the witty comeback

2 oz Old Overholt Rye
1/2 oz Averna
1/2 oz Lemon Juice
1/2 oz Ginger Syrup

Shake with ice, strain into a cocktail coupe or rocks glass with ice (coupe), and garnish with an orange twist.

Two Sundays ago, I recalled a drink that I had spotted in a photo of a recent menu at Austin's Nickel City called the Witty Comeback. The recipe was crafted by writer Dan Saltzstein for a Bon Appetite piece in 2014. In that article, he discussed with Jim Meehan then of P.D.T. about what goes into creating a house cocktail to serve for guests at one's home. Jim's advice was to make something accessible such that "if your guests want to recreate it, they can source these ingredients." Other requirements were that the drink would "be indicative of your tastes, yet appeal to a broad enough audience." Even though Jim declared that the recipe would never make his menu, luckily others saw the value in it and proudly promoted it. And the combination seemed solid especially since it reminded me of Katie Emmerson's Calamity Jane that we served at our Women of the Wild West night in 2013.
The Witty Comeback offered up an orange, ginger, and rye bouquet to the nose. Next, lemon and malt on the sip returned with rye, herbal-orange, and ginger flavors on the swallow.