the ruthorford

1 1/2 oz Knob Creek Bourbon (Four Roses Small Batch)
1/2 oz Amaro Meletti
1/2 oz Amaro Nardini
1/4 oz Benedictine

Stir with ice, strain into a cocktail glass, and garnish with an orange twist.Two Sundays prior, I returned to the 2020 Community Cocktails book and spotted a recipe from the late, great Murray Stenson at the Zig Zag Café in Seattle. That drink was the Rutherford which came across like a 3 liqueur Black Manhattan, and I was able to spot it in a 2017 menu photo on Yelp and also uncovered elsewhere that it was named after another bartender. Perhaps that bartender is the one who was mentioned in a 2012 Jeffrey Morgenthaler interview in FineEatDrink, "One of my favorite bars is also one of Murray Stenson's favorite bars, the Clinton Street Pub, and it's a great dive. They've got a great bartender named Phil Rutherford." In the glass, the Ruthorford launched off with bright orange oil, caramel dark orange, and violet floral aromas. Next, caramel and dark orange peel notes on the sip flowed into Bourbon, brown sugar, herbal, and orange flavors on the swallow.