Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world… The Cocktail Lovers have inside knowledge. Sandrae Lawrence and Gary Sharpen used to have normal jobs in London, but now they float on a cloud going around the globe judging cocktail competitions and hobnobbing with top bartenders. Well, someone’s got to do it. Storied asked them to shake the ice on who’s giving the classics a new twist. Here, in origin order, is what poured out.
You know you’re in the presence of a classic cocktail when it’s just been reinvented. And if the origin story of many classics may often seem a carefully curated mystery, the talented folk creating modern updates of legacy drinks aren’t shy in sharing the lowdown on their know-how. So we picked up our phone and hit the speed dials to hear five of our favorite international bartenders tell us the tricks they keep up their gartered sleeves.
The original Sazerac was birthed in New Orleans – possibly as a vehicle for the city’s famed Peychaud’s bitters. (The Roosevelt New Orleans, A Waldorf Astoria Hotel) | Nearly two centuries later, Londoner Ryan Chetiyawardana presents the White White White Sazerac. Inspiration? White carrots. Yes, really.
New Orleans is the birthplace of many a great drink, but the Sazerac was named the official cocktail of the city in 2008 – after a month of debate at the highest levels of local government. Originally it was a mix of absinthe, fine cognac (from estates such as Sazerac de Forge et Fils) and the all-important Peychaud’s Aromatic Cocktail Bitters (another New Orleans original). Later, the cognac was replaced by rye whiskey. Personally, we recommend a split spirit base of both cognac and rye. And having recently sampled this incredible cocktail at the Sazerac Bar at New Orleans’ Roosevelt Hotel, we can vouch for its longevity.
Soon after, we found ourselves in London’s Seed Library bar, where the drink was taken to another dimension under the rather fabulous name of the White White White Sazerac. This is a studied collaboration between multi-award-winning bartender Ryan Chetiyawardana (aka Mr Lyan – one of the most vital creatives in the world of drinks today) and food scientist Arielle Johnson. Ryan explains the formula:
“The classic recipe is a strange serve because it’s like an Old Fashioned in a rocks glass but without ice. Arielle and I were working with some great white carrots that had a really bright floral quality to them. The challenge was to trim off the earthy flavors but keep this floral elegance. We wanted a spirit-forward drink and thought of a Sazerac. The DNA of the original is there but with tropical gin in place of cognac, while the inclusion of absinthe is key in preserving the essential aromatics. The serve is like a classic Sazerac, chilled but without ice.”
Next time you order a Negroni, spare a thought for Count Camillo Negroni, who elevated the less potent Americano into the punchy sharpener we know today. (Shutterstock)
So, a man walks into a bar. Not just any man, it’s Count Camillo Negroni, a Florentine aristocrat who’s returning to his home city in 1919 after adventures in America. The bar in question is the Caffè Casoni, where the popular Americano cocktail – a refreshing mix of Campari and sweet vermouth with soda water – suddenly seems a little tame. He tells the bartender: Lose the soda, add gin. And lo, the Negroni is born.
For the following century it remained a drink mainly for those in the know. But over the past decade, it’s enjoyed a meteoric rise. The late, great gaz regan (so-spelled), esteemed bartender and Negroni aficionado, published over 60 variations in his book The Negroni (Ten Speed Press, 2015). When we found ourselves in Florence in 2019, its centenary year, countless bars offered us endless takes on its gin-bitters-sweet vermouth formulation.
Bringing things right up to date is Naren Young, who took Dante NYC to the No.1 spot on the World’s 50 Best Bars list in 2019 – not least through his evangelical approach to the aperitivo. Today he’s creative director of both Sweet Liberty and Medium Cool bars in Miami, and it’s at the former we find his new Tropical Negroni.
“I first discovered the Negroni in Sydney in the late ’90s when no one was drinking it except old Italian dudes. It had a flavor profile I’d never come across before. I see the Negroni as a jumping-off point, not just one drink. In Miami I’m using a lot of tropical fruits – papaya, lychee, bananas, mango, passion fruit, pineapple – to temper the three pillars of the classic recipe. It’s a Negroni for sure, but in a more subtle way.”
Could Fernand Petiot have predicted the enduring popularity of the Bloody Mary he mixed while tending Harry’s New York Bar in Paris over a century ago? (Shutterstock) | In 2024, Tippling Club’s Arathorn Grey pays homage to the original while adding every flavor weapon in his bartender’s arsenal to up the umami-bomb ante.
