marble hill

2 oz Dorothy Parker Gin (Beefeater)
1 oz Byrrh Grand Quinquina
1 oz Orange Juice
2 dash Abbott's Bitters (Jerry Thomas Decanter)

Shake with ice, strain into a cocktail glass, and garnish with an orange twist.

Two Thursdays ago, I turned to Frank Caiafa's 2016 The Waldorf Astoria Bar Book for the evening's libation. There, I spotted the Marble Hill that came across like a curious Bronx variant. The name itself backed that assumption up, for Marble Hill is a neighborhood in Manhattan north of the Harlem River that is more closely associated with the Bronx. Frank's recipe was a modification of the one in The Old Waldorf-Astoria Bar Book from 1935 that was half Gordon Gin and a quarter each Dubonnet and orange juice.
The Marble Hill greeted the nose with a pine, allspice, and plum bouquet. Next, grape and orange mingled on the sip, and the swallow donated gin flavors that shifted into bitter-herbal orange notes with an allspice and clove finish.