queens

1 1/2 oz Tanqueray No. 10 Gin (Beefeater)
3/4 oz Cinzano Sweet Vermouth (Cocchi)
3/4 oz Noilly Prat Dry Vermouth
1 wedge Pineapple muddled or 1/2 oz Pineapple Juice (1/2 oz)
1 dash Orange Bitters (Angostura Orange)

Muddle the pineapple wedge (used the juice option). Add the rest of the ingredients, shake with ice, strain into a cocktail glass, and garnish with a pineapple wedge (omit).

Two Thursdays ago, I ventured into Frank Caiafa's The Waldorf Astoria Bar Book and spotted the Queens in a section on the Bronx. Frank traced the lineage back to Ted Saucier's 1951 Bottoms Up which attributed the recipe's creation to the bar at the New Waldorf. Essentially, the Queens was a pineapple for orange riff on the Bronx similar to the grapefruit one, the Toronja Bronx, from Prohibition era Cuba. My search for Bronx riffs on the blog uncovered one part way between it and the Queens with a hint of anise called the Beaux Arts. Finally, Frank mentioned that the original Queens was equal parts, but he found that the recipe worked better when it was more gin forward.
Once prepared, the Queens greeted the senses with pineapple and pine aromas. Next, grape and pineapple on the sip flowed towards gin, orange, herbal, and fruity flavors on the swallow.