two o'clock at the metropole

1 1/2 oz Cognac (Du Peyrat Organic Selection)
1 oz Dry Vermouth (Noilly Prat)
1/4 oz Pineapple Syrup
1/4 oz Maraschino (Luxardo)
2 dash Peychaud's Bitters

Stir with ice, strain into a cocktail coupe, and garnish with a lemon twist.

Two Fridays ago, I had been thinking about the Saratoga Cocktail variation found in the 1933 reprint of Jack's Manual, and I became inspired. I decided to mashup Harry Johnson's Saratoga with the Metropole – a Cognac Dry Manhattan with Peychaud's Bitters (David Wondrich included gum syrup to make it more agreeable to the modern palate) – first published in George Kappeler's 1895 Modern American Drinks. For a name, I dubbed this one Two O'Clock at the Metropole after a James Thurber piece about the 1912 murder of gambling den owner Herman Rosenthal at Manhattan's Hotel Metropole.The drink began with a lemon oil, cherry, Cognac, and anise aroma. Next, white grape and pineapple notes mingled on the sip, and the swallow uncovered Cognac, pineapple, cherry, and anise flavors on the swallow.