Brooklyn

A member of the family of cocktails named for the boroughs of New York City, the Brooklyn often takes a back seat to its far more famous cousins, the Manhattan and Bronx cocktails. But this elegant classic, essentially a modified Manhattan with a touch of Martinez, has gained favor in recent years and has even been spun off into a number of riffs named after the borough’s distinct neighborhoods, including the Red Hook, Greenpoint and several more. 

The Brooklyn cocktail first appeared in print in 1908, in Jacques Straub’s “Drinks.” Several cocktail experts attribute its falling out of favor in the meantime to its use of a relatively obscure component. The original version of the recipe called for Amer Picon, a French aperitif, but it’s of limited availability in the U.S. and can be difficult to find. If you can’t get your hands on any, Frank Caiafa, the author of the updated version of “The Waldorf Astoria Bar Book,” suggests Bigallet China-China Amer. If that, too, proves elusive, two dashes of Angostura bitters can make an acceptable substitute in a pinch.