royal york special

1 1/2 oz Dry Gin (Martin Miller Westbourne)
1/2 oz Cointreau
1 dash Lemon Juice (1/2 oz)
1 dash Grapefruit Juice (1/2 oz)

Shake with ice and strain into a cocktail glass. I garnished with a lemon twist.

After the Southpaw, I flipped through Ted Saucier's Bottoms Up and spotted the Royal York Special created at the Royal York Hotel in Toronto. I upped the citrus quotient from a dash to a half ounce each to not only dry out the drink but to make it more like how I would craft a Maiden's Prayer. I thought of that recipe for the Royal York Special ingredient-wise is a grapefruit for orange juice version of that better known drink.
The lemon oil from the twist I added filled the Royal York Special's nose. Next, a crisp grapefruit and orange sip gave way to a gin and orange peel swallow. While the lemon was somewhat detectable in the sip and swallow, it seemed to be more of a backbone ingredient than a dominant flavor here.

southpaw

1 oz Bourbon (Four Roses)
1/2 oz Punt e Mes
1/2 oz Campari
1 barspoon Fernet Branca
2 dash Peychaud's Bitters

Stir with ice and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with an orange twist.
Two Sundays ago, we began the cocktail hour with the Southpaw that I found in Gary Regan's The Negroni book. The drink was created by Joseph Boley of Paris' Red House as a variation on Sam Ross' Left Hand. The Southpaw began with an orange and herbal aroma that led into a malt and grape sip. The swallow displayed the rest of the Bourbon notes along with the bitter Campari and Punt e Mes flavors and a Fernet Branca finish; indeed, the Fernet came across as rather tamed in the mix.

mutiny suppressor

1 oz Amaro Nardini
1/2 oz Punt e Mes
1/2 oz Navy Strength Gin (Hayman's Royal Dock)
1/4 oz Galliano

Stir with ice and strain into a rocks glass with a large cube. Garnish with a grapefruit twist.

Two Fridays ago, I opened up Food & Wine: Cocktails 2013 and honed in on the recipes crafted by Joaquín Simó. The one that called out the most was the Mutiny Suppressor, and on Manhattan's Pouring Ribbons' menu, they use the same Hayman's overproof gin that I reached for.
The Mutiny Suppressor greeted the nose with bright grapefruit oils, and the sip proffered grape and caramel notes. The swallow was an intriguing chocolate note from the Amaro Nardini with vanilla and anise from the Galliano, juniper from the gin, and other bitter herbal notes from the Punt e Mes and other ingredients.

crescent city cocktail

1 1/2 oz Sweet Vermouth (Cocchi)
3/4 oz White Label Rum (Smith & Cross)
Juice 1/2 Lime (1/2 oz)
2 dash Angostura Bitters
(1 dash Simple Syrup)

Stir with ice and strain into a cocktail glass.

One of the drinks on the Anvil's 100 Drink List version 2.0 that had befuddled me was the Crescent City Cocktail. I search high and low in my cocktail book library and on the web, but I could not find the recipe. However, in a package of vintage cocktail books that I recently bought on eBay was the 2nd edition of Angostura's Professional Mixing Guide from 1950, and there I finally spotted the recipe. Overall, the Crescent City Cocktail was much like a Fig Leaf (*). For a rum, I looked on the Anvil's list and it calls for a Jamaican rum; therefore, I used Smith & Cross and needed to add some simple syrup to balance its heat. Perhaps Andrea's suggestion of Coruba would have been better suited here as the rum.
The Crescent City Cocktail began with Smith & Cross' funk with a vague fruitiness from the sweet vermouth and lime. A grape and lime sip led into swallow which offered the rum tamed by the vermouth and finished with lingering allspice and clove notes.

(*) After this post got some activity on eGullet, I learned that the recipe also appears in Embury. From the 1958 edition that sits by my computer:

Crescent City
• 4 parts Gold Label Rum
• 2 parts Sweet Vermouth
• 1 part Lime Juice
• 1-2 dash Angostura
Shake or stir with ice. 

Embury went on to say, "This cocktail, while not particularly good, is interesting in that it is a compromise between the aromatic type and the Sour type." Similar to Embury's style, it is more spirit forward and more tart than the one that I posted. With the one I made, I had to add extra simple syrup -- perhaps more due to the rum, but the lime juice quotient did not help, and Embury's has close to half the sweet vermouth amount.

pals of old

1/3 Rye (1 oz Rittenhouse 100)
1/3 Bacardi (1 oz Appleton V/X)
1/3 Sweet Vermouth (1 oz Cocchi)
1 dash Abbott's Bitters (My batch of replica)

Stir with ice and strain into a glass. I used a coupe, but a rocks glass with a big cube would work well too. Angostura Bitters would substitute well here in place of any of the soon-to-be less difficult to source replicas of Abbott's.

