Monday, May 15, 2017

Ampersand Cocktail


Old Waldorf Bar Days
With the Cognomina and Composition of Four Hundred and Ninety-one Appealing Appetizers and Salutary Potations Long Known, Admired and Served at the Famous Big Brass Rail; Also, a Glossary for the Use of Antiquarians and Students of American Mores
Albert Stevens Crockett
Aventine Press, 1931
page 117: Ampersand
Two dashes Orange Bitters
One-third Brandy
One-third Tom Gin
One-third Italian Vermuth [sic]
Stir; strain; two dashes of Curacao on top

The American Printer
March 1937
page 44: Re: Ampersand Cocktail
As promised on page 26, we give below ingredients and directions for making the Ampersand Cocktail, formerly a favorite in the barroom of the old Waldorf-Astoria Hotel at Fifth Avenue and 34th Street....

The ingredients are:
Two dashes orange bitters
One-third brandy
One-third Tom gin
One-third Italian vermouth
Two dashes of Curacao on top

Directions: Put the ingredients into a shaker in the order named, then add cracked ice—shake vigorously and strain into the cocktail glass and serve promptly. The more you shake it, the weaker it gets.

Special Editorial P.S. The one we got at the Ampersandinner must have been shaken early. It was potent!



4 comments:

  1. Interesting. My understanding is that they, literally, don't make it like Old Tom gin anymore, so wonder how it's supposed to taste.

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  2. I was wondering what "Old Tom" gin was. It was a brand, then?
    I'd like to try an Interrobang cocktail myself..

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  3. Yeah, way I hear is that Old Tom was, for decades, what you got when you ordered gin — a brand and a style. Sounds like it was lighter and sweeter than what we're used to today.

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