To toast this laburr of love I’m turning to one of my favorite templates, the equal parts combination of base spirit, bitter spirit and vermouth best known as the Negroni. In that classic the base spirit is gin, the bitter is Campari, and the vermouth is sweet. But there are many, many variations. This one is a riff on a riff of the “Old Pal”, a famous Negroni that swaps the gin for rye whiskey. The Old Pal traces its origins to 1927 and the friendship between Paris based sportswriter William “Sparrow” Robinson and Harry McElhone, the famed proprietor at Harry’s New York Bar. Harry’s in Paris was the place to be and imbibe for expats during prohibition in America.  McElhone recounts the tales of his friends in his book, “Barflies and Cocktails”, where we learn that Robinson liked to call every “My Old Pal”. He loved the combination of rye, dry vermouth and Campari that Harry would fix for him, and the drink became legend.

Washington D.C. bartender Gal Karni created a pleasing version of the Old Pal by increasing the ratio of rye and changing the Campari to Aperol in his “Pen Pal”. Here I continue the tradition of making slight changes to a drink and renaming it, to the “Penultimate Pal”. Rather than dry vermouth, I’m switching to dry sherry. I developed a fondness for all the various styles of sherry while creating the Jabberwocky cocktails, which all pay homage to that classic sherry cocktail. In addition to sherry, the original Jabberwock cocktail includes Caperitif, a South African vermouth that can be used like an amaro and works well in this creation, too. I don’t know if there are 708 possible Jabberwock variations that taste good, but here’s one more at any rate. I can almost hear Sparrow Robinson saying, “Why, it’s the Jabberwock, Old Pal!”. Cheers!

Penultimate Pal

1 oz rye

1 oz fino sherry

1 oz Caperitif

2 dashes sapele bitters*

Stir ingredients over ice and strain into a favorite glass with a single cube. Cocktail pick burr garnish.

*sapele bitters give a warm wood sweetness to the drink but are puzzling to source. Cedar bitters are more easily available and would be a fine substitute, or simply skip the bitters.