Commodore

classic cocktail

Jun 1

Like the Computer Box I’m toasting, this cocktail is also a very old idea, from pre prohibition New York City, where it can be found in the vintage pages of the original Waldorf Astoria bar book. The cocktail is a whiskey sour, that most delicious of guilty pleasures, made unique by the addition of chocolate liqueur and a little grenadine. The cocktail historian David Wondrich once commented that such sweet and or fruity cocktails were de rigueur in well-heeled drinking establishments and social clubs of the era.

There are actually two classic “Commodore” cocktails, but not, alas, 64. I’ve chosen No 2 to feature here, although I’m sure No 1, which is similar but made with rum and raspberry, is equally tasty. I’m appropriating the cocktail for my own purposes, but from the source, it was “Named, according to Solon, after a man who was ranking officer either of the New York Yacht Club or the Larchmont Yacht Club. Anyhow, as there were two Commodore cocktails, there were enough to go around.” Old Waldorf Bar Days, Albert Stevens Crockett, 1931. Cheers!