red dwarf

2 oz Rye
1 oz Campari
1/2 barspoon Henri Bardouin Pastis
2 dash Peychaud's Bitters

Stir with ice and strain into a cocktail glass. Twist an orange peel over the top.

After Brick & Mortar, I headed across the street to Rendezvous to meet up with Andrea for dinner. There, bartender Scott Holliday wanted to make me the Red Dwarf - a drink I had read about in Luke O'Neil's article in the Boston Globe. The article describes how Scott took several classics including the Cocktail à la Louisiane, Boulevardier, and Sazerac and invented something inspired by these drinks. Scott was quoted as saying, "What we've done with the Peychaud's and pastis or absinthe is replace the aromatics of the vermouth in those cocktails with less sweetness, as you'd hoped, all while tipping the glass in the direction of New Orleans and Father Sazerac."
The orange oil from the twist played pleasantly with the herbal aromas of the Campari. Next, the rye's malt on the sip transitioned into its barrel notes on the swallow; afterwards, the Campari's complexity came through and things ended with the pastis' anise and other herbal flavors.