Solon and J.E. O’Connor worked at the Waldorf-Astoria, so it is likely, regardless of individual credit, that the ‘Bronx’ cocktail originated there, sometime after the late-1899 opening of the Bronx Zoo and park.

THE OFFICIAL MIX – Unlike the earlier New York borough inspired cocktail, the Manhattan, the Bronx does not make it into the International Bartender Association official lists. The closest to an ‘official mix’ is probably that published by William Boothby in ‘The World’s Drinks and How to Mix Them’ in 1908 – his recipe is … “One-third Plymouth gin, one-third French vermouth, one-third Italian vermouth, flavored with two dashes of Orange bitters, about a bar-spoonful of orange juice and a squeeze of orange peel. Serve very cold.” Although many contemporary mixes use more Gin, more orange juice, and less vermouth split in varying amounts between sweet red and dry. Even back in 1908, three quite different recipes were published in different cocktail books.

TASTING NOTES – The contemporary focus, or if you prefer, renaissance in Gin, often leads to cocktail makers upping the Gin to bring forward the botanicals. At the same time, the Vermouth that is used is often of relatively low commercial grade and lesser consideration by the mixologist. So the ‘Bronx’ seems to have shifted away from a celebration of Vermouth and more toward a Gin and Orange juice mix. If I was using lower-grade or slightly aged (less fresh) Vermouth, that is what I would do, lean on quality Gin and fresh OJ. One of the 1908 variants, that by Charles S. Mahoney in the ‘Hoffman House Bartender’s Guide’ is equal parts Vermouth, orange peel and a “small drink of dry gin”, and it is back towards a celebration of Vermouth that I think the ‘Bronx’ is best suited and where the history of the drink really lies.

LOCKTAIL CHANGES – With great French (Lillet Blanc) and Italian (Oscar 697 Rosso) Vermouth at hand, I am going back to William Boothby’s 1908 mix as the jump-off point for this Sydney Covid Lockdown – Locktail – remix. Less orange dominance, but great orange-breadth from the zest, bitters and juice, combined with these great Vermouth variants, celebrating the French and Italian merging of flavours, finally uplifted by the silkiness and freshness of the Sheep’s Whey Gin from Hartshorn in Tasmania, Australia.

Lillet Blanc has a history that dates back to 1887, and it would have been available for the original mix in 1908. For a century it was known as Kina Lillet (1887-1986) and it contained a significant quantity and flavour of Quinine. In 1987 it was replaced by Lillet Blanc without the Quinine. In the 1990’s Gary Regan wanted to create a better Orange Bitters, more suitable for traditional cocktails like the Old Fashioned, Manhattan and Sazerac, and based his initial work on a recipe in the 1938 ‘The Gentleman’s Companion’. In a collaboration with the Sazerac Company, the Regans’ Orange Bitters No.6 was created. It reflects the style of the late 1800’s and early 1900’s and includes a significant amount of Quinine to boost bitterness. The combination of Regans’ Bitters with Lillet Blanc, is a way of returning the Kina Lillet and Orange Bitters that would most likely have been in the flavour profile of early ‘The Bronx’ cocktails.

A relatively large one-off investment (Hartshorn Gin, Oscar 697, and Lillet Blanc), this will make a great ‘start-of-spring’ purchase. Keeping the two Vermouth bottles in the fridge, they will make it through Spring, if they last that long, as this is a cocktail I think you will go back to over the warming Spring weather. This cocktail celebrates these specific ingredients, if you are going for lesser Vermouth, then the increase in OJ (30ml), lower Vermouth (30ml total), makes sense and is in keeping with what you may get in a Bar, once lock-down ends. This is proof however, that you can make a better Cocktail at home – Locktails rule.

YOUR LOCKTAIL EXPERIENCE – If you’d rather taste than read, I am progressively building an ingredient list and other sourcing information on this site. I will re-use ingredients where I can (good for my budget too), so that the cost goes down overtime if you are ‘playing at home’.

Let me know what you think.

Cocktails you’d like reinvented.

Recipes you’ve tried and your ‘score’.

This is the 5th of the 1900-1910 bracket of ‘Locktail’ remixes. See the full list in the index.