Another one whose origins are vague. It’s been claimed by the legendary Harry’s New York Bar in Paris and resident bartender Fernand Petiot in the 1920s. This story seems to have won the day with a Bloody Mary a must-have when visiting Harry’s in the 2020s.
Originally a combination of vodka, tomato juice, lemon juice, Tabasco and Worcestershire, it’s gone on to include more riffs than perhaps any mixed drink. Swap out the vodka for gin (that’s called a Red Snapper) or tequila (a Bloody Maria). Add celery salt, black pepper, clam juice, sherry, beer, olives, pickle brine, carrot juice, caraway seeds, horseradish, aquavit… Not all at once, of course, but you get the idea. Then there’s the Virgin Mary, but let’s not go there. Over at the highly esteemed Tippling Club in Singapore, they may just have nailed the definitive version, as prescribed by Head Bartender Arathorn Grey.
“We mix kombu dashi, Worcestershire sauce, miso paste, wasabi paste, wasabi oil, celery salt, smoked vinegar, umami bitters, black sesame paste and light Japanese soy sauce. As the mixture has various densities and viscosities, we then put it through a sonic homogeniser for 15 minutes. This perfectly mashes everything for an umami bomb of a Mary.”
When is a Margarita not a Margarita? When it’s a Tommy’s Margarita. Fresh lime, agave syrup and very good tequila. (Shutterstock)
This one has a slippery past. According to drinks historian David Wondrich’s 800-page tome The Oxford Companion to Spirits & Cocktails, its origins range any time from 1936 to 1953 and any number of bars and restaurants, including Tail o’ the Cock, Los Angeles and the Studio Lounge, Texas. Served under various names – who ordered the Tequila Sidecar? whose is this South of the Border? – it finally appeared as a Margarita in 1953, served at the lavish parties thrown by celebrity Acapulco hostess, one Margarita Miller Sames.
Early Margaritas weren’t a patch on what we drink today. Barroom tequila was poor, and before orange triple sec and fresh lime juice came through the door, the mix was bland as well as sour. Enter Julio Bermejo at his family business, Tommy’s Mexican Bar and Restaurant, San Francisco, in 1986.
“The big breakout for America was 100% agave tequila. Around 1986 someone came into Tommy’s with an outstanding sample. We started using fresh limes, and then there was the agave itself. Agave syrup was way cheaper than Cointreau or Grand Marnier, and it made a Margarita that was smoother and, more importantly, so much more tequila-focused. I wanted my guests to recognize individual quality tequilas, so their choice would be at the heart of their Tommy’s Margarita.”
A classic sour, the original White Lady Cocktail zings with gin, triple sec and lemon juice. (Shutterstock). | It’s a classic that multi-award-winning bartender Erik Lorincz, now owner of Kwãnt in Mayfair, perfected at The Savoy. Updating the recipe with celery bitters and fresh basil led to a new name: the Green Park, after the landmark central London lawns. (courtesy Kwãnt bar)
The American Bar at The Savoy, London has been the epitome of cocktail style for 135 years. At its helm during the 1920s was Head Bartender Harry Craddock. One of the many drinks synonymous with the bar was the White Lady, an elegant combination of gin, triple sec orange liqueur and lemon juice. Such was its popularity that Craddock included it in the first edition of The Savoy Cocktail Book in 1930. Intriguingly, he also did something that’s passed into cocktail mythology. During the bar’s renovation he mixed a White Lady, but rather than serve it to a guest, he concealed the shaker containing it somewhere within the walls of the bar. It remains hidden to this day.
Fast forward to 2012 when the honorable position of Head Bartender at the Savoy was held by Erik Lorincz (then newly crowned as the world’s best bartender by winning Diageo’s global World Class competition). Regularly serving the timeless White Lady inspired his own interpretation, as he explained from Kwãnt, the bar he now owns in Mayfair.
“I’d been working on a combination of intense celery bitters and fresh basil and wanted to make a classic sour like the White Lady, so I shook these green ingredients along with the original gin, triple sec and lemon juice. The result was refreshingly floral. As for the name, I had two guests from the US who’d planned to walk around the London parks, but the weather was terrible so they stayed in the bar. I said ‘Let me bring some of London’s green spaces to you right here’. It was the first time I’d served the drink to guests. They loved it and asked its name. On the spot I said, ‘Green Park’!”
Main image: Shutterstock
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