st moritz

2 oz Rittenhouse Rye
1/2 oz M&R Dry Vermouth
1/2 oz Green Chartreuse
1 dash Regan's Orange Bitters

Stir with ice and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with an orange twist.

On Sunday night, Andrea and I headed down to Green Street for dessert and cocktails. For my first drink, I asked bartender Derric Crothers to make me something that I had spied in their cocktail recipe book, the St. Moritz. The St. Moritz was reminiscent of Scott Holiday's rye Bijou, the Family Jewels, and of the Hague Cocktail (also on the Green Street menu). Embury in The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks likened the drink to a Dry Manhattan with Chartreuse and orange bitters (his recipe is light on everything but the whiskey, of course). Embury also claimed that the drink was served in Old Fashioned glasses at the St. Moritz Hotel, but neglected to mention where the hotel was located.

The St. Moritz started with rye and Chartreuse notes on the nose. The dry vermouth certainly took the drink in a very different direction than the sweet vermouth facsimile; the St. Moritz was rather crisp, but not as dry and biting as I remember the Hague being. Strangely, the orange bitters did not stand out in the flavor profile much, unlike in the gin-laden Bijou.