down & brown

2 oz Rittenhouse 100 Rye
3/4 oz Fernet Branca
1/2 oz Benedictine
1/4 oz Maraschino

Stir with ice and strain into a rocks glass. Garnish with a flamed orange twist.

For my last drink at Tavern Road, I asked bartender Will for the Down & Brown, another drink created by bar manager Ryan McGrale. It was pretty amusing that I had selected two drinks invented by Ryan and Andrea doubled up on drinks created by Will. I believe that I opted for the Down & Brown since it had been a few weeks since I last had drank a stirred rye drink. Will commented that he had to make the drink that night with Rittenhouse for the bar was out of Riverboat Rye, and this perhaps suggests the success of this menu item.
The orange twist worked well with the Maraschino aroma that let through a hint of Fernet Branca. The malty sip led into the rest of the rye flavors on the swallow. The rye was then followed by a Fernet-Benedictine combination that ended with a lingering menthol and Maraschino finish.

Update 7/18/26: There is a circa 2010 Flat Iron Lounge drink called Archibald's Last Memory that has the same recipe on Difford's Guide that is unattributed to a bartender. Ryan left Boston in 2008 when his fellow No. 9 bartenders John Gersten and Ben Sandrof transferred over to open up Drink, and he landed at Flat Iron Lounge in Manhattan which makes the timing of the storyline perfect. Unfortunately, Ryan passed away in late 2015, so I never had a chance to ask him. The drink was popular enough across town that the bar at La Brasa in Somerville when I was there in 2019-2020 served the Down & Brown from a chilled bottle for the adjoining Fat Hen restaurant where it was on the menu.