brown derby

1/4 wineglass Rye (1 1/2 oz Old Overholt)
1/2 jigger Cacao (1/2 oz Marie Brizard)
1/2 jigger Sweet Vermouth (1/2 oz Cocchi)
1/6 Orange Juice (1/2 oz)

Shake with ice and strain into a cocktail glass.

Two Saturdays ago, I searched through Pioneers of Mixing at Elite Bars: 1903-1933 for something to start the cocktail hour. There, I found a curious rye drink called the Brown Derby. Well, the recipe itself was not the notable part, but it was the fact that it shares the name with a pair of better known cocktails created at the Brown Derby restaurant chain in Los Angeles. Considering that the chain was started somewhere between 1926 and 1929, there is a chance that this drink pre-dates the restaurant itself besides pre-dating the genesis of the more famous Bourbon-honey-grapefruit or dark rum-maple-lime libations.
This Brown Derby began with a rye and orange aroma. The orange continued into the sip where it paired with the sweet vermouth's grape, and the rye appeared again in the swallow where it joined the crème de cacao and the vermouth's herbal notes. Overall, the orange juice-cacao pairing proved to be a quite pleasing combination. Moreover, this drink was less like either of the Hollywood Brown Derby drinks, and it reminded me more of the Delmarva #2.