smoking jacket

1 1/2 oz Grant's Blended Scotch
3/4 oz Cynar
3/4 oz Punt e Mes
1-2 dash Orange Bitters

Stir with ice and strain into a rocks glass containing a large ice cube. Flame an orange twist over the top and discard.

For my after dinner drink, bartender Paul Manzelli mentioned that he had a new drink called the Smoking Jacket. Originally, Paul wanted to create a drink named after nearby Longfellow Park, and when Paul imagined what Longfellow might be wearing as he had a postprandial cocktail, Paul thought of a smoking jacket. When Paul described this Scotch-based drink, it immediately reminded me of Audrey Saunders' Little Italy given the whiskey, vermouth and Cynar ingredients.
The Smoking Jacket began with a dark orange aroma that later included malt notes and a lightly peated aroma from the Scotch. The sip was a combination of orange from the bitters and grape from the Punt e Mes, and the swallow was a complex bitter wave coupled with lightly smoked Scotch notes. The Punt e Mes seemed to soften the Cynar so it was not as identifiable as an ingredient except on the aftertaste where the Cynar was less masked. With the peat, orange bitters, and extra notes in the Punt e Mes, the Smoking Jacket offered up a new twist to the Little Italy cocktail.