For a nightcap two Wednesdays ago, I searched in Pioneers of Mixing at Elite Bars: 1903-1933 for a drink. There I found the Pals of Old which is somewhat different from the rye Negroni with a similar name, the Old Pal (or the Somerville riff, the Perfect Pal). I say somewhat since both drinks have a rye, vermouth, and third equal part format, with the Pals of Old calling for rum and sweet vermouth and the Old Pal for Campari and dry vermouth. Since the Pals of Old lacks a bitter liqueur ingredient, perhaps it is more similar to the Saratoga with rum here instead of Cognac. For a sugarcane spirit, I opted for something richer than the lighter, grassier Bacardi rum of that era, namely Appleton V/X, to mesh better with the aged rye.
The Appleton's aged rum notes filled the Pals of Old's bouquet. A grape and malt sip possessed a decent mouthfeel, and the swallow displayed a combined and smooth rye and aged rum flavor accented by clove-like spice.

vagabond

2/3 Cascades Rye (1 1/2 oz Rittenhouse 100)
2 dash Dubonnet (1/2 oz Bonal)
2 dash Grenadine (1/2 oz)
2 dash Lemon (1/2 oz)

Shake with ice and strain into a cocktail glass. I added a lemon twist.

After the Bottecchia, I opened up Pioneers of Mixing at Elite Bars: 1903-1933 and spotted the Vagabond. Since we do not have enough room in our fridge to carry two red wine-like quinquinas, I have been swapping Bonal for any call for Dubonnet lately with good results, and I decided to adapt the Vagabond recipe to my palate.
The Vagabond greeted my nose with a lemon oil aroma that sometimes had more hints of rye and other times more hints of bitter grape notes. The malt-filled sip was fruity from the lemon, grape, and pomegranate elements, and the swallow offered up the rye that transitioned elegantly into Bonal's bitter herbal notes. With modern day American Dubonnet, the Vagabond would have been more like a Daisy, but with the Bonal, there was much added complexity.

bottecchia

1 oz Fernet Branca
1 oz Cynar
1 oz Campari
1 pinch Salt

Stir until the salt is dissolved. Add ice, stir again, and strain into a coupe glass. Twist a grapefruit peel over the top.

Two Tuesdays ago, I flipped through Gary Regan's Negroni book and stumbled upon the Bottecchia. Kevin Burke of Denver's Colt & Gray created this recipe where the gin of the classic Negroni was swapped for Fernet Branca and the sweet vermouth for Cynar. In addition, Kevin added a pinch of salt to temper the bitterness and to add a savory element to Bottecchia. For a name, he paid tribute to Ottavio Bottecchi, a cyclist who won the Tour de France in 1924 before dying mysteriously of unknown causes a few years later.
The grapefruit oils from the twist greeted the nose along with a dark herbal and earthy undertone. A caramel sip from the Fernet Branca and Cynar gave way to a swallow that began rather Cynar driven. Next, the swallow offered the Campari flavors along with a lingering light menthol note from the Fernet. Indeed, the salt really shifted the drink to a more mellow profile than the ingredients list would otherwise suggest.

inventor

2 oz Pierre Ferrand 1840 Cognac
1/4 oz Peychaud's Bitters
1/4 oz Kübler Absinthe
1 oz Simple Syrup
1 Whole Egg

Shake once without ice and once with ice, and strain into a rocks glass. I later asked for a lemon peel to be twisted over the top.

A few Saturdays ago, I popped into No. 9 Park for a nightcap. For a drink, bartender Ted Kilpatrick suggested the Inventor, a Cognac Sazerac Flip of sorts created by Tyler Wang. Ted forewarned me that the Flip has the color of Strawberry Quik due to the egg and Peychaud's Bitters.
Without the lemon oil, the Inventor presented a Cognac and anise aroma. A creamy sip then led into a Cognac swallow that finished with the absinthe and Peychaud's Bitters finish. After I requested the twist, the nose was dominated by the lemon and surprisingly the swallow seemed earthier.

afterword

1/2 oz Mezcal
1/2 oz Yellow Chartreuse
1/2 oz Amaro Montenegro
1/2 oz Lime Juice

Shake with ice and strain into a coupe glass. Top with 1 oz Nino Franco Prosecco.

After returning from the Franklin Southie on the Red Line, I got off the subway at Davis Square and realized that there was still time to catch a nightcap at Spoke Wine Bar. At Spoke, bartender Sam Karachi mentioned that he could make his Last Word riff, the Afterword, that he could not make me as a follow up to the Saber & Foil since the bar was out of Amaro Montenegro at the time. With the Last Word symbolic foursome of ingredients being lightened by prosecco here, it reminded me of Trina's Starlite Lounge's Word to Your Mom which utilized Pretty Things Jack d'Or beer to a similar effect.
Once mixed, the Afterword's herbal notes from the amaro and Yellow Chartreuse joined the lime and wine aromas. The crisp sip from the citrus and dry sparkling wine transitioned into an herbal and slightly smokey mezcal swallow.