slope

2 oz Rittenhouse Rye
3/4 oz Punt e Mes
1/2 oz Rothman & Winter Orchard Apricot Liqueur
1 dash Angostura Bitters

Stir with ice and strain into a cocktail glass. This drink was served without garnish, but certain recipes include a cocktail cherry.

After the Cornwall Negroni, I asked bartender Derric Crother's for the Slope. The Slope was a Manhattan variation that we had at home as the recipe circulated across the blogosphere in 2008 (a few months before I started writing here). Julie Reiner created this drink while at Brooklyn's Clover Club in honor of the nearby Park Slope neighborhood. While I did not have a chance to visit Clover Club in my last visit to New York despite it being only a few blocks from where my brother lives, I did get to visit one of Julie's other bars, Lani Kai.
The Slope presented a rye aroma with hints of the apricot brandy underneath. The sip contained the rye's malt and the Punt e Mes' grape, while the swallow contained the rye's heat and the Punt e Mes' bitter notes. Similar to the Manhattan Bell-Ringer, the drink finished with a pleasing apricot flavor. Overall, the Slope had a similar balance to a Red Hook but perhaps a hair more subtle than its Maraschino liqueur-laden brethren.